To write a poem on the red lotus is really a marvel and that too to come to view a lotus blooming, a red lotus sparkling with color, looking so attractive and charming and it has come from the pen of none other but of S.K. Chettur (1905-1972) who is an ICS so creatively endowed with. A student of the Christian and Presidency colleges, Madras and the University College, Oxford, he does his M.A. and finally competes for. A writer of short stories and novels, he has also a few poems which are worth reading. He served as Chief Secretary of Madras State from 1960 to 1964. S.K. Chettur is a brother of G.K. Chettur.

The red lotus blooming in the pond is the context of deliberation. The poet, charmed by color and imagination, stands into the waters. It looks sedate and beautiful. Is it that slush, mud and weeds have given birth to the lotus? How can it be so? How can it grow in water?

How is its loveliness writ large? How does it spread its sweetness? It is a thing of bliss, unknown bliss from the Divine bestowed upon.

How to know its secrets when it is so short-lived? When does it bloom and when does it fade into the gloom? Who can ever say it? Who has ever known it? How lovely the petals of it! But when it furls, it doesn’t last for so long. It appears to be complacent as long as it remains unfurled. But we need to learn a lesson in sweetness. We should be as meek as the lotus. Our manna should be like that free from cares and anxieties. Drawing from silence, it teaches us to be happy and cheerful. Keep you ever smiling and happy.

Apart from its short span, it is very beautiful and charming, so dreamy and fanciful to catch our spirit, fancy and imagination.

Let it be a source of our joy. Let it give peace and tranquility. Let it banish bad thoughts from our mind, and we need to learn from it. Today men are after themselves. They keep fighting in between, picking up a quarrel, so prone to spilling in bad blood and cold blood.

The poem has a very symbolic meaning. It has some meditational loveliness. It reflects Buddha’s serenity, purity. How does the world awake and arise in? How to live in peace, harmony and co-existence?

Red lotuses speak the language of love, they speak the language of passion and compassion. They express the deep emotions of our life which make us human. Let it continue to give a lesson. Let it be a source of joy and free spirit.

Red Lotus in the pool,
Standing immaculate,
Sedate and beautiful,
Out of what starry fate
Did mud and weeds and slush like this
Give to rise to thy transcendent bliss ?

O beauty in the slush,
O hidden loveliness
Uprising with a rush
To hurl thy crimson kiss
Of petals sweet upon the world, —
What loss is ours when they are furl’d !

Beauty ephemeral,
Touching the spirit’s wing.
Is but a tale to tell,
Is but a song to sing,
And lotuses shall flare and fade
And none will know when born, when dead.

Red Lotus in the pool,
Standing inviolate,
O lay thy petals cool
Upon the spears of hate,
And let thy travail from the mud
Repeal the lust of men for blood . . .

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