Writings: SAFFRON COLOR

Dedicated to my dear brother
Slepov Valery Pavlovich
(5.04.1955 – 7.02.2018)

SAFFRON COLOR

Passerby:
Tell me old sannyasin*
Opponent of corruptible flesh
Faithful son and spiritual practitioner,
Isn’t it scary that you live in flight?

After all, if you fall like a stone
In the bottomless abyss
You will only outline a sketch
An uncreated painting?

Hermit:
The Great Ocean is bottomless.
There is the ocean, there I am,
there is the color of saffron.

Passerby:
Tell me old sannyasin
that you subjected the flesh to asceticism,
in a one liter clay jug
Will five liters of beer fit?

You dreamed of absorbing
all the difficulties of the vote
and you wait for the grace of God
Good for that!

Hermit:
I am not waiting, the servant is deceived by the church,
take it all for yourself by trying on the color of saffron.

Passerby:
Tell me old sannyasin
“Celibate supporter”
You sleep alone, you live alone
Were you married before?

The eyes don’t lie! Throwing away the house
wife and son you
started to secretly save your soul
Cowardly soul?
Hermit:
I got away from the frivolous world of show business.
It is colorless.
For me there is only one color: saffron.

Passerby:
Tell me old sannyasin
Don’t you feel sorry for your family?
Father is the lord of the garbage,
Mother is hanging around the junkyard!

You hid from the cares of the world
in a meditative hibernation
and your child is constantly hungry,
It depends on a handout!

Hermit:
There are no wives, children, parents, there are – dhyana *,
ask everyone who uses saffron.

Passerby:
Tell me old sannyasin
Who put all this?
Doctrines of selfishness
In your weak mind?
Buddha?

But the Buddha himself proclaimed:
that the destruction of the body
does not add strength to the spirit
And it does not change the matter!

Hermit:
Not Buddha, there is a source: jnana *
The color of saffron
will help to understand it.

Passerby:
Tell me old sannyasin
although you are not old at all
Is the nicotine in cigarettes harmful?
Or is the cigarette itself harmful?

You are in silence? Not even the devil himself will understand.
And you try to learn:
More terrible is malice
Or the one who carries malice in his heart?

Hermit:
Never mind. Only the path to nirvana matters
for those who choose the color of saffron.

Passerby:
Tell me old sannyasin
Honorable Swami*,
you are orange, he is orange
who wears this color, is he with you?

Nirvana! Path! Could you
Prove it, take the cross of Calvary,
and, removing the orange color, without nausea
Clothe yourself in the rags of Christ?

Hermit:
Each one has their own destiny and wound,
Someone – a cross, someone – the color of saffron.

Passerby:
Tell me old sannyasin
How can you live in contemplation?
And wish for mythical heights
And run beyond paradise?

Who did your dream save?
After all, you hermit are not eternal,
You have not solved the problem of evil.
The whole universe problem!

When the Final Judgment comes in the world,
What will you say to God, old bodhisattva *?

Hermit:
Passerby, go, I see the time has not come yet
Wear saffron colored clothes on your body.

Alexey E. Kalakutin
NizhnyNovgorod, Russia
16.08.2018

* The color of saffron is reddish yellow, orange. Sannyasins wear saffron-colored clothing that symbolizes sacrifice.
* A sannyasin is a person in the sannyas stage. Sannyas (renunciation) – stage in Hinduism: rejection of the material and focus on the spiritual.
* Dhyana is contemplation, a special concentration of consciousness on an object.
* Jnana is knowledge. In the philosophy of Hinduism “true knowledge”.
* Swami – (Self-Controlled Skt.). Honorary title in Hinduism.
* Bodhisattva: someone who has achieved enlightenment, but falls behind in samsara to help others come out of reincarnation and suffering.

Translation to English:
Marlene Pasini ( Mexico )
October, 2021