A soul's cry

I walk through a million souls,

Yet sometimes I feel so alone,

An actor in life, I play many roles

I shriek in happiness, in despair I groan


What is the purpose of my being?

My inner voice calls out to me,

Is there a message I'm not really seeing?

My mind wants to read it, my soul is simply free


For the soul knows that there is no goal,

This drama I'm in does not reflect me,

There is no act, nor is there a role,

In the vast spiritual realm, I'm just a tiny bee


The real me resides in a place too deep.

The image in the mirror makes me vain,

In my subconscious, when I sleep,

I find the connection and lose all the pain.


As I awake and return to the grind,

Back to the world, where I laugh and weep,

In this state, I'm controlled by my mind,

My soul cries out, 'when will you sleep!'?

Lost in Love

In your light I awaken,

In your light I sleep,

You shelter me when I’m forsaken,

You comfort me when I weep.


Our bond is like none other,

We set our souls free,

I can’t imagine another,

You fill my heart with glee


This distance really kills me,

Like a dagger through my heart,

My love, why can’t you see?

We can never be apart


My heart is so lost in love,

In your memory, it pines

Our love is a gift from the heavens above,

Don’t you see the obvious signs?

An unconditional bond

I don’t need love, or approval to be free,

My life is complete, as complete can be,

The oneness with her is all I need,

It’s him I blindly follow, a simple life I lead


She has all the answers, I needn’t struggle,

My god space is a respite from life – the illusionary bubble,

The path is so clear, oh how easily I can see!

The greatest solutions lie within me


As I walk through life in a nonchalant way,

Unperturbed by sadness, in solitude I lay,

I hear a voice, this maddening sound,

Is it a connection that I’ve finally found?


‘There’s still time’, the voice says, ‘do your thing’,

‘Maintain subtlety though, in this life of bling’,

‘This alliance is a permanent one’,

‘Until then, don’t deprive yourself of fun’


Savour the illusion while it lasts,

The bonds you make will fly away

Establish a deeper connection, with the one within,

And see your soul reflect the enlightenment ray


Rohan Pasricha

Genuineness – A rarity today

It’s common; it has happened to all of us at sometime or the other. Someone tells you something, a scathing comment presumably said in jest but insulting nevertheless. Easy to say it shouldn’t rattle a person, but it does to even the best of us. So how should one react? Does one go the aggressive way or the dignified silence way? Especially if one is sure that the person who passes such mindless remarks suffers from tragic insecurity?

The ways are innumerable. But how should one exude their resilience and at the same time firmly put their point across? Though I absolutely adore the people who prefer keeping mum instead of retorting, I personally oppose the practice. I do believe that there are times when one needs to draw the line, and dispel the fallacy of the person who thinks he/she has a great sense of humour. And boy am I good at that! I did it yesterday; perhaps I even went a tad overboard during my insulting spree, but I felt it was much needed. One should be shown their place, no matter who he/she is. I completely understand and even sympathize that exhibiting good humour is not everyone’s cup of tea and if it isn’t, the person should exercise a certain degree of restrain instead of portraying themselves as a ‘open-your-mouth-ha-ha-ha’ case. And I’ve encountered a plethora of people of this loony variety, and trust me, at times you don’t even know what to tell them since they pose such a serious threat to your intelligence. You feel that whatever you say might actually accentuate their buffoonery, instead of diminishing it. It’s a lost case really, unless your retort to their ‘joking’ insult is so simplified that it penetrates their dense skulls.

The title ‘Genuineness is a rarity today’ is symbolic of the times we live in. Though I still firmly believe that goodness in the world far outweighs the negativity prevalent, it’s sad that certain people are such weak personalities that their only way of reconciliation is finding ‘flaws’ in others, despite being loaded with real flaws themselves. Sometimes, it’s alright to stay silent and feel bad for them. But many times, it’s important to make them realize the importance of the power of silence. I know this blog post, in a way, deviates from my regular feel-good posts but since life is very real, and so are the incidents we encounter, I wanted to deal with an issue that we all at some point have gone through, but didn’t know what the real solution to it. And frankly, what I’m propagating might not be the perfect antidote to the problem either. But it works for me, and I wanted to share it with you all.

Lots of love,

Roh

Election End

Politicians here politicians there,

There are politicians everywhere,

Some promise jobs, others assure food,

While a few are genuine, majority of them are shrewd

 

They're visible only during voting times,

You can see them grinning from ear to ear,

What lies behind these deceptive smiles,

Is their reality which we, the helpless people, fear!

 

Elections are over now; they’ve disappeared yet again

Who comes into power is all they’re interested in,

The promises made will drown with the rain,

While we continue to suffer, their bank accounts will gain!

 

All parties apparently work for the common man,

Their swanky cars, however, portray a different image,

When calamity strikes, they’re the first to flee,

Making shoddy attempts to douse public rage.

 

We’ve voted for someone; we’ve done our bit,

On blind trust, we’ve given our vote,

All we can do now is just helplessly sit

And welcome the new captain of India’s boat

The Funeral Mascot

It's a rather chilly night, chillier than the cold shoulder I was given at the highly boring function I had to attend. One negative aspect about a funeral is that it's anyway a rather depressing affair. What's even more depressing is that I'm dead and invisible to the human eye (hence the cold shoulder). And I'm attending a funeral of some other deceased.

Did that send a chill down your spine? A dead man attending funerals? Decipher on...

I was married at 22. I settled down in life rather quickly. I had a good job at a reputed bank and made a decent enough salary to keep my wife and me more than just afloat. We loved each other to death, which in my case was literal! I used to have a strange, recurrent dream of attending funerals. Every night I would dream of attending the funeral of someone or the other. Little did I know that my dreams would one day mirror reality. The dreams just seemed so random.

My encounter with death began one fine morning on 27th August 2000. I was crossing the road casually when a truck at lightning speed came and knocked me over. I don't recollect any pain. I just remember being transported to a scary yet spectacular world of shimmering lights and haunting sounds. The ambience was bright yet subtle; I hadn't seen something like this before.

I heard a voice. It said 'Welcome Max. You're no more. You've lived an overall good life, albeit with a few grave mistakes. You need to redeem yourself. From now on, you must attend the funeral of every person who dies, and bless them for a peaceful journey but you must also suck the blood of one person at the funeral in order to keep your dead existence in bodily form. Your victim will be preordained, someone who has lived an impure life. You will continue to do this until your wife too breathes her last. It is then when you'll finally unite in heaven'.

My wife is still young, so I don't see that happening soon. But hey, next time you're at a funeral, and your heart isn't clean, just remember I'm around.

Rohan Pasricha

Who decides my purity?

In India, the land of spirituality, we come across a number of organizations and Gurus supposed to facilitate our spiritual growth and pave the way for realization. This aspect of India attracts a great deal of foreigners who hope to achieve liberation in our land and who ultimately realize that they have been looking everywhere except within. I recently saw a documentary exposing a well-known 'enlightened leader', and was aghast at some of the revelations. And not only India, this happens all around the world; a sad reflection of the times we live in. I'm sure there are a number of enlightened people who are actually genuine, but that's not the topic of discussion today.

I decided to explore this topic of the so-called 'messengers of God' further and have come to the following conclusion. All these 'spiritual' organizations more or less propagate the following:

All are children of God; however, some are special
Love is all there is; you must love everybody (which is the only thing that makes sense, somewhat)
The world will end
Strict vegetarian food and celibacy is the way to a pure soul...the list is endless

Which makes me sit and wonder...who decides all this? Who decides how pure I am? if God can speak to the leaders of these cults, why can't he/she speak to me? Am I less pure cause I have a healthy sexual relationship or because I relish the tandoori chicken on my plate? Surely, someone as all-encompassing as the almighty is beyond all that! I've always felt the need to steer far, very very far, from any person or group who attempts to impose their views on me. For surely, there is a reason why God gave us free will choice. I'm sure he protects us, but at the same time he would like us to explore ourselves and realize who we really are. How meaningless a life where everything is known beforehand?

Take the topic of celibacy. If that's the path to heaven, why did God bless us with the beautiful virtue of fertility? Surely, there is something wrong with these beliefs. And also, if everyone goes around refraining from sex, how do more 'pure' souls come into this Earth!? However, I don't intend to say, by any yardstick, that practicing celibacy is wrong. People who do it - that's their own purpose of life. But anyone who imposes it, that's 100% blasphemy. Don't believe an ounce of it.

The same goes for meat. If you're a vegetarian, great. I too believe that killing animals to feed your stomach isn't the nicest thing one can do. But anyone who imposes their vegetarianism on you - now that's wrong. The same goes for all things. Anyone interfering with your free will choice, stay miles way. Of course, habits like smoking and drinking have been proved detrimental to health scientifically. So there isn't a need to dwell on it.

Please don't confuse free will choice as a way to disregard the advice of elders. That's needed and if you see sense in them, follow it because they mean the best for you. But the moment you sense the slightest hint of force, that's when you need to withdraw.

When I look at myself, I like to believe that I'm a part of god and I'm special to him, just like all of us are. I'm sure he isn't more closer to people who chant his name relentlessly or do all sorts of things to 'please' him/her. He's surely beyond such temptations! The only thing which I've read which seems the most plausible, at least to me, is 'Conversations with God' and our scriptures. It all makes so much sense, and there's nothing that's thrust on you. The path between you and God is crystal clear. Why cloud it with so many useless beliefs? The moment you realize this and dispel all the blasphemy that's fed into you by a plethora of people, the path becomes clearer and you're now open to direct communication.

I've realized one thing. The greatest answers to all of life lie within you; all you need to do is Remember.

Lots of love,
Rohan