Nothing...

Enlightenment!

An idea was given to me

It came as a joyous infant

Fell into my outstreched arms.

For years four I nurtured it

It made me forget the world

It gave me a high

Lifted me when I was down and low

Whenever I thought of it

I prayed to any god I saw

Wherever I went and whenever I remembered

The idea was there growing

Like a happy child

By leaps and bounds.

And so many saints were there

Whose words I trusted

Go to sleep with the idea, they said

And when you wake up in the morning

'Tis there, sure as dawn's light.

"When you wish upon a star,"

said another

"Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires,

Will come to you."

Emboldened I was taking them for sure,

Like oxygen for the burning fire

I let them stoke the idea's fuel.

But death always lurks around

And who am I to wish it away

Leave alone the flimsy thought.

He cast his leash with a noose and sure

Slung it right around its youthful neck

And dragged it away before the beloved's eyes

In a trice was gone the fictional existence

As if an imaginary theatre vanished

With characters, set and stage.

Now I stand in the vacant void

With nothing to hold on, not even an idea

And in the silence I hear a sound

Om..... it says

But even that trails away

The emptiness and the silence

Is all left of me.

- Swahilya.

(Picture: Sulphur rock heating up the waters of Alaknanda at the Tapt Kund in Badrinath.)