I wish I knew the secret of life and death !
It is hidden as we go through life's joys and sorrow...
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I wish I knew the secret of life and death !
It is hidden as we go through life's joys and sorrows
It is available to all, to speculate and divine
But it is not deciphered, by the living
Until life takes them into that abyss
From which they return no more
Do they then find out the meaning of both?
The ever inter-twined, physical existence and after life ?
When they enter that gate of no return ?
Or does existence end, in a simple negation ?
An inexorable but simple shift from being to non being?
I wish I knew the secret of life and death !
As, it will give me the reason for living
As both are forever linked, as matter is to anti matter ?
Fraternal twins quite unlike, one seen and one imagined
By humankind, since the beginning of time
That has speculated on after-life, as life's extension
The frail human hope that there must be something?
Beyond these mortal coils, a desperate cutching at straws ?
A faith eternal, in the indivisible and eternal soul ?
I wish I knew the secret of life and death !
As it will help me decide on tying loose ends
On making peace with the living
On giving that last hug, or that last kiss
And tell loved one's of heartfelt tenderness
Of deep belonging, transcending death, as we discern it
Does love transcend death into the beyond that we know not?
Can the beloved feel her lover's call over lifetime's parting ?
Can she feel his breath and feel his touch, beyond death's door ?
I think I know the eternal secret of life and death !
That life is a happenstance that is beyond our ken
And death is the inevitable and consequent result of life
As the shadow follows the physical form
And as the sun follows the night and the moon the day
It is not for us to know or to fully comprehend
As we are tiny specks in the life cycle of existence
The repetitive cosmic play of birth and death
It is an eternal conceit that man can divine the reason
Of life's being and death's onrushing certainty
Man is like a paper boat tossing and turning in a typhoon
Who does the boat question, the storm or the ocean ?
It is for man to accept his insignificance, to build a niche?
That gives a comfortable perch to navigate the stormy seas
But, that comfort, is unreal, it is imaginations's figment
That will be swept away , to join the stuff of fleeting memories
That will dwell on the beloved, passing a moment or two
And then be overcome by the pushes and pulls, of reality
So seize the day, make it yours, specially yours alone !
For tomorrow might not be yours to enjoy and share
As you might be just a memory wafting in the eternal breeze
As Old Khayyam says Sans Wine,Sans Song and Sans Everything
ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!
Fitzgerald's Translation of the Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam
Close
Yes: Where there are no factual answers but a lot of speculative explanations.
Rgds, Girdhar
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Nice one. The ever lasting questions right?
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Sreenivas: W wonderful poem specially
"or what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind
and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing,
but to free the breath from its restless tides,
that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence
shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top,
then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs,
then shall you truly dance."
GG
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But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day
cannot unveil the mystery of light.
open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one,
even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires
lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like the seeds dreaming beneath the snow
your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams,
for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd
when he stands before the king whose hand
is to be laid upon him in honor.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling,
that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind
and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing,
but to free the breath from its restless tides,
that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence
shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top,
then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs,
then shall you truly dance.
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Sreenivas: How are You ? Thank you for quoting Gibran, my favorite poet. Though I do not remember those particular lines, they appear to parallel my thinking as I conclude by saying
.... life is a happenstance that is beyond our ken
And death is the inevitable and consequent result of life
As the shadow follows the physical form
And as the sun follows the night and the moon the day
It is not for us to know or to fully comprehend
As we are tiny specks in the life cycle of existence
As I consider you my Guru in Hindu philosophy, I value you approbation most highly.
Rgds, Girdhar
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But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day
cannot unveil the mystery of light.
open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one,
even as the river and the sea are one.
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I shall with pleasure.
Rgds, Girdhar
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Aditi: My masters are Tagore(in English), Kahlil Gibran, Keats and poets of that ilk who did not believe that unintelligibility is the sign of good poetry.Thank you for visiting.
Rgds, Girdhar
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Very profound and philosophical, Girdharji, though in general I am poetically challenged, I think I got the essence in this one.
.
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Certainly Girdharji,
With pleasure.....First I shall go through your poetry section. Am trying to learn HOW to write poems at the moment !
If you plz , you may read my first poetry Sunshine on my Shoulders ....
Thnx.
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