It’s not really death
That deprives us of our chances in life…
It is our own desires.
Fulfilment is what we seek
Satisfaction is what we pursue
And gratification is what we settle with.
Our time becomes a commodity
That we trade
To acquire the means to happiness.
Our relationships become transactional
Wherein we foolishly mistake
The means to be our end.
Our lives get entangled in a pointless conflict.
How can our death be a celebration
When our lives are not?
Death doesn’t bring
An end to things
It leaves questions unanswered
Issues unresolved…
Those who are angry
And are left behind-
Are left with a directionless anger.
Where relationships
Were decaying
For want of love and trust-
Death offers no redemption.
Your anger needs to be
Laid to rest in understanding
Your hurt must turn to compassion
And indifference to a higher attentiveness
Your identity needs to dissolve
In His presence.
The dream must end
With an awakening.
We must find release
From the confines of smallness
Into an ever-expanding grace.
Have you emptied your mind
Of all resentments and grudges
And offered it at the altar
Of an ever-present love
That has the heart-space
To let thoughts of all textures be?
Have you risen from the feeling of paucity and need;
Reclaimed your inheritance of abundance
And come to the realization
That your blessings far exceed your need;
Have you come to see
That to give is the only way to live?
Have you let go of all expectations
That external change
Must be ordered by your efforts
And instead re-directed
Your attention and work
Towards re-aligning yourself?
Have you understood
That you will not live forever
And that you are life’s guest;
A pilgrim on a journey…
Have you found as yet
What you are here to seek?
Have you embraced both
Strength and vulnerability
Gain and loss
Success and failure
Pleasure and pain
Requital and rejection?
Are you ready for your onward journey?
Have you packed in your magic-
That special power that life decorated you with?
That incredible ability to convert
Darkness to light; experience to wisdom and
Apprehension to love.
When you leave…
Leave behind that part
Of yourself for me,
That was larger than
What photographs have captured;
Of greater dimensions than your physique-
Leave me with your immensities…
When you leave…
Allow me to move on
With the stories
Of your human-ness
So that I may
In my loss and vulnerability
Stand re-acquainted with my own…
When you leave…
Leave the door open
So that I can find you
In a space free of walls
And manufactured distances
Meet with me there…
Let’s get to know each other again.
What happened last night?
We made an uncomfortable threesome
You, me and Fear
I’m not even sure of the name…
Was it Fear?
Or Desire?
Anger?
Or Bruised Ego?
Does it even matter?
Maybe all that matters
Was the uninvited
Uncalled for
Presence of a third
I couldn’t reach out to you
And you wouldn’t reach out to me
My helplessness dissolved into the oceans of my heart
That welled up and drowned most of my mindscape
I feel almost nothing now
Nothing…
Not helplessness
Not fear
Not anger
Not resentment
I feel naked
But am at peace with my nakedness
I feel hollow and light
Dead, unburdened and strangely alive
Which was how
Today amidst doing my daily chores
I who had died
Buried the dead.
Wit. Wisdom. Wonder... 