Inspired by Earth Hour Day, which fell on my Birthday, the 28th of March, this year.
Light
The light that shows the right path
Leads from ignorance of the dark,
Into the radiance of knowledge and wisdom;
Into the glow of intellect and freedom
From the Thamas of difference of hate
To the Rajas of love and brotherhood
The light of the pure soul-
Living in truth and innocent spirit-
With the glow of the inner fire
Fire 0f passion and desire
Fire of suffering and unhealed wounds
Smouldering in the very core
Slow and consistent, that purifies the soul
Purges one off sins and ill deeds
So that I emerge cleansed indeed
With the light emanating off me
To light the life of those in need.
The Tapas of the meditative mind
That gets enlightened with a
Wisdom of kind, emitting warmth
others can bask in;
A light that can illuminate the path
Of those in need of right direction
A light that can be of use to others;
Dispel the shadows of their lives.
Or is it the light that dazzles others?
To the blindness of ignorance
Who endeavour to harness it
Make their lives more miserable:
Pollute the atmosphere,
Deplete the ozone layer,
Choke the air with carbon dioxide,
Melt the ice cap at the poles
Raise the sea level; shrink the Earth
Drown it in to the briny sea
Shorten our own lives on Earth...
The light that is measured in
Power of watts and in candlepowers
That very light makes man powerless.
I would rather glow with the inner light
Then to dazzle the earth with too powerful a light
that blinds the man and plunges the world
into perpetual darkness-
not just metaphorically,
but actually, in physical reality.
Today is my birthday and also
The Earth Hour Day,
I would switch of f the lights
Sit quietly and contemplate in silence
Turn towards my inward eye
And try and light my life and heart,
My brain, my wisdom and intellect
With the glow of my inner light...
Author: Zoya Zaidi
Aligarh (UP), India
Copyright©: Zoya Zaidi
28.04.2009
Image: 'Earth Hour, before and after 'Lights Off'- Sydney, Australia
http://image.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/shieldyoureyes.jpg
Few words:
'Thamas': Darkness
'Rajas': Light
'Tapas': Meditation
Sanskrit, from the Bhagvad Geeta
Poetry by Zoya Zaidi
Read 795 times
Written on 2009-04-09 at 14:00
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