Ashtagraha

Eight planets in a row! O the brilliant show!
(Some killjoy says, they are not eight, but seven
But, yet, the row is grand! )… Magnificent, rare!
It happens once in a thousand years
In the firmament of the God!…Superb, sublime!
But, man, poor man, alone among living things—
Why is his heart so sunk? Why has he no cheer?
He shivers and shudders. He feels it is done.
To pour on him fire and flood, to bring him death!
Though the Lord, Sathya Sai, proclaims aloud,
“Why fear, when I am here?”

~N. Kasturi