UNDER THE RAIN TREE!

(based on my childhood ordeal of being caught in a rain-storm under a rain tree… to divert the fear, I imagined the tree speaking to me and this is what it seemed to say )

Hey little one, trembling in the rain…

Rest the doubts… that rise in your brain.
Why does this rainstorm, overwhelm you?
This earth is yours… and this sky is too!

Look at me - the rain tree… that shelters you now

And the route of my roots, how they plough

They go deep down, so that my trunk may rise

But what matters more… is my canopy size!

So often we find trees… that grow very tall

But they have no shade, for the seeker’s call…

Now you are sheltered… under me - the rain tree

Can the truth of interdependence set you free?

Learn from the little birds… that rest and nest here

They too are drenched… but no longer by fear!

When they are born… they too shiver in the rain

But grow up to know… that it will happen again

It isn’t about the rain, fright storms within

Fear grows larger… if belief is lean
You got to believe… this fact to be true
That this earth is yours… and this sky is too!

Don't be submerged… in the intensity of the rain…
Don't fret and tire out, under an illusory pain
The skies will clear, seven colours will gather...
Diverging from the spectrum… but staying together

Together we can create: the rainbow way...
From Mother Nature, don’t ever stray away...

The cloud burst, the thunder… the scary storm

Are worse in the mind… when there they form.

Hey little one, dance in the rain…

Overcome fears that storm your brain.
The eco-logical truth includes me and you
This earth is ours… and this sky is too!

-         Pravin K Sabnis (1988)