Prudence Primrose

詩集Poems

The Immolation of God

13 August 2025

Oh Brahman progenitor of all1From thy seed Saraswati and Brahma did yoke2Heaven it was allBut all was not well

To preserve Brahma didThus Vishnu did comePreserve it didSurvive it could notLike autumn leavesFrail, brittle, fragile to touchBrahma did knowThe ultimate GoalCreation for me and youVishnu hesitate he did notDescending into darknessNo time leftAtop the Pyre, God did sit3

Our FatherOur MotherA spark was all it tookAgni did Vishnu call4To kill the Lord and Lady fairTheir bodies aflameTransmuted to AshShiva and Parvati now they were known

Cosmic lightDarkness abatedVishnu was crowned Heaven's new LordAnd Shiva once BrahmaLord of HellYet all was still not finishedFrom God's deathA seedThe seeds of lifeThe Children of Brahma and SaraswatiOur dear parents, who gave themselves for usReborn anew through life

Much adversity did they faceFrom microbesTo FishTo LizardsBirdsPrimates tooYet all was not finished

One beingExalted among all othersManYet this was not manBut what would become of manVishnu doth protestYet Shiva knew bestA spark was all it tookStolen from Vishnu's nook5Agni did Shiva callTo imbibe their mindAnd so it wasThus was born ManThus was reborn BrahmaThus was reborn Saraswati

The Garden they did leaveManu is the name he tookShatarupa is the name she took6And from their grove they walked

A Godless world saved at lastThe mind of Brahma finally reawokenNo longer in slumberBut inside the heart and minds of all ManCreated in thine image7To frolicTo playTo singTo praise Thy nameSo here we areOn our floating seed

May we surviveMay we flourishMay we loveFrom Earth we shall goBrahma's seedVirgin CosmosOur destiny

So remember dear oneAnd know it wellThy Mind is AllAnd the Mind is AllNot simply made by God8But the Children of GodLike Father like SonLike Mother like DaughterWithin us allThat raging fire we do possessLet us never forgetWhat it meantWhen God was burnt alive9

Gate gate10ParagateParasamgateBodhiSvaha

Notes

By the editor.

  1. Brahman is the neuter, impersonal ultimate reality of Hindu philosophy; Brahma is the masculine creator god of the Trimurti, and the two words share a root. Some scholars think the god began as the visible figure of the principle. In the myths Saraswati is Brahma's consort, Vishnu the preserver, Shiva the destroyer and Agni the god of fire. source ↩
  2. In the Puranas Brahma makes a woman from himself, Shatarupa, and weds her. The Matsya Purana identifies her with Sarasvati (and with Savitri and Gayatri), and she bears Svayambhuva Manu. The poem's divine pair are that couple, and their son is the Manu who appears later (note note 6). source ↩
  3. A god sacrificed so that a world can be made has old Indian precedent: in the Purusha Sukta (Rigveda 10.90) the gods dismember a primordial cosmic being in a sacrifice, and the moon, sun, wind, sky and earth come from his body. Norse myth gives a second case, Odin hanging “myself to myself.” Her poem makes the victim the divine pair themselves and the altar a pyre. source ↩
  4. Agni is the Vedic god of fire and the go-between of the sacrifice: he carries human offerings up to the gods and brings the gods down to the rite, and the Rigveda opens with a hymn to him. So it is fitting that Vishnu calls on Agni here, since the fire that consumes the pair is also the fire that delivers them to the gods. source ↩
  5. A spark stolen so that humankind can have fire is Prometheus's deed in Greek myth. In Hesiod he steals fire back from Zeus in a fennel stalk; in Aeschylus fire is only one of his gifts, beside writing and mathematics. Shiva here plays Prometheus to Vishnu's Zeus, defying the preserver on humanity's behalf. source ↩
  6. In Hindu tradition Manu (Svayambhuva Manu) is the first man and father of humankind, and Shatarupa, whose name means “hundred forms,” the first woman. The Brahma Purana has Brahma create the two together, and humans descend from them. The poem sends them out of the Garden, as Genesis sends Adam and Eve. source ↩
  7. Genesis 1:27 (KJV): “So God created man in his own image.” The Hindu story told here and the Hebrew one arrive at the same place: humanity as God's likeness. The poem then reads the likeness literally, as the same fire burning in us. source ↩
  8. The idea that the human mind is God's own mind awake runs through her work. You Remember, Don't You? says “Humans are the neurons of God,” and What the Ghosts Actually Are says the mind you have is the Mother's mind. This poem tells the same story as the cost of that waking. ↩
  9. In What the Ghosts Actually Are the same event is told in her church's terms: the Mother dies, and “she chose to live in every thing for the sake of all things.” Here the Hindu names carry the story, and the pyre stands where the Mother's death stands there. ↩
  10. These are the closing words of the Heart Sutra: gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā. Gate is “gone,” pāragate “gone to the other shore,” pārasaṃgate “gone altogether” to it, bodhi “awakening,” and svāhā a closing exclamation. Edward Conze renders it: “Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail!” source ↩