Retrogressive Growth
Will man ever emerge out of his prejudices and absurdities,
His lust , ego, his fears and fallacies?
His unholy crusades against his own brothers,
His beastly battles for power and pelf
Present no rosy prospects despite his hyperbolic ethics.
In El Dorado only the monsters of greed reign;
Should any prophet condescend to a second coming
He will be tormented and crucified again.
Lo! Gandhi is in shreds for his too rich a bequest!
This microcosm with the potential of the whole,
Dreaming to explore the inaccessible, clings to the shadows.
Genetics may grow eyes on the wings of a fly,
And may lend Janus-like head to man,
But can it assure peace and harmony?
Can the silicon mind teach goodwill and grace
To the Homo sapiens against cut-throat competition?
Can science and theology replace
The instinct for grabbing with the simple spirit
Of giving, to end wars, suffering and starvation?
How much wisdom lies in the floating mass of information?
Has man discovered new means just to meet the primeval ends?
However magnificient may look man’s creation,
But it’s infinitely small and absurdly lop-sided
As compared to the mighty and harmonious flow of Nature.
From bone-shakers to satellites, from sun-dial
To split second chiming quartz,
From hieroglyphics to processing reams of data in nanoseconds,
From semaphore to superhighway in the space,
From witchcraft to laser therapy,
From Anubis to eugenics, from anthropoids to
Genetically engineered progeny,
Man has travelled a lot but has travelled with blinkers;
As to the culture of the spirit, he is still aboriginal,
The like of the missing link, bigot up to the hilt.
To which category of civilization the massacre of Auschwitz falls?
Who is to blame for the storms and stresses in the sea of amenities?
“All is relative”, will this excuse suffice?
Is man growing retrogressively and is he reverting to type?
What precepts is he leaving behind for his offspring to emulate?
When will he emancipate his free spirit from
The subjugation of his instincts?
How sublimely unaware he is of the repercussions of
Spoon-feeding and sensual fantasies!
How ignorant the lord of creation is of the essence of things,
Despite his discovery of the top quark!
Spiritual civilization is still a Utopia!
The suffering humanity is anxiously waiting for its deliverer.
When will the earth recuperate?
When will righteousness manifest itself to preserve equilibrium?
When will the deadened human spirit regenerate?
Can’t man resolve to refrain from atomizing his own kind?
Has he become a soulless chip?
When will he learn to curb state crimes?
How long will he go on sterilizing the mother earth?
How long will he go on choking the fountain of life?
Man leaps and falls, but nature evolves.
When will man stop ravaging and bleeding nature?
In the kitchen of the globe all is not burnt to a cinder yet.
This “middleness personified” deserves to be celebrated still
For his half-hearted efforts to sweep up the dead leaves,
For his dim desire to synthesize divergence into a global culture,
For the potentiality of the awakening commonality,
Notwithstanding the rapists of the system,
And sophisticated criminalization of power.
Deflection is the fate of every movement.
This satyr with mongrel instincts, looking into the galaxies
Is groping without for the Light that dwells within.
This enigmatic sphinx, the resilient phoenix,
Condemned forever like Danaus’ offspring
To try to fill his sieve with pure water,
Deserves still a constellation in the spheres above.
None can wash away the consequences of evil deeds.
None can prevent the cause from producing its effect;
But when a sinner turns to God with contrition,
Isn’t there born a new cause for redemption?
The repentant tear wrung from a criminal
Flung the gate of Heaven open for a Peri.
God views a vice and virtue from cosmic angle.
Shadows also contribute to the perfection of the whole;
Let us thank God that thorns have flowers on their stems,
And good still preponderates over evil on this globe.
