What's Inside?

Have you ever reached a point where you no more recognize your life to have been the same to what it previously was? All of your experiences would seem unreal and alien, disconnecting you from all that you thought you belonged to. Alienated from the world around you, from thoughts and talks that no more matter, you arrive at crossroads knowing what path not to take, and at the same time, not realizing where to head further. This stage of half baked clarity is the most elusive to the human mind, manipulating it to take a dangerous route if not aware, or motivating it to tread a journey of fulfillment and joy, when chosen rightly.

Millions of us today are standing here at these crossroads, waiting to walk along the road ahead, or maybe hitch a ride! Some are gifted enough to drive, but that's not to be judged for it could be a wholly different journey. If you have dared to step out of the program and see to yourself what's happening in the big picture around you, things may not have to appear so complicated and undecipherable. True, we cannot get all the answers to all our questions, but the reason for concern is the many clues and, sometimes, straightforwardly directed answers that often go unnoticed. This is the time when our previous understanding of the setup starts to fail under a newly formed ideology within us, strong enough to shatter the old beliefs and their influences. But the mind...! Our mind is NOT yet ready for it. It tricks us to believe otherwise, putting us in a jeopardy to not accept either belief, for it has a strongly secured protocol of doing things.

That's right! Our parenting, schooling, socializing, and other interactions from our early childhood shapes us to who we become today. Alas! Many of us might have just outgrown those bodies, but have eventually lost ourselves in the process. We fail to recognize our true essence inside. Every individual is unique just like every leaf on a tree is different. We have designed a super-industry called Society which cuts and shapes all that comes under its purview into a uniformly designed, socially acceptable standard that forms the benchmark to earn something that can be termed as social status. On average, two decades of our lifetime is involved in shaping us, pruning the unwanted(?) attributes, and finally setting us up for the showdown.

Just like every log that goes into a woodcutter machine comes back as a rectangular block of timber, we fail to recognize, sadly and repeatedly, that human beings are not like these logs of wood unable to resist. We are twisted out of our original physiological shapes to become something else that is not encoded in our genes. In simple terms, we are all reduced to an all-conforming sheeple society that looks down upon one of its own with red eyes when an attempt is made to wander off to explore what's on the other side, to be abandoned in the end. Do you see my point?

Abandon all that you thought previously was right for a moment. Deny all of those dogmas and beliefs and rules and laws for only a moment and imagine yourself untied off a hundred such strings that kept you down to the ground all these days. Only for a moment! Now. In this moment, you will feel a lightness and freedom you never would have felt before. At this moment, you are not your parents' ambition or your teacher's pet or your lover's favorite or your organization's top employee or the head of your community or who ever that you thought you were. Absorb this none-ness completely into you. Feel the freedom within! Feel the infinite possibilities for your evolution and a boggling number of self imposed roadblocks that we assume to really exist hindering our progress in the longer run. See yourself devoid of all that for that moment and become it.

Now you may come back to reality. You may resume your normal life, listen to your guardians or elders or the authority, go back to the same routine, and just be 'yourself' again. But I promise you, this second instance of assuming your defined role is not gonna be the same as the first! The brief moment of separating you from the everyday routine sparks up the dilemma we earlier discussed about, leaving you perplexed each time you bask in this mindset. And believe me, this new mindset is powerful enough to sweep you off your old ideologies and make you start to question the happenings around you - be it personal, professional, political, religious, and even spiritual.

I'm no spiritual leader to preach anyone to do anything, but as a fellow human being who is on a road that seemed equally appalling to me when I first set my foot on it, I would recommend this perspective could change your way of seeing things, or, for the worse, not. Open yourself to an experience you've never had before, for you'll never know what lies within its interiors. Be ready for a shock that could disillusion you for life if you persist, and yes, it is a risk worth taken. Good luck!

A Wake Up Call!

Step aside from the common folk
To see no mortals but sheeple flock.
They're all headed in the same way,
Knowing not where, but ready to play.

Oh yes, it's all a game
Of name and fame,
Of selfishness and no shame,
Where everybody else wants the same!

It all starts when you're a child,
When you're all carefree and wild,
They pull you aside and tie up
Your mind, and scream, "Shut Up!"

Hence it follows that we're bound
To discipline and conformity abound.
It seems so normal, all around,
Yet we assume we're safe and sound.

Wake up! And get a hold
Of the truth so strong and bold;
See those lies, in glittery gold?
Enough of 'em, they're stale and old!

Open up your mind and unwind
All those that have made you blind
In the quest for an answer you must find,
And start now, your purpose is defined!

Ego - Where Does It Lead You?

What is ego? Identity? Or personality? Or is it merely an indispensable tool to survive in this world?

EGO plays a pivotal role in a person's rise or demise. Used constructively, it can take one to heights never imagined, boosting itself in the cause, like an automated self propelled engine. And like all other fuels, this needs to be refilled too. But do we know the source? It was us who fed it all these years with achievements and success. When this is done, it looks towards others as potential sources of fuel. That's when the desire for attention and admiration arise. When this is not sufficient, it resorts to an uglier way, by stimulating (or, at least, hoping) the external world to falter, which the ego falsely believes to boost it. Thus are born hatred, jealousy, dissatisfaction and resentment. A new pathway for self damage is paved henceforth.

The solution? Dissolve the EGO. Dissolving it destroys the false identity one has towards oneself and believes the same identity is established in the society. It shatters one's beliefs and constructions that all others had so far construed upon them. It exposes one's self, stark naked, without all the achievements, glories and the success stories! What is left, NOW, is the true self, which we have forgotten and ignored out of embarrassment that the society may not value us for our true nature.

That's right! The society itself runs as a super ego today. We belong to this caste, that religion, some community or a country which establishes our identity right from the day we are born, thus dissolving us in a series of lies that we never need if the ego is no more. Our values are based in these false super values. This gives rise to conflicts - egos cannot live in harmony, anytime, anywhere, unless they are mercilessly slaughtered under the weapon of knowledge.

Animals don't have egos - they have survival instincts coded in their genes, which is essential for them. What started as a battle of survival among human species gradually turned into an addiction of success and power. Thus the kings and rulers were born, who made the rules for the common men to collectively serve to their ruler or be penalized. That's it! A new enemy for humanity, or ego's best ally, FEAR was born!! Society, religion, and codes of conduct were framed thus to facilitate the egoistic! Don't believe me? What happens when you hurl a slipper towards your ruler??

Anyways, the truth is to be understood by all. Ask yourself! How do you define yourself? If your answer is based on your material achievements, wealth, possessions, and social status, you have a long way to evolve. Rather, if you answered with terms that specify more emotions and compassion, you've nailed it!! A little reminder - material wealth, achievements, success are also possible when the ego has dissolved, or if I could say, more so. The wisdom lies in identifying the orientation we possess towards us and others, until we realize that the term 'us and others' boils down to 'we', instead of 'I'.

If you have taken your time to read this and grasp something in its way, I wish you more strength to defeat your enemy, the EGO! Finally, success lies not in defeating your enemy, but cherished best when your ego has died, and this is the time to proudly 'celebrate death'. Good luck!

A Voyage To Hope

Sailing on a sea of Fear
Illuminated by darkness, I steer.
Deafened by silence,
My mind is dipped in valence.

There are no route maps
To the Land of Nowhere.
Nor are there any recaps
That lead me to no where.

With a compass that is directionless,
On a journey that seems endless,
It seems forever and timeless,
I'm helpless, but certainly not hopeless.

I know, it lies somewhere there,
The Shore of Hope,
Is where my heart longs to dare
With nothing to do but mope.

Hungry creatures wait beneath
For me, and for my defeat.
They crawl under slowly as I sail;
Treacherous things...I see a tail!

They're doomed in Ignorance
For they can't see the Light,
They are confined to Darkness
Blindly battling a losing fight.

I persist and move on
Until I see land that shines on,
I know now, for I have reached,
The destiny I'd always dreamed.

Warzone

We are all soldiers here,
Fighting a battle of egos;
Emotions, passions, and desires
Rage and rise,
Fueling a feeling of 'I'
That soars high
Above all kind,
Looking down mercilessly upon them.
Like plague, it spreads,
Reaching out its vicious arms
Against all it comes across,
Victimizing the vulnerable;
And they, too, shall join this eternal battle.
While some enjoy the boost of victory,
Some realize there's only misery.
They start a new journey
Towards eternal peace and harmony,
And all they had to do was shed
The heavy armor of ego
That was so much a part of them,
So much that they were a part of it...
Thus they are light,
And they soar,
Into the Source,
And become the Light.
So the battle continues,
With the Light shining
Upon Dark,
Illuminating and Guiding,
Until there remains no more Darkness.

RIP Lennox!

So it's finally over! The Irish Govt. has put down Lennox, the dog who resembled a pit bull terrier, that was a friendly pet, for reasons that pit bulls are banned in Ireland. And the poor soul has been termed "illegal". What's "illegal" here? The dog, though not a pit bull, being born to resemble so? Or the court that showed no mercy for the hapless creature and ordered it to be executed, though it had no records of aggression or of biting anyone? Or worse, the condition the dog suffered for 2 years imprisoned in unhygienic conditions made to sleep on dirty floor and among his own feces?

Despite several protests and petitions signed worldwide for stopping this inhuman act, Lennox is finally put out of his misery, but did he really deserve it?

It's not just Lennox's case, but the plight of thousands of animals termed "illegal" mainly owing to their birth traits, for being born as "somebody", rather than do "something" that could render them "illegal".

Humanity is not solely in protecting the interests of 'human beings', but also showing compassion and treating other beings with equal dignity. Rather, it is treated today by doing anything that solely protects the human being species by dismissing any concern for other creatures that are equally deserving of their Right to Life.

We hear several examples of children and people being bitten by street dogs in Indian roads and then what happens is pretty obvious! The dogs, irrelevant of biting or not, are either hacked to death or are executed. Yes, we see thousands of chicken and sheep slaughtered to feed our appetites and I'm no animal activist or vegan policymaker to advocate against animal cruelty, but on grounds of morality, the death of those chickens at least serves a purpose of satiating one's hunger. But before killing a non-human animal (we're animals too!) the respect for the individual animal is not at all apparent and all the focus is on getting rid of them, just to serve our purpose!

Coming to dogs, terming them illegal or aggressive just for being a particular kind of breed is unacceptable. Would these perpetrators go kill a tiger for being aggressive and hunting down their fellow mates? Yes they would, but in one shot with a bullet in the head, but not by imprisoning it in some degraded condition and starving it before "humanely" euthanizing it!

Animals are such creatures that cannot even predict what goes on the next moment and what the sadistic humanity has in their minds to exploit them. All they think of is food, shelter and love. Many have dogs for the sake of "guarding" their houses (too damn old school philosophy) rather than treat them as family members. Well, we had our dog euthanized too, but only after learning that her condition could no longer be treated and would render her suffering for the whole of her life. That's the purpose of mercy killing. Not "killing" the poor animal for "mercy" on human beings.

If you have a problem with street dogs, clean your streets and dumpyards. Animals don't simply go on vacations invading roads and biting everyone they come across. I can give several examples of meat stalls disposing their wastes inaccessible to the human eyes, but not really for a dog's senses! Raw meat and hunger surely tips off the animals to go after little children! And where are their parents? Either working or doing something somewhere (no disrespect, honestly). Understood. But, isn't it of primal importance and basic commonsense to secure your child and make sure he/she won't wander away unsupervised, rather than blame a dog for all the drama?

It's a dog and its animal instincts make it bite under certain conditions, which we don't know if the animal is hungry or if the child throws a stone at it triggering the mongrel to retaliate back in defense. We can't say, but we can, for sure, follow our commonsense, which every human is bestowed with, i assume, to ensure necessary safety is taken for protecting themselves from these attacks.

Finally, it's all in what conditions we make for ourselves and the fellow creatures around us. Remember, it's us who have encroached into their territories by destroying their habitat in the name of progress, and not them, for the mere sake of attacking, and let's remember that and treat them with equal respect for their rights, just like us.

GHOSTS OF MY PAST

I sit there, thinking,

Contemplating and recollecting

Those fantasies I dreamt,

Which in real I never spent.

I wander in my mind,

Searching for answers that never unwind,

Fearing if I'd been rendered blind

In the onslaught of what I could never find.

Moments passed as I watched,

As I waited

Patiently for that one clue

To come to me right outta the blue.

I delve deep into my conscious,

Spiraling thoughts, slowly they unfurl!

Looking for subtleties, if any, it may hurl,

I pick 'em up, bits and pieces, yet precious!

These insights, they're a bird flock,

Flying away, yet so close, they mock

At me, still watching, dazed and unfazed,

I shoot at them

With my weapon of introspection,

And slowly they drop dead,

Each telling tales of insights

Which I simply realize, amazed.

Together they constitute my life,

And here they all lie,

Fragments...as if neatly cut by a knife,

Sharp edged, yet they'll all die!!

I try to put them together,

A task that seems endless and forever

And arrange them like shattered pieces of mirror.

I discover

To my horror,

They hide an untold story of terror

Of my own disambiguation.

I trace back to those days of mistakes,

And I know now the chances I spilled,

Opportunities I kicked,

Pleasures I forbade,

Together they all stare at me

In a deathly gaze and I see

They're all dead,

Pieces of my future I dreamt would last,

Are now merely the ghosts of my past.