A poem based on an illustration from the Bhagavad-gita As It Is.
From lust this woman
gets the body of a tree.
From sloth this woman
gets the body of a bear.
From eating meat
he becomes a tiger.
And the garbage-belly man
becomes a hog.
You want to be naked?
Nature gives a body
to do it even better
a body that is naked always.
But because you abused
the human form of life
your nakedness is out in the cold.
Teeth and jaws of a tiger
do much better in tearing flesh,
but you'll have to be a stalker
catch prey only once a month.
As you eat up lobster pus,
you may do it better
rolling in stool as a pig.
You get what you are
and all that you did.
The painting is to shock them:
Half a face turns hairy
like a Hollywood wolfman
smooth skin to bear skin,
pearly teeth to fangs.
If it seems to you a myth,
then what is your logic?
Can you get away with murder?
"Don't think deeds are karma-free.
Every seed bears fruit in time."
Sometimes you can see it
a doglike action a man transforms.
The faces of slaughter-cows
make one wonder what they did.
Why risk so many births
on the wheel of samsara?
Don't think you're unique
to go unscathed.
You get what you are
and all that you did. SDG