ANY LESSON………………?

POEM

Her thoughts are like broken

pieces of her colourful, beautiful glass bangles

or like broken chains

each intermittently and remotely linked  with the other.

Always she ponders over arranging them in order

but to her deep regret, gnawing pain and sadness

her thoughts like monkeys jump from one

branch of a tree to another and from there

to another branch

in short to all branches, which ever branches

the monkeys like, without rest

she hangs her head

in despair, gloom and pain.

Sometimes with a

smile blooming in her lips

she remembers the story of a man

who in a desperate bid to

concentrate his mind at a fixed point 

approached a sage seeking guidance.

The sage with a detached smile in his lips

and with calm, tranquil and

serene face reminding

one of a transparent pond full of blue water

without ripples reflecting the clear and blue sky

advised him :

‘whenever you sit in meditation

at a secluded corner

free from all noises and other disturbances 

never allow a monkey to

intrude into your mind’.

Obliging the saint he

bowed down before him, went away

and sat at an isolated place

free from all hustle and bustle

and commenced his meditation.

To his disappointment, needling pain and sorrow

what he always saw in his inner eyes was

a monkey unwilling to leave him…..

She often sees the

face of  frustrated man and asks herself :

‘I am like that hapless man…..

Any lesson……?’