by M.Mohankumar
Not a passing wind skimming the surface,
but wave after insistent wave,
billowing and buffeting.
It has been so from the beginning.
Religion says that God created the world.
So there was God’s desire to begin with.
He wanted living things to multiply,
inducing in them desires of the flesh.
And then man’s unbounded desires.
Blind belief? Turn then to science.
Big Bang? It leaves quite some blanks.
(When will the last word be said, if at all?)
But science has provided proof enough
for life’s progress, down the millennia,
adapting and evolving, demonstrating
a deep desire to survive and flourish.
The desire of the moth for the star?
The sea of life is chaotic,
seething with desires.
Big fish and small fish,
eating and eaten up,
swimming and sinking.
The Buddha saw it as a wild fire.
‘Bhikkhus, all is burning…
Burning with the fire of lust,
with the fire of hate,
with the fire of delusion.’
And nature decks itself out,
arousing desire with its sights and sounds,
with its flavours and fragrances.
And everyone desires a life of pleasure-
except the seeker and the anchorite.
They too have a desire – to be desireless.
Mohankumar has published seven volumes of poetry in English. His poems have appeared in almost all reputed literary magazines in print in India. His first collection of short stories in English, ‘The Turning Point and Other Stories’ has been published by Authorspress, Delhi . Mohankumar retired as Chief secretary to Government of Kerala.
Pic : https://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrosz/
