Boats and lamps - Part I
- Dwarakaithalaivan
Our mentor
Is a social reformer.
As he speaks
The river of oration
Flows in our mind.
The waves are rolling
The golden foils
And we are elevated
To jump into the water.
We smear the glittering words
All over the body and
Swim inside
Probing the water space
With drowsy eyes.
We are floating the mind
Like a piece of wood
on the stream of speech.
Our dresses of beliefs
Are many centuries old.
We the shabby people
Lose our thick rough clothes
In the flood of oration.
We now wear
The waves as attire.
All those years
We strolled along the streets
With fetters.
We dragged the iron shot
Chained to our feet.
It made trenches in our hearts.
Sharpness of Orator’s tongue
Has snapped the chain to pieces.
Now we are free
Not only to run
But to fly.
We built many walls.
we painted them with blood
And wrote on them with tears.
All those primitive barriers
Are now washed away by the
Eloquent speech.
We make books as boats
To row over the flood.
Our writers are
Expertised in designing the boats.
Boats are not made
With polished planks
But with the rough ones
Like the path of
Oppressed people.
They are nailed together
With quotes of our social reformer.
The boats sail as swans
and swoop up the fishes
Which find their way
In a new channel.
We survive by going
Along the stream.
We don’t travel over the water
All the time.
We dive inside
And row the boat
Like a submarine
As we notice
An arrogant eagle passes by.
The eagles hover
High in the sky
they land for a food
And go back to their
Play ground the sky.
The eagles are no
special persons.
They are some common people
Who strike a balance between faiths
And practical life.
They soar in the sky
And land for a while.
The nails of mind
Hold the belief as prey.
They take the medicine of dogma
To soothe their aching wings.
They get the blood of truth
To transcend the noisy ground.
We make a mockery of eagles
With feathers of shackles.
We declare ourselves
As sons of freedom.
But we fail to look at ourselves.
What did we intend to do?
Why did we make boats?
We were determined to shed
All the shackles and
Make ourselves free as a wind.
But in the process we created
Our own shackles
In the form of boats and paddles.
In the river of rationality
which we believed
would wash away all the barriers
We are left as
Islands now.
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Reader's comment:
We are boats in the waters of knowledge.During Vedic period and till the end of Upanishad period,we were free at Gurukulams.During the Valedectory Function Yagnavalkya Maharshi advised disciples to be free in life and never refrain from learning(anuvaka-11,Thaithiryopanishad.)Here, we are free to learn though not to express.The poem is a fine exposition.Thanks.
Nasarudheen.P., Kasargod.Kerala.Aug 20, 2010
courtesy: Muse India sep- oct 2010 issue
