No risk, no gain

One seed dies to produce million.
Not to lose is not to gain.

Some die to redeem the rest.
Not to stoop is not to rise.

Ego dies to earn wisdom.
Not to listen is not to learn.
08.07.97

Brave is the tiger

Gregarious is not the tiger.
Gregarious is not the Banyan.
So is any brave man.
Gregarious is only deer and grass,
Like of who are the cowards.
Only the insecure one seeks peers.
01.07.99

Bitter is stronger

The lender remembers but the debtor not, the debts.
The injurer forgets but the wounded not, the hurts.
Better be off violence if not of benevolence.
12.07.97

The Priceless

Hello, My dear Vendor!
‘Could you sell me a guitar?’
‘Why not, come in, my Master!
Take it, a brand new, for a hundred.’
‘Is the other less the cost, as looking old?’
‘Yes, yes, it is only half a hundred.
Should you go for a secondhand?’
‘The one still old, kept yonder?’
‘An antique, well above ten hundred.’
‘O, My God! Useless, still priceless!’
22.02.97

Himsa- the Food

Near the tube-light, on the wall
stood a lizard, with steadfast head,
catching its prey. How many killings?

In the backyard, under the trees,
were darting hens, with alert beaks,
pecking their prey. How many killings?

Inside the kitchen, beneath the oven
lies our pet kitten, with gleaming eyes
to smother rats. How many killings?

No life without food;
No food without life
07.08.97

To triumph is to succumb

Echoed Sugreeb,
‘I annihilated Bali!’.
Ecstasies his wife,
‘I am redeemed’.
But wept his father,
‘I lost a son’.

Pledged the wise,
‘We wiped out the pest’.
Bowed the mankind,
‘We are saved best’.
But the Creator felt,
‘The nature is at its worst’.

Man triumphs nature
To succumb to Nature.
09.07.97

Fret not

Dread of all dreads is Death.
To court it is ultimate.
The rest all is less in threat,
Of that why should you fret?
29.06.97

Nothing is bad

What he fought for as a Jurist,
He will have reversed as a Jury.
What he craved as a Have-not,
He will have denied as a Have.
What he indulged in as a Man,
He will have resented as a Woman.
What he imposed as a Ruler,
He will have retaliated as a Subject.
Each one is right for one’s action
From a certain position.
‘There is nothing good or bad
But thinking makes it so.’29.06.97

Are you rich?

Because parents are rich
I am not rich.
Because brothers or sisters
Or in-laws are rich,
Because own children are rich
I am no richer.
Unless I myself am rich
I cannot be rich.
Too late to understand
And hence poor I went.
Agartala17.07.97

To relish, deliver.

Art, if not cast,
Craft, if not shown,
Thought, if not spelt,
And love, if not flown
Are of a child unborn
Or breast not suckled.
No pleasure is derived
To one from what conceived
Unless one gives birth to it.
05.04.97, Agartala

Pain conceals Pleasure

• 
  
  Is it that every one
  Ever seeks pleasure, never pain?
  Isn’t that a woman
  Courts at delivery her pain,
  Or that a lad stakes his life in a battle?
  Isn’t that a girl
  Forgoes her parental care to flee
  With her boy?
  Also a beggar emptying his bowl
  To the one, still poorer?
  Pain, embraced, leads to Joy.
  Pleasure contrived, leads to peril.
  Each pain is a step towards Joy
  And is a yardstick to scale the Joy.
  04.08.96, Agartala
  

The Service

One earned ‘a penny’
For every pound of rice sold
And the other ‘a sovereign’
For each horse, traded.
Who reaped a greater profit?
I am at a loss to know.
It depends on turnovers in a given time.
The one who earned in penny
Could in no way be behind,
With his turnover matching.
Petty services in multiples
Take one to Bliss as well.
05.08.96 Dharmanagar, Tripura

The strange Heaven

Where there is pleasure but no pain
Where I can seek joy without pang,
Where I can search for knowledge without doubts,
Where there is no illness but health,
And where there rules freedom without thralldom
Into that heaven I want to go,
Knowingly that I can’t.
20.08.96,Dharmanagar, Tripura.

The Awareness

Pleasure and pain
Are born out of brain,
Which is the seat of mind,
Governing all the senses.
No-love and no-hate
Are also born out of brain,
Which is the seat of awareness,
Buried deep in the brain.

Joy and sorrow
Are the products of mind.
No-tear and no-laugh
Are the manifestation of awareness.
One is brute and the other mute.
Adopt them as you please.
02.08.96, Dharmanagar, Tripura.

Urge is the taste

Any water is tasty
When you are thirsty.
Any woman is sexy
When you are crazy.
Taste lies on feeler’s urge.22.07.96, Agartala

Separation- a blessing

When I lived with you
I could recollect now,
How you had pestered me.
Or nagged me.

When I lived away,
I could only recollect,
How you had lulled me
Or teased me.

Separation is a blessing
for rejuvenation.
19.07096, Agartala

Growing weeds

I sowed seeds, numerous,
In the minds of multitudes,
In the form of benevolent deeds,
Some tiny, some giant,
And a few most precious,
With the hope of a good harvest.

Some never sprouted or rooted;
Some were infant mortals.
Some fell on rocks or in desert,
Or were prey to the pests,
With the rest managing to grow
And bore fruits,
Which were either sour or stolen
Or were left rotten.
Yet, with the solace I go
That the bio-mass that I made
Is very much in need
To serve as a mulch to the folks.
19.07096, Agartala

Right is in succession

If I took no milk
Or overate cream
You became irritant.
When I pestered you in bed
You yelled me to exit and
When I played truant
You pulled me in.
Whether I broke the wares
Or my legs, you beat me up.
It was the case when
I spilt the ink or split the cloth.
For all you enacted
I hated you, mother,
I hated you. Alas!
The time I know you were right
I already have a child to hate me
For what I do him as right.
19.07.96, Agartala