“There are no mistakes”
The universe commands
There is a reason
Where every drop lands
Waste time forcing choices
Or peek inside with a pause
Hidden behind all voices
Can you spot their cause?

When you hiked not to get to the top
But to discover how the trail bends
Ever wrote down a thought without
Knowing how it all ends.

When your biases came pounding
You bent for only a few
Ever changed your mind about
Something important to you.

When you moved across oceans
To mend a broken heart
Embraced your guilt and forgave
Your younger self’s part.

When in spite of a heart full of rage,
You unclenched that fist a little,
You changed the shape of your universe,
You made it a bit less brittle.

I am caught in this double whammy
Why am I my soul’s worst company
Scared of the silence of my own solitude
Who else shall bear with such attitude?

I would rather indulge in the infinite scroll
Or take my chances against the army of troll
Or be buried in the burrow of books for a stroll
Than lay bare open with myself whole

I am caught in this double whammy
Why am I my soul’s worst company
Scared of the silence of my own solitude
Who else shall bear with such attitude?

All that which lies deep within
The mud blocks, the metal bars
The curves of tinted glass
The specks of dust
Beyond the bonds of the Earth
That scattered onto us
The paint of this light
All of it was cast very far
In the furnace of some star

Why not we wonder then
Where does lie the die for
The fears and the folly
The joys and the ecstasy
The sorrows and the melancholy
The courage and the bravery
The anger and the agony
The rare silence, the constant din
All that which lies deep within

Samkhya is the philosophical basis for Yoga. It reveals a dualism between Purusha (consciousness) and Prakriti (nature). Samkhya philosophy implies the human experience as a state in which Purusha is bonded with Prakriti. When untouched, Prakriti remains inactive; upon contact with Purusha, it starts the cosmic evolution, leading to life and intellect, and ultimately liberation (end of bondage of Purusha to Prakriti). There is no good word to describe the essence of Prakriti in English. Whereas Purusha signifies the observer, Prakṛti includes all the cognitive, moral, psychological, emotional, sensorial and physical aspects of reality.

Wake up 
‘Coz while you have been living
you have not been feeling,
you have been existing
With so little sensing

Wake up 
Not to the sounds that you hear 
but to the sobs that you don’t
to who you really are
to what you bear

Wake up
‘Coz what gains are any good for
Showing yourself to the world
When those close struggle 
to see you unfurled.

Wake up. Breathe. Feel. Love.

It isn’t made in stone
but it ain’t fragile
It resides in every bone
but it ain’t sterile

It dissolves my duality
Of desires and sacrifice
I carve myself a reality
Worthy of my own choice

It needs no nectar nor necklace
‘Coz power needs no drape
My faith is figureless
‘Coz belief needs no shape

Is it the last name we didn’t choose
Or the land we have marked with muse
Is it the parents we didn’t pick
Or the labels we decide to stick

Is it the beliefs we hold so dear
That we treat those with a spear
Who don’t to our ways mend
Whose God we can’t comprehend

Is it what we say is our culture
That we have refused to nurture
When those who wrote it on a stone
Wanted us to build our own

Is it the facts cheered by the few
Which as opinions we wish to prove
I don’t know what’s all the fuss
Tell me, what really defines us?

Can an eye ever see itself? Can a leg ever kick itself? Ever seen a hand that grabs itself, or perhaps, a tooth that takes a bite at itself? If you are “it” then you cannot exist out of what you are.

So tell me how can you be defined…by the thoughts alone that ring in your mind? For surely you have at least once or more…heard a voice within that observed your own.

When in fits of anger, it appealed to you for calm. When driven by hate, it spoke to you of charm. When in depths of jealousy, it reminded you to be grateful. When embroiled in revenge, it rid you from being spiteful.

On days mundane, we let our senses observe the drama around. On better days, we observe the senses for every sound. But what happens when the observer and the observed are sitting on the same mound?*

In that moment when we watch our own self, we see choices beyond the daily grind. In that moment of being present, we are a bit more than our mind. In that moment of self-awareness, we are one with the divine.**

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* दृग दृश्य विवेक (Drig Drishya Vivek): Advaita Vedanta text on inquiry into the distinction (vivek) between the “seer” (drig) and the “seen” (drishya), making a case for divinity in all of us by establishing our ability to observe our mind as if watching a third person.

** तत्त्वमसि (Thou art that): One of the four Mahavakyas or great sayings of the Upanishads, it express the insight that the individual self which appears as a separate existence, is in essence part and manifestation of the whole.

Don’t believe every thought
Don’t act on every emotion

Don’t opine in every debate
Don’t react to every instigation

Don’t chase every desire
Don’t succumb to every fear

Don’t rave every win
Don’t agonize every loss

Don’t yearn for every memory
Don’t fantasize every dream

You may think you are
The doer in every act

You may sense the world
As another separate fact

Don’t.