- Life’s riddles-
When setbacks become opportunities…
When the disdained command your respect…
When that which was meant to weaken you, actually strengthens you…
When that which ran tangential to your existence, now anchors it…
When that which you were holding on to, refuses to hold on to you…
When you begin to ride on that which riddles you…
No One in Particular
Who we are cannot be defined.
We are ever changing through life
Choosing, becoming, evolving, growing
Our destiny is forever shifting
To a new location.
The weight of being the same
In appearance, In psychology, in relationship
And in vocation and passion
Becomes dead heavy.
I realize that I no longer live
As a fully free being
But as someone who carries
The dead weight of others expectations
I long now for islands of solitude
In between my hours (that are now yours)
I search for liberation…
Or perhaps for new understanding…
Or for a way to assert my right
To be no one in particular.
Together
Together…
A pairing…. A grouping…
That begins by chance
Is recognized for its beauty
Is sustained by love
And is eternalized by culture.
Blame
If blame were a means
Of yielding remorse, realization
And then correction,
We all would’ve achieved an ideal world…
We wouldn’t be living
With old wounds still festering
Blame can only
Pin a problem to a person;
It cannot help him resolve it.
All he will see is that
For all that went wrong
It was he who was blamed.
No.
No, I will not be diminished
By your dismissal of me.
No, I will not disappear
Just because you refuse to notice me.
No, I will not conform;
I will not yield to your violence.
No, I will not further your agenda
While I secretly resist it.
No, I will not agree with you;
I will not prove you right about my adaptability
No, I will not be
Who you would like me to be.
My existence will not be exploited
By your machinations and for your ambitions.
No.
Grace
That which allows
For both, ecstasy and sorrow
With a steady breath…
That which upholds dignity
And yet endures disgrace
Without bemoaning the loss of face
And without the haste to change…
That which has known both-
Deep affection and bitter estrangement
And knows that both
Are light and shadow
Co-existing in love’s eternal light.
“That” is not an imposition of will
It’s not an austerity
Nor a firm resolve…
“That” is an all-encompassing
All embracing
Grace.
The Aesthetics of Education
Ugliness is an hour
In the perception of beauty.
The ugliness of darkness,
Pride, arrogance and dishonesty
Will pass…
All facades will fall
And you will find yourself
Standing exposed…
Your ignorance, you will come to see,
Was faking it as knowledge.
While you were busy learning
How to do, how to act
How to think and how to be
Those lessons were futile and
Meaningless…till you learned how to see.
But learning how to see
Is a becoming…
It is arriving to a point
Where you’re able to tell the difference
Between reality and concept.
It involves a return
To a no-man’s land
Where all the knowledge
That you have acquired
Stands in vain.
When your satisfactions
Have become your discontent
Your truth is now false
And the certainty of your ideas
Have become an ideological noose.
You wish to be liberated
From fashionable ideas
And to look at
What you don’t know
For recourse…
Your ignorance then transforms…
From being the nakedness
That you were ashamed of-
It becomes the very means
By which you will learn.
When false knowledge is dropped
A superficial ignorance too breaks…
You come to see that
True knowledge lies in understanding
What you’re ignorant about.
It’s our ignorance
That teaches us what
We must know.
It introduces us to our human-ness
And thereafter our promise.
A good education
Will free you of conclusion
You will learn how to learn
And therefore, learn how to be
And therein, learn how to see.
15th August (A Day. A Commemoration. A Manifesto)
Although we stand
On the foundation
Of an ancient past
We must-
At every single moment
Intentionally free ourselves from it.
The struggle for independence
Is not over yet…
Every generation must leave behind
Dead ideas and settled stereotypes
And be committed to
Self-discovery and self-actualization.
The pain of our past
Must be transformed to faith
A faith that can see
In our ordinariness
An extraordinary expression of divinity
And in our dreams, the power of prayer.
We must rise
On the merit
Of our accrued wisdom
And not on the foolish
Avarice for things
That are effectual or notional.
And thought…
That is the architect
Of the abode
We live in
Must itself abide in openness
…in a heart free of fear.
We have a lot of work to do;
Many battles to fight
Many adversaries to win over
Many rough terrains to traverse
Many mountains to climb
And many bridges to build.
And this work
That needs to be done-
Is in essence,
A solitary quest.
It’s our search for redemption
And freedom…from our own smallness.
And just as Nanak told Mardana
“It is my blessing that
The Good and the Pure
Be separated from the clan
And be scattered to spread the goodness…”
Sanctify your solitary effort.
Do well by doing good
Do well by keeping at heart
The Larger Good.
Independence, after all
Is not freedom from responsibility
But freedom in responsibility.
Learning
Learning can give nothing but anxiety
To one who considers himself ignorant.
And learning is wasted on one
Who believes he already knows
Learning is not an acquisition.
It’s a quality of being-
Present. Attentive. Deferential.
Surrendered to the Truth.
Learning is intelligence in action
Not the intellect in inertia.
Learning, in essence
Is an act of deep love.
Happiness
Happiness is being free…
Free to come
Free to go
Free to dream
Free to love
Free to sing
Free to create
Free to try
Free to fail
Free to belong
…and yet free to be.
Assert your freedom.
Wit. Wisdom. Wonder... 