The Light

The light does hark,
beyond the deepest dark,
There is a day bright,
after the ghostly haunts of a nightmarish night,
After a barren famished fight,
there blossoms a springed delight,
After pining pangs of seperation,
there is a worthy end to the desperation,
After crashing in the gutters,
there is a surge and rise to bathe in holy waters,
After crying convulsions on the lips,
a smile takes honeyed sips,
After the last deafeat,
still there is an undying urge to accomplish the feat,
Even when blind with despair,
there is hope hiding and cajoling somewhere,
Even in hate, love still lurks somewhere!

Lost

It has been months since
I last lit my faith's lamp,
So many days have passed since
prayers chimed in my dark den's air damp,
My meditating self,
Now gives atheistic yelp.
Lost my faith!
Lost my prayer!
Lost my rituals!
Lost my meditative trance!

The story told by the soul to its own corpse

Once I flew and frolicked high,
Now the flesh and blood gone dry,
The real me withdrew with a painful sigh,
They say, 'I was destined to die,'
It's but the biggest lie!

The Night

Too far and deep, I have gone into the pit of gloom,
And lost in the cavernous folds of the impending doom,
Even the brightest big suns now appear too far,
Faint stars these now and just flash their inspiring rays,
Feeble raylets reaching me cannot take out the ship caught in treacherous bays,
I know the futility of the beckoning light,
Even in its brightest folds outside, hope was always out of sight,
Now i go deep into my night,
With nobody as a witness to my plight,
All cherished dreams out of sight,
A wingless bird that tried to fly but then crashed from its struggled height,
Now I just silently walk into the dark hold of my night,
Alone
and forlorn,
Musicity of my soft moan,
Carrying me into hitherto unreachable zone!

A Cosy Home

Olive-backed sunbird nest....parents will be parents! The exteriors of dry grass and paddy straw, inside there is a cushion soft padding of cotton and feathers. The interior done with as much care and caution as humans decorate theirs. There is hardly any qualitative difference between what humans do for their family and what anyone else from among millions of species on earth does for theirs. There is just quantitative difference, which we wrongly analyse as a hallmark of our superiority. A snail crawls a few feet to do exactly the same for its family as a human being does in trotting over the globe. An ant crawls a few meters to do exactly the same what a panther does in its miles long sprints. From smallest to the biggest, all of us do the same thing qualitatively. The only difference is in quantity, the numbers, which are our mind's innovation, nothing else. Numbers don't matter to mother existence. So guys, next time when you see a busy ant on its way to fulfill its duties born of its unconditional love and care for its family, stop yourself from crushing it. All of us are 🐜 to mother nature. So don't brag too much. Accept the fact with humility. It will melt the ego also, which in turn will help avoid the brain from becoming an overweight, potbellied bully! And one sheds the ego, one feels light, sees the light and floats to the ultimate fringe of truth and with a swipe of cosmic orgasm melts with the light. The journey gets completed!

Highway robbery in broad daylight

Well, yesterday at Vrindavan a semian, a not so distant cousin of ours, pushed me into a zone of learning lessons. We humans, homo sapiens I mean, successfully wiped out rest of our direct cousins, all homo-x,y,z who inhabitanted earth till as recently as 50000 years ago, and grabbed the solo copy right of being humans. Had natural evolution proceeded at its own pace, the current monkeys, who give humans a tough fight across human settlements, would have evolved as a junior controller of events on this tiny planet. Alas, that won't happen. But it doesn't mean the red bummed mischief mongers don't have the potential. The do!

We three friends walked casually on the road in Vrindavan yesterday. The late morning sun still soothing. Cool breeze blew. Spirituality soaked each amd every ounce of the existence around. We walked almost meditatively. A mid-sized challenger to our peace crept silently from behind. It beat the fastest wind in agility in its last lag of the current endeavour to save its species from extinction. It sprang like lord Hanuman and in the fraction of a second whisked away specks from friend's face. Neither he nor the rest two of us could even get a pan shot of the event that took place just within a couple of feet from us. Spent with all force due to the effort, the monkey with specks now meditatively sat on the roof of a car just a few feet away. Held the specs like a bully teasing lesser kids. Put the handles in his mouth like he was brushing his teeth and then looked with utter innocence. What an actor! What an impostor! We tried to cautiously intimidate him. Scared all this while that he may run away or still worse throw the specs on the welcoming tar of the road, which is ever ready to welcome the sweet melody of chiming, crackling sound of the glass breaking. "That is no way to get it. Throw some fruit or fruity towards him if u want the specks back!" a Brijwasi casually told and went on his way, as if it was as routine thing like chanting hare krishna there in Mathura. Well, there was no fruit vendor. But then fruity appeared to hold beacon of light as my panicked friend---we should know here that the specks concerned were eyesight glasses not just showcasing sunshades---ran to a nearby grocer to get fruity juice packet. Lo, the ritual was performed like we offered prasad to some god, with full grace and humility. Like the placing of flowers at some god's feet. Give from this hand, take back from the other one. The idiot had perfect eyesight, so the thing was of no use to him. He was kind enough to put it on the car roof, took away our humble offering and vanished to have its juice breakfast. Very smart! But a bigger show of smartness awaited us! Before anyone of us could fetch the reward of our offering to the semian god, a big red bummed rascal suddenly arrived on the scene and took the empty godly seat awaiting further offerings. He appeared criminal type. Grimaced threateningly. Didn't even follow the godly protocol of maintaining a calm demeanor. He held it like a rakshasa holds a prey. Nearly broke it down. Thankfully stopped himself from doing that. He knew it would turn it useless and he won't get any offering. Finally he settled for a calm  posture. The specks dangled from his mouth with one end held under teeth. There hung the fate of my panicked friend! Poor guy, frentically ran again to fetch another fruity packer. He should have fetched many to avoid the loss if the chain of gods continued to hold the seat. But then in panic we lose reasoning. So there he runs back with one more offering.  He glided it over the car like the fate of this entire world depended upon this roll of dice and the reaction of this god on the car. With the ease of the best wicketkeeper, he grabbed the offering and left the terribly shaken pair of specks on the car roof. I myself took a bit of inspiration from monkeyish agility and saved the day for homo sapiens. Grabbed our looted and vandalised property and we almost ran from the scene of the highway robbery in broad daylight. And there walked my friend with his purse lighter by 40 rupees and the beautiful tip of the specks handle chewed away as a reminder of the momentous event. Aren't these distant cousins of ours very smart?! And we are fooler than we think!

Mother

The hammer strike was terrible in the wee hours of that cold night. It shattered my little world. Pieces scattered around, I went numb. Lifelong we try to make. It just needs one unexpected strike to break. In a Cosmos where cosmic explosions create holes that can accomodate 13 Milky way sized galaxies, do I even stand justified in putting questions like "Why" and "How"? I couldn't move. Almost dead to the flux of events around. The biggest goal thinkable was to Crawl. So started crawling with my soul suffering the aftermaths of the strike and body almost giving up in its wake. After crawling, standing up was the goal. So I stood up slowly as acceptance creeped in. My unsteady steps changed to a steadier walk as I felt gratitude and love towards what I had lost in that terrible strike, my most valuable one, my mother. My tears of pain and suffering turned into holy waters of acknowledgement, love and gratitude for bein born from her womb. My sewn lips parted with a faintest smile for her well-meant pure life. My cries changed into a prayer for her journey ahead in the next dimension. I walk now, aiming to jog sometimes, and may be run further on, with her love in my heart and her blood in my veins. Travel safe Ma!

Hope, Love and Light

The light does hark,
beyond the deepest dark,
There is a day bright,
 after the ghostly haunts of a nightmarish night,
 After a barren famished fight,
 there blossoms a springed delight,
After pining pangs of seperation,
 there is a worthy end to the desperation,
After crashing in the gutters,
 there is a surge and rise to bathe in holy waters,
After crying convulsions on the lips,
a smile takes honeyed sips,
After the last deafeat,
still there is an undying urge to accomplish the feat,
Even when blind with despair,
there is hope hiding and cajoling somewhere,
Even in hate, love still lurks somewhere!

Mother

Mother, in complete humility and gratitude I bow,
However far you may go,
The rays of your love will light
even the darkest of my night!

O Mother,
My first footstep lies in thy womb,
From such a begining,
how can I reach a destination wrong?!

Darkness

Too far and deep, I have gone into the pit of gloom,
And lost in the cavernous folds of the impending doom,
Even the brightest big suns now appear too far,
Faint stars these now and just flash their inspiring rays,
Feeble raylets reaching me cannot take out the ship caught in treacherous bays,
I know the futility of the beckoning light,
Even in its brightest folds outside, hope was always out of sight,
Now i go deep into my night,
With nobody as a witness to my plight,
All cherished dreams out of sight,
A wingless bird that tried to fly but then crashed from its struggled height,
Now I just silently walk into the dark hold of my night,
Alone
and forlorn,
 Musicity of my soft moan,
Carrying me into hitherto unreachable zone!

Crime and Punishment

There is crime and there is punishment. The crime, full stop. It's a criminal act. It cannot be reversed. Punishment cannot right the wrong. There is hardly any redemption. Punishment is a poor instrument of deterrence, and most often it fails even in that. Going above the man-made instruments of punishments, we have the divine system of justice, For crimes, where man-made system of justice fails to deliver redemption, we expect the divinity to set it right. But what of mass crimes? What of Nazi Holocausts, communist purgings, religious ans racial genocides? The equation of right and wrong loses its meaning. It's just crimes, A massive wrong. Forget about mankind's justice, even wildest stretch of faith in divine redemption fails to get even an iota of justice.Does it  mean that the mass crime stands unredeemed? Forever. Does it just keep casting its shadows over the present, creeping into the future, almost forever. Just waiting to be redeemed. And forgotten finally. Or forgiven more suitably.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. A song of humanity amidst mass crime. A depiction of human hate and lust for power in Nazi occupied France in second world war. France is virtually menless. Men are in prison. Women hold the baton of life. It's a dark cloud over, taking their smiles away. They are wives, mothers, daughters, sisters and lovers. But only in memory. The males who identify them as such are missing. They have to survive. When they can no longer fight to save their body, they fight to save their soul. For future. For the victory of humanity over monstrosity. For their men. To give them fresh lease of life, if at all they return after war. Forget about redemption. The survival of love in a woman's heart for her man, despite all the wrongs to her body in his absence, is still a better right then millions of wrongs by criminal souls. It is here that the question of redemption becomes irrelevant. Like a small lamp drives away millions of particles of darkness with its tiny flicker, The women of France keep the torch alive. Beacon of hope, of love, of a possibility in times to come, an urge to relive the moments that sound farther than wildest dreams, In the backdrop of Nazi holocausts, they move silently, unheroically, carrying love in their eyes, hopes in their laps and seeds of humanity in their womb. Read it. It might help you in being a still better human being.    .

A Sunny Day at Last!

A perfectly sunny day after what it seems like ages. Many a fate seemed to have frozen. Life almost suspended, barely pulsating in hibernation. Sun appeared to have gone on a sabbatical, making us realise how important He is. Imagine, what would happen if sun goes off duty for some time!? Coldness creeped in from all corners, stalking all and sundry almost everywhere. Icy winds, frosty nights, grey overcast skies giving their best to realise how important warmth is to life and living on earth. What chance poor earth stands without the glowing father? And does human soul stand a better chance without the warmth of love and compassion? And dispelling all the doomsday talk lisped through the elders' shivering bones, He peeps over a perfectly clean eastern horizon one fine day and gives an assuring smile like a seafaring father returning to bring protectiveness and peace with him after months. Lo, all the grey ghosts of cold vanish. The cold wind still tries a frigid mischief, but its swirly taunts get absorbed in His fatherly smile. All they appear is just innocuous lukewarm airy swirls. Frost beaten leaves tumble down with gently pining musical notes. The birds raise their chorus again, after staying uncharacteristically subdued for weeks. The sky blue and fresh like freshly washed. Icing on the cake for me also. I spot a rufous Indian treepie. The beautiful long-tailed bird, so conspicuously proud of its long tail, appears to lord over a drove of insecure, noisy mynas. And lo, a bigger icing on the previous icing! A pair of Indian Grey Hornbills! Dear o dear! Is it a dream!? First time I have seen them here in this part! Almost exotic! The grey, long-tailed birds carry their long, curving, scimitar type beaks with an aloof majesty. They grace the weather beaten branches of the gulmohar and flow away like the VVIPs of the birdie world. The treepie and and Hornbills appear to give a smiling assurance that not all is lost. Among the boring monotony of the ubiquitous house sparrows, crows, mynas, pied sterlings and pigeons, these two appear like foreigner birds. Well, a great day indeed. Possibly, propelled by the heartwarming enthusiasm of a sunny day, they took a larger foraging circle!

The Ultimate Doom

There are costs to be paid as an omnivorous carnivore society like the Chinese. Not judgmental about them. They have every right to eat anything, including themselves. But then one can't rule out scenarios like Coronavirus. There are a huge number of human-hazardous viruses hosted by animal and bird species. In this case, bats are the hosts for this virus. The poor bat was gobbled by the snake who in turn found himself on the enthusiastic dining table of a human and lo, the world gets an epidemic. At Wuhan market, you have truckloads of dogs, live foxes, crocodiles, wolf puppies, giant salamanders, snakes, rats, peacocks, porcupines, camel meat and you name anything possible under the sun to douse human gluttony. Eat man eat, i know you love boiling live being and take burps of world supermacy! But why spread the evil effects of your gluttony world over! As an epidemic-scared globalist, I am as scared of the hunger rumblings in a Chinese stomach as as dog is while being ferried to the dog market. Because God, or maybe even dog, knows, what new species may end up on the table of culinary experiment, unleashing some new virus in the food chain. Given their overblown aspirations to rule the world by cramming Chinese nationals all over the globe, the strain travels faster than their supernukes. As a poor vegetarian Indian I am more scared of the viral-nukes launched from their dinner tables than the globe-destroying weaponry. God, errr dogs, save us! I am getting more and more scared. I think, the human race will be destroyed, not by nukes and supernukes as u may suppose, by some hitherto unheard of culinary experiment in some Chinese kitchen where some animal, reptile or bird might be boiled and cooked for the first time in their entire millions of years of history, introducing a viral strain that willl eat the entire glibe-load of Homo-sapiens...oh God, errr, o dogs rather!!! To make it still worse, if i fall in Chinese hands, the kindest of them would still be happy to roast me alive and bring about another culinary experiment!!

An epidemic-scared globalist

There are costs to be paid as an omnivorous carnivore society like the Chinese. Not judgmental about them. They have every right to eat anything, including themselves. But then one can't rule out scenarios like Coronavirus. There are a huge number of human-hazardous viruses hosted by animal and bird species. In this case, bats are the hosts for this virus. The poor bat was gobbled by the snake who in turn found himself on the enthusiastic dining table of a human and lo, the world gets an epidemic. At Wuhan market, you have truckloads of dogs, live foxes, crocodiles, wolf puppies, giant salamanders, snakes, rats, peacocks, porcupines, camel meat and you name anything possible under the sun to douse human gluttony. Eat man eat, i know you love boiling live being and take burps of world supermacy! But why spread the evil effects of your gluttony world over! As an epidemic-scared globalist, I am as scared of the hunger rumblings in a Chinese stomach as as dog is while being ferried to the dog market. Because God, or maybe even dog, knows, what new species may end up on the table of culinary experiment, unleashing some new virus in the food chain. Given their overblown aspirations to rule the world by cramming Chinese nationals all over the globe, the strain travels faster than their supernukes. As a poor vegetarian Indian I am more scared of the viral-nukes launched from their dinner tables than the globe-destroying weaponry. God, errr dogs, save us! I am getting more and more scared.

Be a Creator

The entire meaning of being human is to become a 'creator' from a mere 'creation'. This mind is the largest workshop in the cosmos. Sustained imagination impregnated with specific details create a flow of energy in the direction of its manifestation. This blueprint in the mind can be kept fresh and alive by pumping the vital life force, the abounding energy, through powerful emotions in synchronisation with the imagined 'creation'. Whatever we perceive as creation within the spectrum of our human perception was designed in mind with an infallible vividness. It was first imprinted on the canvas of mind by enthusiastically firing neurons. It was first thought to be 'possible' before it manifested. There is hardly any limitations to design whatever one wants on the infinite dimenaionless canvas on which a sustained conscious effort can etch out as many dimensions as one wants. See your dream, imagine your dream in the specific real life details, fuel it with the life energies of your emotions. You heave a whole lot of energies around you. Whatever follows is just a cause and effect corollary. This cosmos is yet to see the first miracle. All this is too mundane. Go and create your reality. Be a creator!

Books by Sandeep Dahiya

A Half House
https://www.amazon.in/A-half-house/dp/8193238206

Chimp, Champ and Chops
https://www.amazon.in/Chimp-Champ-and-Chops/dp/8193238222

Beyond and Beneath
https://www.amazon.in/Beyond-and-Beneath/dp/8193238214

Lost in Red Mist
https://www.amazon.in/Lost-Red-Mist-First-2017/dp/9386148269

Ice Cubes on Desert Sands
https://www.amazon.in/Cubes-Desert-Sands-sandeep-dahiya/dp/B07MFBCM7S

Love: The Ultimate Alchemy
https://www.amazon.in/Love-Ultimate-Alchemy-Sandeep-Dahiya/dp/9389600251

Faceless Gods
https://www.flipkart.com/faceless-gods/p/itm9789384049355?pid=9789384049355&lid=LSTBOK9789384049355BZIPBV&marketplace=FLIPKART&pageUID=1579776998970

The Night Sun
https://shop.24by7publishing.com/product/the-night-sun-by-sandeep-dahiya/

Mind over Matter

Matter-like behaviour is a property of the cosmic mind, the universal intelligence throbbing as the energy. Mind, universal collective consciousness, is the primary cosmic constituent. The so called matter is merely a manifestation of it, just a dependent property. Had it been the reverse, i.e., mind-type behaviour of matter, we surely would require the basic, unbreakable, having intrinsic properties, building blocks in terms of atomic and subatomic particles. But as we see it, subatomic particles have no intrinsic value and properties independent of the observer. With matter first, and mind just its behaviour, eternity would be mathematically impossible. However, a fundamental entity in the form of cosmic mind leaves an open ended, ever evolving field for the manifestation of matter in countless ways over eternal paths of creation. Simply because there is no intrinsic property or value to define and limit the material manifestation. Call it the cosmic energy or the cosmic mind. It's a dimenaionless plane where any kind of material dimension is possible to draw out of nothingness. The limitless canvas. Wipe it, draw another. On and on. Is there any limit to imagination? No. Same is the case with cosmic mind's imagination. Eternal are its horizons.

He has the last laugh--consciously, by choice

So who has the last laugh? The winters have been unprecedented. Horrific. Cold has slayed soots and saplings with its unsparing frosty sword. 'Had all your wrath poured out, fella?' this garden cactus asks. Irrespective of the severe damage, it decides to retain its smile. Its smile overcomes the frosty burns. Happiness is a choice. A conscious effort, independent of so many external factors that we presume to be finally decisive for our happiness!

Kabadis in the Space

Unmanned Landers landing on the moon have a coating of previous metals like gold. This moon-scrap goes into the value of billions of dollars. In the near future, it will open a new vista for high tech kabadis, the swanky version of our humble neighborhood scrap dealer. America with its 40 years advancement in space technology over its nearest rival will gain the most out of this new business stream. Scrap dealers in America listening? In order to avoid scrap clashes in future, there should be a treaty by which the owner country will retain the rights over the space scrap. Mankind is ever ready to fight over any type of issues. So when we will wipe out all contestable things on mother earth, we will enlarge the domain of quarrels, taking into space. So it's high time we fix it now itself. Let's agree on the principal that 'bhai mera kabad mera hi rahega'. Means, I retain the right to my scrap, wheresoever it may land up! Something is better than nothing. We will have at least one reason less to fight.

A moment captured in the hills

Life and living losing footing amidst the smoke of hate, greed, anger, ambition and jealousy. More than the carbon bugs chucking out air, it will be the nefarious exhausts from evil human minds that will turn mother earth unlivable during the coming decades. But in the unconcerned vales, the mountain eagle is gliding effortlessly,--

The mountain eagle flying

in splendor and ecstasy,

Its unquenchable tempests

creating airy firmament,

But does this fraction of reality

possess anything good for the prey as well?

The prey, the little mouse is tucked in a little corner in the hills. It’s a flimsy covering, a roof of cobwebs and dew clinging to it. The little creature is sipping the night’s nectar. Watery beads. Jewellery of leaves. A little piece set-up by the free-flowing spontaneity of the existential force. And the larger of life and living meandering through it. Has the eagle spotted it? It seems to have!