Sunday, 1 December 2019

Tribute

Am I a tourist here

alone aimless and lost

in the crowd of homes,

hotels and exotic temples!

 

I searched for a friend

who glanced at me  and moved on,

I searched for a partner to share

the gloomy destiny of the earth

but lo! 

He hopped on to commandeer me

to live in his nest for good!

 

But I am now free, 

no more tourist 

in search of curiosities,

come and visit my cottage

join me in my song

my celebration of life's afternoon

my cottage is home and temple, 

a poetic tribute to the Maker.

 

Sabita Sahu

 

Sunday, 24 November 2019

The New Flute


He walks alone
on the wavy hills
playing the flute
golden and melodious
dispelling dry clouds
beyond the sky,
Who is he ?

Is he the waylost Krishna!
wandering aimless
after Kurukshetra
with the blood of mankind
spating his senses.
His guilty mind repenting
in golden music or is he
a pathfinder walking for
his magic discovery.

Is he immune from hunger
and thirst?
Does he sleep
in the thorny forest
lonely and wild?
Is he searching for me,
for my arms to lull
him to sleep in my lap.
He must have lost his way
waiting to sing another
Gita for Man.

I'll walk rising up
from my seat of worries
new and old,
without me he is incomplete
He cannot create another Gita
nor create the rhythm of life,
Let me rush I am late
wasting time in idle talk.

Sabita Sahu

Knowledge

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

What was Adam's fault or guilt or if you prefer, his 'transgression' of God's command? He simply, innocently wanted to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree! The tree of knowledge, named by God personally before he took the Sabbath. Had he eaten the Apple God's creation would not have collapsed. He would have gained knowledge about God's creation, could have participated in God's wonderful creativity, even could have assisted him in creating a larger, more beautiful symmetry of God's nature. Why was man punished? Why do we name man's first curiosity the Original Sin? Is it a sin to taste a new 'fruit' - be it knowledge or poison? Did Adam know that it was a sin to defy God's command ? Why couldn't God pardon man's first sin? Those who evangelize should pause and think whether God's first human creation was a victim of Satan's provocation or God's first man was a defective product and hence could be provoked to transgress his creator's decree! Why didn't God create a provocation proof, manipulation- proof, persuasion proof man? Adam was asked to obey, the Master's word was supreme, the first creation of God didn't have any freedom, did not have any choice. What was God's purpose in creating a yesman, one who didn't have the ability to ask questions or to live life as per his own desires. Eve was carved out of his rib cage  to beguile his loneliness (and perhaps sex drive) but in truth to be a partner of  his ignorance and live in the closed contours of a sequestered mind. But if Eve could be tempted by Satan to defy God and Adam acquiesced in the first humans definitely had some choice whether to accept the temptation ; and if she exercised her choice and could prevail upon Adam how is she or he to blame? And if God  felt insulted why didn't he  kill Satan? He alone made the Archangel the Archdevil and He alone created Adam perhaps out of his  own loneliness and boredom. He punished Adam because he could not kill the Serpent who Chameleon like changes shapes and disharmonises God's arcane enchantment. But what has been the result?  
    
The result is Adam has multiplied. Today man has grown into a 70 billion force. The apple he ate has given him such powers that he challenges God everywhere on all fronts. To counter the unfriendly and uncomfortable elements this Apple fed Adam has mastered the earth. He invades the space. Today in the outer space thousands of satellites explore all the multilevel vastness of the universe.  He has conquered, at least controlled the three major enemies of life- hunger, sickness and 'death'. The primal hunger for more knowledge which man calls information,  grows but the hunger of the belly is almost gone. Medicines are invented every  moment to keep him fit for long years. Yes, mortality has not been conquered but he now goes beyond a century. He has created weapons of  mass  destruction and also anti- missile weapons. His knowledge is so potent  that sitting in a remote corner of the world he can bring  a vast  prosperous country to a stand still.  Pentagon sedrets could be hacked, countries could be at war  by misinformation, diseases  can be spread. Artificial intelligence can simulate almost everything. He can dry up a river, vanish a mountain, spy on a country without creating  honeytraps or Vishkanya.  He has now reached the Moon and Mars, getting ready to face the sun from zero distance. If there is news fakery also comes to create confusion hate and wars. He creates laws, breaks them; he makes law courts and disrespects them, goes back on his words, stabs from behind-  All with his knowledge which God had denied him in the Garden.

Did God deny knowledge to Adam for he knew  its true potential? Knowledge could have made Adam rival God. He can do and undo. He creates religion to spread the message of Love of man but  the same religion kills for supremacy. He creates truths, scientific, poetic, social, religious and philosophical truths. And he fights the same truths by a  perverse sense of logic. Political Parties create ideologies and come to ideological clashes much to the detriment  of human welfare. Is the opposite of knowledge a better option for man today, which god desired  but could not enforce thanks to his own judgement vitiated by his Anger? If ignorance is the contrapuntal note to knowledge did God want man to be less curious, less inquisitive, less intelligent and more statusquoeist  in his bearing? Those who say ignorance is Bliss, do they mean Bliss to be a sort of stasis which endures and accepts the given frame of things? But I think , better to be in conflict than in agreement with everything. Knowledge makes us suffer but the nuances of suffering alone enlighten us.

Sunday, 17 November 2019

Man's Power- Push



Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

That man is not a bread-alone creature is a given in history. The first humans ran everywhere, dug up every surface and fought mentally and physically to douse the fire in the belly. They moved and   lived together in groups to find food and water but if the food was insufficient they fought with each other. The powerful among them subdued  the others and monopolized things. He distributed what the submissive weak needed. The weak utilized their intelligence to plot and plan to eliminate the strong and mighty. The rat race began like musical chairs. The strong had their advisors, mostly from priestly class, and suppressed mutinies  and rebellions. Man became strong by suppressing men; wanted to expand land for land and water, invented weapons, laid traps for enemies. Chanakyas and Machiavellies  came up to fortify kingdoms. Rules regulations, laws and strategies were crafted by intelligent men for man's power push.

Man essentially needs power and authority, to lord over all that he encounters. He domesticated the cow for milk, the horse for his transport and other beasts of burden for his comfort. He cut down trees, mountains; killed  and subjugated  animals. He could  not, however,  domesticate the lion and tiger hence trapped them in cages or drove them away to distant forests; made exhibits of them showing to other men how he is the most powerful on earth. He kept the woman behind closed doors. Did not educate them, never treated  them  as free humans capable of all feats he is master of. Women were sexual  toys, mothers of his children. He framed laws for them, gave them rule books seldom treated them as humans. As civilization grew technology advanced, he bound nature  to serve his interests.  He became the head of the family, head of  a city or village, king of the state, President, Primeminister- that is the Prime Mover. He created gods and temples for them. Be it family, society, kingdom, state he was  the master wielding power: for power is what man has gained over the march of centuries.

When politics, ethics, administration and bureaucracy were established in a systematic manner he became more powerful. The lathis and swords of early  times were replaced by guns and bombs. Science and technology gave him Atomic bombs, Ballistic missiles and he terrorised other men. The Second World War ended with the stilled nerves of Nagasaki. Man proved that he can wipe off man from the surface of the earth. Wow what power!! Then he vowed for peace and market economy. The rich exploited the poor and became richer. Rivers were bridged, courses diverted for his economic growth. He became also charitable thereby showing his moral power and authority. You are hungry  take food and sing our praise. You want money to grow  take money and be loyal to us. Man's power grew over man.

The world today is divided by two groups: The powerful and the meek. But the meek too have come up with a new power push - terror. The Satanic energy of man  rises in the dark to destroy the powerful. The  innocuous are the  collateral victims. The power tussle is ceaseless. Power is meant to kill, destroy and harm the others who could not become powerful. In the human society today the corporate are the  refined substitutes of Timur and Aurangzeb. The East India Company perhaps is the best illustration of  the refined powerpush which loots ( the first Indian word to have  entered the English dictionaries) with bowed head and silken words. The modern day democratic representatives of people also are powerful. Modestly dressed they seek votes with folded hands but once they are elected they can slap you publicly and abuse your power by trickery.

The entire march of the Homo Sapiens is a march towards power and more power. Power over nature, birds and beasts and ultimately man. But  Power for what? To be immortal ? To be wealthy? To  be famous?   For what really? All your love, compassion, sympathy, knowledge wisdom are used only for power. Vasistha by his spiritual powers will shame Vishwamitra. England  will flaunt Shakespeare and India  Kalidas to shame Jinping; China will flaunt I Ching and Confucius, Russia the first Sputnik, America the Triumphant Dollar, for what and for whose shame or  glory? Man has killed Christ, Gandhi; man has destroyed nature, caused this climate  change poverty and fear:  For what?

Power games are now seen in Maharastra; in Hong Kong, Pakistan and almost everywhere. Veer Savarkar is a freedom fighter, Shivaji  is 'Lord Vishnu' ( in Kaviraja Paramananda's Sivabharata). Hitler is the best German  for the millennials in Germany and so on- the power push of man has invaded all spheres of life in history. Power prides itself everywhere notwithstanding the generosity of the human heart. But power ultimately is futile, meaningless like an abandoned cadaver. The much hated Mougal emperor Aurangzeb's last letter to his son perhaps will awaken Man to shun his powerpush:

              I came alone and go as a stranger. The instant which has passed in power has left only                          sorrow behind it. I have not been the guardian and protector of the  Empire. Life , so                             valuable,  has been squandered in vain. ( Death bed letter to his son Azam).






Catching Life

How easy it is to say
I am happy - isn't it !
But when memory swings
south goes all dreams
leaving us to churchyard gloom:
we alone wonder in the dark
long silent streets
without an exit.

Sometime somewhere life halts
to listen to the footsteps-
Whose footsteps ?
Yours or mine in mingled confusion.

Yes, happiness we search
running from corner to corner
in the deep turbulent sea of life
applying coats of foundation
to hide the wrinkled sorrow
pretending what we are not.

But can we escape
time's rigmarole  fated afore!
Yes we can by removing masks
catching life's drooping wings
and steering the course 
to create happiness in the
earthly sky of your making:
Not in dreams or fancies
but in the motions of life.

Sabita Sahu







Sunday, 10 November 2019

Living From Moment To Moment...


.Prafulla Kumar Mohanty.
Unborn tomorrow and dead yesterday/why fret about them if today be sweet - wrote Omar Khyayam. But the catch in the second line : If today be sweet. Every living being lives in the present moment, inevitably. But the moments are fleeting into future tomorrows chased by the yesterdays. Memory and dream inescapably crowd the present moment. A moment comes as eternity, lengthens the present both ways. You stand before the mirror after a lukewarm shower, humming a tune of a name- forgotten film, pick up the comb. The mind slips back to the shop where you picked it up yesterday and could not bargain as your phone rang and the sweet voice of your childhood friend invited you to her wedding anniversary dinner at May Fair. You were delighted to hear the loving voice of your friend after a long time. You promised to attend and thought of buying a present. You looked around the shop for something memorable. You remembered her wedding day. You were happy that day, you sang and were very happy seeing the match. The scenes of feasting and the flashy silky girls decorated from top to toe widened your lips a bit. You forgot your bargain and collected your change and stepped out when the  shopkeeper called you to collect your comb. You now smile and comb your hair and do your make up all the while trying to imagine how she would be looking now. She has married a top businessman, lived abroad for quite some years  and later settled in Bombay- oh, Mumbai. Before  leaving your dressing table mirror you think of your own party wear for the evening.

No moment is frozen. Moments tick away carrying the past and future. The present moment too is flowing from the past with its memories which lead you to your future plans and actions.  When you say "I live  from moment to moment" you perhaps think that you move from one dynamic situation to another and the situations are not related. Time and human mind are not like moving from one typing table to another. Its not like a disjointed progression of time where the consciousness moves with shifting logic to meet what a moment brings up from the maws of time . But what is this living moment to moment ?  Only when one is frustrated and has no hope for the morrow nor does he fall back upon the memories which his life lived in all his yesterday's thinks that all moments are eventless or loaded with horror and boredom. Who thinks like this? Only a person who has lost control over his life or is unable to give his personality thrust to the moments to flow in a certain direction, he alone gives up like Estragon saying, 'nothing to be done'. Such people blame faith and if they are believers they blame god. Life, as it were, ends every moment. This is an unmanly  or unwomanly  feeling which comes to  weak minds.

But these men and women will argue : What do you know about my life ? What has life given me except pain, misery and frustration? Well my dear, yes life has not given you anything because life never gives anything. You make your life worthwhile  by utilizing the potential which nature has given you. Intelligence, feelings, emotions, physical prowess - all have come with you naturally. If you are in a prison unlawfully break the prison. Escape by  collecting the keys to your cell by trapping your guard.  If you fail write to all authorities to reopen your case.  Write to the print and electronic media to give  you a hearing. If you fail to get any response write your own story. But if you are of Caliban material you will knock the door once and once only and give up if no response comes. That means you are denying life yourself. Life means pain, sickness, betrayal and all such negativities. But life has also given you courage, love, bravery and such positivities. Why give up at the slightest onslaught of misfortune? Life is not meant for sufferance. Life is a mental fight to conquer your share of glory in the world.

What if the son hasn't got a job for which you had trained him? What if your wife is a  bluestocking in spite of your love?  What if your boss trapped you to ignominy? You are man enough to find and seek alternatives. Shakuni in the Mahabharat is physically imperfect, all members of his clan including his parents, died before his eyes. But he did not give up. Like Milton's Satan you should say- What though the field be lost? All is not lost - the inconquerable Will  will pierce through the tunnel closed at both ends by his willpower. By his soulforce, if any, he will dispel the imposed darkness.

Man, I agree, is a delicate creature. His nerves are extremely sensitive to pain and the  diabolics of misfortune. But he must draw on the inner resolve  never to yield to even god. Prayers, Yajnas, fasts, temple visits are for the defeated. Those who cannot bend the moment and use them as bows run after the unseen powers which are impalpable. But Man is his own destiny maker. Try to overcome your misfortunes by taking them head on. Never submit to the injustice of  man and god. Fight till the end. Make your death crown your life with glory. Therefore make your moments flow with memories and dreams however distressing they may be.

ChandaMama


Millennia have passed
we call you uncle, beloved
Phoebus, silver globe and such
other names in many
tongued rhyme: Today
Chandrayana touched you
your craters ,boulders
like ruins of global beauty
stared  at us.

Human foot has
already soiled you
camera eyes have shown
you like a pimpled face of
trampled glory.
The Indian Moon,
Odia, Bengali moon,
Janhi osha moon,
Kumar Purnima moon
the Autumn moon is gone.

But my dearest I'll still  dream
in dark nights of your cool grace
watch you on the sea shore sands
at midnight high tide and noon
still compare you with my face
scarred by time's ruthless ways
and love as  I love my beauty.

Sabita Sahu

Forever New