The quality of diamond ore
Depends on pressure known to a miner’s bore
In the depths, survival is for the tough
The first to burn up is fluff
The mind is a diamond in the rough
It’s a wonder it survives, amidst conditions so tough
Wrought by self inflicted worry
Of a future, an unwritten book of mystery
It may be boring or thrilling
Either way one must be willing
The present is ruined
Through nervous milling
Amongst thoughts, hewn from the silence
Lurking deep within, it is timeless
The history of man is a tiny fragment
But a defining one, thanks to the mind’s advent
Tethered to the body
It only takes a moment to make the mind shoddy
But a lifetime to make it sparkle
Shining through, even if one remains nonverbal
The lustre in the eyes is the proof of effort
That’s transformed the mind into a noble shepherd
Tending to a flock of virtuous views
Refusing to misuse
These gifts of ours
With compassion, for ignorant peers
Who cannot be written off
And treated with scoff
These lapidaries who are asleep
Must be educated on what they can achieve
With a bold strike of the will
Nothing is an insurmountable hill
A harder task is a search for diamonds
Rivers and hillsides are combed in silence
By grubby hands that will never wear them
When they’re starved for food, what use is a gem?
The mind’s constant hunger
Cannot be sated by thoughts’ plunder
Lifetimes are frittered away, combing through
What is essentially untrue
This wisdom cannot be seen
Through what the physical eyes can glean
Each eye is a gem
The mind is proud to wear them
They promise much by way of clarity
Giving up everything that’s seen, as charity
Too soft to polish the mind
They only reflects what is behind
Polishing the mind is gritty work
Making it flawless without a mark
Leaves behind a basket of virtues
A sign one has paid all dues
Thoughts may no more flow with abandon
And hide more than one can handle
Like a jeweller’s display
Only things of true value stay
There are many fakes that masquerade
Only a master jeweller can grade
The training is tough
And very few are up to snuff
Long hours spent in the dark
In a cavernous balloon, it is a walk in the park
When lit by a miner’s lamp
Every such helmet bearing that stamp
Has a flame that can’t be extinguished
Even after this fleshly ore is relinquished
It takes a unique miner to find a rough stone worthy of polish
Before the mine is abandoned and demolished
There are many opportune moments
To descend from the surface to sign the covenants
Before the inner diamond’s sparkle is revealed
But that’s not before the mind is fully peeled
- N.Seshadri
