We are all for it
When it comes to our own fleshy bit
Safeguarding this station
Has become a prime occupation
It plays host to the mind
That has become dangerously blind
It isn’t a dark dead end
If it can be turned into a loyal friend
A thoughtful mind burns bright
But it is hard to see truth by that light
Having set sail a long time ago
In its wake, a turbulent flow
That energizes worthless debates
Pulling us into darker states
Thoughts may be invisible
But they make the mind divisible
It’s unnatural as ice in a desert
Only providing transitory comfort
Belief keeps us comfortably up there
By which it’s easy to settle in like a soft arm chair
Body and mind are a given
But how are they driven?
Both let loose in the world to play
Where acquired seriousness keeps them at bay
At the crossroads of an easy descent
And a difficult ascent
This way station is turned into home
Where one may only pretend to roam
Forgetting the custodian’s role
The posts are moved to a different goal
Ideas clash like wind and wave in a storm
Making it difficult not to conform
To the expected for the age
That has taken center stage
Dramas unfold with the seriousness of a judge’s frown
With every actor aiming for worldly renown
On the surface of one’s mind, everyone’s a hero
Few understand what’s hidden deep in its marrow
Mixed in with progenitors of the make believe
Along with time, conspiring to thieve
Our attention away
From the passageway
Known to all saints
Who have fought thought’s restraints
Which turn us away from subjectivity
Into the world of hard objectivity
Demanding proof
Of everything beyond our sunny roof
Like a frothy bubble seeking to understand
The ocean’s size firsthand
Individual minds cannot fathom the scale
Of the vastness beyond the veil
Struggling to pay the worldly bill
Inner progress comes to a standstill
To overcome tidal waves of the subconscious
We need a brave accomplice
Who does not give into dreams
Or cries about lost memories
Mind is the greatest archive man has ever known
Full of temptations that make us postpone
The search for the universal truth
Instead giving into thoughts that soothe
Which way do we turn?
Looking in every direction, there’s so much to learn
One who patiently watches may win the battle
Others are left to graze on thoughts like cattle
That endless pasture is greener than ever
Beckoning us to live off it forever
With each passing day there’s more of that desire
But time sounds a warning that’s dire
A thoughtful mind seeks to empty itself
In a quest to find the higher self
Which isn’t in a faraway heaven
Why can’t this body be its haven?
It may well be the case
If we work to earn that grace
- N. Seshadri
