Dr. B.R. Aneja

The Flux of Life

Life is a continuous process;
Death is a continuous process;
And a thing is never the same
As it was a moment before.
Each entity is a point-instant
With no ‘before’ and no ‘after’;
Permanence is an illusion
Like oneness of the stream,
And oneness of the flame.

Existence is in a state of flux;
Moment throbs through life and death;
And change is a universal fact.
A thing lacks all size and diversity;
Entities emerge and perish in entirety.
Oneness of the things material
Is like the oneness of a pile of grain;
The nucleus of each atom is individual
Which God holds with some invisible chain.

Change is a death every moment,
And change is a birth every moment;
Eternity is just the flux of a moment,
Yet no two moments are the same;
It’s the spectator who projects a flow
In individual pictures of a film show.
It’s not the last blow that fells a tree,
Nor it’s the first that breaks a pitcher,
Cessation is inherent in all matter.

How strange! Everything lacks duration
And everything lacks weight and volume.
What we know is all relative and illusive,
Yet all appears real and solid.
Man strives for the things ephemeral;
No man has ever been immortal,
But now genetic engineers are in a hurry,
And are pushing evoloution onto the verge
For a brave new world to come into being.

If momentariness is the law eternal,
And if change is the truth of life —
From mineral to man, from dark to light —
Then why fear the eternal flux?
Does science desire to replace God?
Does it want to make Homo sapiens immortal
By fusing man and machine, organic and inorganic?
Are the scientists aware of the dangers ahead?
Dragging life until kingdom come! Eh?

If each moment a new entity is born,
Then who relegates to whom the burden of the past —
And why the successor bears the fruit of its predecessor?
There must be some immortal essence
That pulsates and deciphers the neurons of the brain.
God permeates through the whole Universe,
And mirrors Himself through every cell;
He is the Sole Entity throughout the cosmos;
In each wave and each atom He throbs.

The Civilized Brutes

Taking his seat with his friend from the Mars,
In the early space shuttle for the Neptune,
He sucked a long breath and continued:
“Well, as I was saying, in the olden times —
About 2100 AD, the Gregorian calendar —
People on the Earth used to worship
One Mr. Omnipresent within the four walls [sic]
Of their respective religious shrines
Specially built for the purpose.
“Religion was a pretext that had been invented
By those primitive tribes for regimentation.
The wretched fellows!
Though they had landed on the Moon and the Mars,
And called themselves civilized,
Had yet aboriginal beliefs
Regarding state, sovereignty and creed,
And lacked the intellectual prerequisites of peace.
“They fought among themselves like beasts
With the weapons unknown to the animals of any times —
With poisonous froth and nuclear claws —
This they did for their respective gods,
Or for some yellow trash now out of use —

Specimen available in the ‘Interplanetary Museum
For Antique Metals’ at the Uranus –
Or at best, in the name of their little territories.
As the Earth was split into petty nationalities then,
And the idea of the ‘State Government of the Earth’,
Leave aside the present ‘Confederation of the Solar Planets’,
Looked like an impracticable Utopia!
The cardinal virtues were at a discount and
Criminals were pampered at the cost of the Exchequer.

“As if the religious regimentation were not enough,
Each tribal nation maintained a regular army
To meet the challenge of self- imposed necessity of wars.
The army was conditioned to fight and kill with a franchise,
And fighting for land, plunder and debauchery
Under the veil of religion and nationalism
Was then regarded rather a sacred duty.”
“Pooh! The brutes with the cheek to call themselves civilized!”
Interjected a robot listening close by.

Why Dissect God Dissect Your Own Self

Tree worship is an expression of love
For all the greenery and the vegetable world;
It’s a form of thanksgiving to Nature
For sustaining all men and creatures.

Stone is idolized to break up the barrier
Between organic and inorganic stuff;
It’s a search for One Supreme Principle
That permeates through the whole universe.

Far less harmful has been pantheism
Than insane and heinous fanaticism.
Idol breakers have shed far more blood
Than the innocent idolaters.

Through worship the sins are consumed away;
Meditation is better than the ritualistic ways.
Infancy promises the health of the youth;
Pantheists do grow out of spiritual childhood.

Its easier to realize the unmanifest Reality.
By meditating upon the manifest Divinity.
From subtle comes out the gross,
And from gross the vision of the Creator evolves.
But why dissect God and sieve others’ beliefs?
Dissect your own self and sift your own creed.
Those who belittle or disparage others’ God
In fact, disparage their own Lord.

Though all believe in a Supreme Power
Yet atheists yearn for Its Effulgence;
All are born atheists, birds and babes,
But He possesses all with time and age.

The parental god is imposed on the child;
Even the slightest deviation creates strife.
Yet time has the strength and the sinews
To make old gods yield to the new.

Why a particular place or name becomes holy?
Why you worship a book or kiss the rosary?
Others kiss and worship alike their symbols,
Which may sound to you conceited or humble.

The Devil of intolerance has caused enough havoc
To the peace and prosperity of the world;
Love fellow-beings and learn to be tolerant
To appreciate others’ beliefs and others’ tenets.

The City of Nine Gates

The Infinite Transparency,
Condensed in the egg of the cosmos,
Burst out with a bang,
And spread out atomized sparks.

The Catherine wheel set afire,
Presented billions of patterns;
In the kaleidoscopic universe,
Each spark mirrored millions.

Oh! what a fine divine spread,
Of light, love and glow it was;
Stars were dancing in the space,
Like trillions of tiny tots!

Then time played on its flute,
And five notes did chime
That fused into one another,
And evoked the city with gates nine.

But the city was dead and dark
With little light to sustain;
Nature prayed to the merciful God
To merge it into His own domain.

The Lord granted the prayer,
And haloed the city from within;
So kind was His Effulgence,
The ruler and the ruled fused into One.

Whosoever perceived diversity,
Was ordained to perpetual chain;
But he who realized Oneness in All
Was released from all pain.

The darkness of distinction,
Paves the way for transmigration;
But knowledge of non-difference
Brings about absolute liberation.

The Two Doors

Two doors were open to me,
And I chose to pass through one;
As soon as the other was shut on me,
I realized what I had done!

I had bargained for invisible pits,
Appearances had lured me deep;
The grass had thorns hiding in it,
And I couldn’t even will to retreat.

Why can’t we penetrate the mist of time,
And why our steps refuse to retreat?
Why can’t we check the unlucky chime,
What is it that shackles our feet?

What deflects our judgement,
Ego, Devil or the Fate?
Why are we cheated by false promises,
Why conscience gets debased?

Which rays of light deceive us,
Which lead us to the truth?
Which hand has a healing touch,
And which touches us to pollute?

Is the evil baited by good,
Or is it itself so bold?
Does the alloy make it weak,
Or does it strengthen pure gold?

The One Whole

One Intelligence works within
All atoms of the space,
And faster than any speed
From edge to edge communicates.

No matter is inert or dead,
No entity is separate;
Hardest metal is porous enough,
For Divinity to penetrate.

Is life different from energy,
And can energy be ever dead?
The apparent breach is illusion,
Death and life are forever wed.

We all flow out of one origin,
One Light but different rays,
Diversity is but optical flaw,
On one ocean lie numerous waves.

Some invisible cord binds
Each cell with the soul,
Mind and matter are one,
Science works at every pore.

Each wind serves a purpose,
Each gene relays its traits;
Gross and ethereal both receive,
Messages that flash through the space.

One singularity runs criss-cross,
All issues from the single source;
Variety is but myriad reflections,
All belongs to the One Whole!