Jehovah's Witnesses

Pleaded with me one evening
Out of love and concern
A Jehovah's Witness
To make me one of his own Clan.

What difference does it make

By what name we personify

The Cognitive Potentiality

Of the Eternal Void

The Nameless and Formless
Ultimate Source of our Being?

I asked myself

What difference does it make
Whether we personify the same
As Nirguna Brahman
Allah Consciousness,
Jehova Consciousness

Krishna Consciousness, 

Christ  Consciousness

Buddha Nature

Or merely as the Tao of Nature?
I wondered.

Aren't we all Witnesses
Of the manifestation
Of that Cognitive Potentiality
In Time and Space
In worlds of matter, antimatter and spirit,
All of us meaning
The Snake in the Garden
The frog on which it fed
And all other life forms on Earth
Including you and me?

I went on thinking along these lines
But ventured not to ask my friend
A Jehovah's Witness.

A Brief History of Homo Sapiens

Amidst conflicts after conflicts

Among individuals, nations and groups,

Amidst exploitation of humans by humans,

Amidst the slaughtering

Of thousands and millions in wars after wars

Often provoked by trivial reasons

And conflicts of interests,

Often provoked by the gods in heaven,

Often initiated by kings and rulers

For sheer power and wealth,

For Order and Justice as they see it right,

And God knows for what else.

Amidst grasp of Nature’s secrets

Through Science and Technology,

For comfort and destruction both,

Amidst explorations of space and the oceans,

Amidst the evolution of Cultures and Civilizations

Legal Systems, Political systems and Trading practices. 

Amidst the growth of the Industries,

Agriculture, the Arts and the Humanities,

Amidst theories of the How’s and Why’s

Of the universe and life on earth,

The How’s often through Science,

The Why’s often through Religion

With Spiritual Masters mediating

With intuitions from within

And revelations and commandments 

From gods and spirits galore.

Amidst explorations of space and the oceans,

Amidst Natural disasters galore 

And destruction of civilizations, 

Epidemics of disease-

Plagues, Small Pox, Cholera

Tuberculosis, AIDS and 

God knows what else.

How turbulent, how puzzling 

And yet how fascinating

It has been thus far, 

The history of the Homo Sapiens Race.

The Eternity of Creation Cycles

The Ultimate Cause and Source
No matter by what other name
We call the same,
It’s that Omniscient Potentiality
In the Eternal Vacuum
Realized as dynamic manifestations
In Space and Time
That generates, sustains and destroys
Worlds of Matter and Anti Matter
In Cycles Eternal.

Power of the Beat

The Concert was in full swing 
And the audience was going into ecstasy 
Immersed in the performance 
Of the Sitarist and the Drummer.   
Just then a three-year-old girl 
Jumped right out of the blue 
From her mother’s lap 
On to an Aisle on her side 
And started dancing 
In a typically elegant Western style 
In perfect synchrony with the beat 
Of the Indian Music coming from the Stage. 

A profound reminder of the power of the beat
To invoke spontaneous bodily movements 
Much more mystical than what we observe 
With other types of sensory stimuli.

Design in Evolution

Often in my pensive moments
If evolution is just a product
Of random mutations and natural selection
Or if there is a built in design feature

We do not yet comprehend.

The future of things we design and make

We surely can predict precisely

Or in statistical terms at least

For otherwise we wouldn't design or make.

Movements of earth, the planets

And the solar system likewise

We can predict quite precisely

And so can we movements on earth

Such as tennis balls, automobiles

And hurricanes in statistical terms at least

If not in precise quantitative terms.

Predictability implies design therefore

And so it seems to me that

Evolution with a design feature

Built into it right from the beginning

And yet being part and parcel of it

Everywhere and everywhen

May well be the way 

The universe and life on earth

Have evolved and will continue

To do the same in ages ahead.

Will the biologists ever modify

Darwin's theory of evolution

In tune with this logic?
I asked myself                 

Who were Adam and Eve?

Late one night I wondered and wondered
To what group of today’s homo sapiens
Adam and Eve could have belonged.

They couldn’t have been Chinese
I reconciled
As someone before me had suggested.
For if they were
They would have eaten the Snake first
And then only the Apple.

They couldn’t have been atheists of reason
For if they were
They would have figured out then itself
Why the apples were falling to the ground
And why the Snake didn’t crawl to eat them.

They couldn’t have been
Jews, Christians or Muslims
For they were not there
Till there came along
Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.

Wisdom finally dawned on me
That Adam and Eve must have been Hindus
For if they weren’t
Hindus wouldn’t still be worshipping
The Snake, the Ultimate God
And a host of other gods too
With offerings of milk, apples
And what have you.

Father Divine

Father Divine they call him
The Inspiration behind
The Divine Tracy Hotel
In the heart of Philadelphia
The birthplace of
The Greatest Nation on earth today.

Father Divine is no other than
The Black American Hero
Who founded the Peace Mission Movement
That caused stir and uproar in the USA
Including a jail sentence for the man
For many a thing uncommon he did
During the first half of the 20th Century

Not only did he heal, feed, clothe
And provide shelter
For thousands of poor people
In New York’s Harlem and elsewhere
At little or no cost to them,
But he would not reveal
Where the money came from.

Not only did he marry a white woman
A non-no in those days
And called the event a marriage in spirit,
But claimed himself
To add fuel to the fire
To be an Incarnation
Of Jesus the Christ,
The only begotten Son of God.

Often do we hear some mystics
Of Modern India
That claim equal status
With Jesus the Christ
As incarnations of God the Almighty

Little did I know however
That there were people
In the Christian tradition
That made such claims
Till I read the story of Father Divine.

Divine Potential

The Divine in Its Potential State
No matter what name you give
To the Same
Is beyond Space and Time
And yet is the Ultimate Source
For all that happens in Space and Time.

It’s the Divine in Its Potential State
Beyond Space and Time
Operating on the Human Mind
That enables it to invent such notions as
The Constants of Physics
Like G, the Gravitational constant
And the Structure of Biological molecules
Like the double helix of cellular DNA
To name a few
Only to capture but a miniscule
Of the Divine in action on Earth.

It’s the Divine in Its Potential State
Beyond Space and Time
Operating on Life forms on Earth
That enables them to experience
Birth, Growth and Death
Love and Hate
Pain and Pleasure
Bonds of Emotions galore
States of ESP and Nirvana included
All in Space and Time.

Order and Disorder

Scattered across the grassy meadows
On the banks of a long manmade lake
They were having their lunch
Taking in whatever was palatable
And rejecting whatever wasn’t.

Soon there comes the call
From the leader of the bunch
Directing them to get into the lake
And follow his lead to the other end
Like soldiers in the Army
Or bird formations in the Sky.

The spectacle started with perfection
And order prevailed at first
Soon to be followed by a few fallen angels
That disobeyed and caused chaos
To the dismay of all that obeyed.

A call from the commander restored order again.
All’s well that ends well, as the saying goes
And the clan reached the other end on time
As the leader had intended.

The workings of Nature are the same
All across the board, I realized
With order in beginning and at the end
While both order and disorder prevail
To sustain the drama in the middle.

How else could it be?
I wondered
As I departed from the scene.

My dreams

My dreams, my dreams.
My dreams grow in size
Every single day.

I long to see nations unite
And conflicts cease.
I long to see trade barriers perish
And passports vanish.

I long to see democracies evolve
Into better and better forms yet
To build better societies
Than the best we have today.

I long to see Governments become truly
Of the people, for the people and by the people
And not for the rich alone

I long to see reforms the way
Candidates for political offices
Are nominated and elected.

I long to see terms of office
Become limited at every stage.
Giving more of us a chance to serve.
And I long to see standards set
For those who wish to serve

I long to see societies
Where crime and violence are out of the way
Where justice is administered in a timely way
Where everyone has enough to eat and live
Where health care and education are free for all.
Where education is not just to learn a trade
But to learn to live with health and contentment
To learn to enjoy Nature and the Arts
With concern for the fellow man
And the environment as well.

I long to see Science and Religion unite
To unravel  more and more
Of the secrets of Nature’s ways.

United as we are in Science and Technology
Varied as we are in our cultures worldwide
Divided as we are in religion, language and race
I long to see unity in diversity in every walk of our lives.

Yes
Dreams, dreams
My dreams grow in size
Every single day.

Laws of Nature

Laws of Nature
Often presented
In mathematical terms
Held high in the tempo
Of their scientific claim
To predict and verify.
Alas! What are they?

All but creations
Of the human mind
To predict the future
And retrieve the past
From what is known
Of the present
In Time and Space.

All but relative
All but paradigm dependent
All but explorations
Of cause and effect connections
In Time and Space.

All but applicable merely
To the limited domains
In which they are formulated.
Constrained as we are ourselves
In Time, Space
And our sensory apparatus.

Homeland Pride

Often as I travel through the country side

Of the land where I was born and raised,

In the distant world of the remote third,

I feel a sense of the utmost pride.

What are you proud of my friend?

Asks my rational mind.

Certainly not the dust filled roads

Or the roadside toilets I reckon,

Couldn't be the hungry poor

Or the stone age ways of the folks at large,

Couldn't be the crooked ways 

Of the men and women in power,

Or the corrupt ways of the officials in charge.

It's the music in the air

Only the inward ear can hear

It's the sights on the landscape

Only the inward eye can see

It's the fragrance in the air

Only the inward nose can smell

It's all that only the inward touch can touch.

It's the food and drink you still relish

It's the memories you fondly cherish

It's the warmth of the folks that care

It's the culture that can't be quantified

It’s the religion in which you grew up

It's the peace and solace

That can't be measured.

That's the nature

Of the human spirit, my friend

My heart replies in right earnest.

Ode to Gravity

Gravity, O’ Gravity
Thou art Omnipresent
And as such
You rank with the Almighty.

It’s Thine Potentiality on which rests
The Ultimate Source of our Being
By whatever name you call the same.

Without Thee
And Thine colleagues
The Strong, Weak and EM forces,
Stars and Planets cannot form
And perform the way they do.

How humble Thine influence
In the Microcosm
And how majestic
In the Macrocosm
And the Earthly Mesocosm
Into which multitudes of
Conscious Entities come and go.

It’s the grandeur of Thine manifestation
Acting on Material entities
That gives meaning to Form
That Conscious Entities  perceive
In Space and Movement in Time.

Form and Movement
Central to Cause and Effect phenomena
Both Bottom Up and Top Down,
All but guided by
Laws of Destiny, Probability and Freewill
Some amenable to quantification
By the human mind.

Gravity, O’ Gravity
This is my Ode to Thee.

Hindu Christian Synchrony

Think of Krishna as Christ

Or Vice Versa

Set aside the metaphysics

And the mythology

Be it of Krishna or Christ

For no one knows for sure

What is true and what isn’t.

Treat the power of Original Sin 

The same as of Maya

Or the other way around

Both but claims of the reasons

For your unawareness

Of the Divine that ‘s Thou.

Believe in the power of Puja

The same way as that of Worship

Be it with incense sticks or myrrh

Be it with candles or oil lamps

Be it with song, hymns flower or fruit

All but petitions for comfort

Amidst the ups and downs in your life

And of fellow man

All but caused by your unawareness

Of the Divine that’s Thou.

Live up to the calls of the Christ,

His Sermon on the Mount

And his Beatitudes

And Krishna’s call for selfless service

To the poor and the underprivileged

And to live your life 

In tune with your assigned Dharma.

What difference would it make then

If you consider yourself Hindu, Christian

A Christian Hindu or a Hindu Christian.

Theories of Everything

How can a theory of everything be
A theory of everything after all
My fellow physicists?

When we know not

How the Mind emerges
From processes in the Brain

When we know not
How to bridge the gap between
The living and non-living
At the deepest level so to speak.

When we know not
How the notions of
I, We, They and Them evolve
Amongst the life forms
Let alone the complexity
Of emotions that follow.

When we know not
How and why prodigies arise
From time to time in our midst
Be it in Science, Religion, Politics
Commerce, Humanities or Otherwise.

How can a theory of everything be
A theory of everything after all
My fellow physicists?

The Rose DNA

Thanks to the Rose DNA
The sweet smell of roses filled the air
And lifted me to ecstasy in a rose garden
Like no other DNA influence
Encountered before anywhere.

A simple reminder of
The power of RNA and DNA
Basic to life forms 
All across the globe.

Is it all just a matter of chance
In Nature's Creation on Earth?

Ode to Democracy

Democracy O' Democracy

Thou aret but an adolescent

Even within the most democratic nation

Of the world today
The United States of America.

Moved away we did for sure

From Kings, Queens, Knighthoods

Dictatorships and the like.

But surely not from the evils of

Competition as opposed to Cooperation

To work for the common good
Amongst those that wish to serve.
Not to speak of Party Politics,
Campaigning Excesses, False promises 

And what have you

Let alone our inability to address issues

Of the ever widening gap between
The rich and the poor

The privileged and the underprivileged

Amidst street crimes, domestic violence,
Corporate greed, Identity thefts,
Internet fraud and what else!

All due to the mere lip service we pay
For the Sermons and the Beatitudes

Of the only begotten son of God
In whom we claim we trust,
Jesus the Christ.

Western Genius

Liberated from the orthodoxy
Of the Catholic Church
After the dark ages,
European genius paved the way
For the miracles of Western Civilization
Now the hallmarks of Human Civilization
Worldwide.

Unbelievable as it may seem to some
Emerged not the impetus for the same
All from within

But from Islamic influences by way of Spain
Thanks to the Crusades of the Middle ages.

Inspired by Allah's revelations to Muhammad
Through the angel Gabriel around 700 C.E,
Muslim scholars promptly revived
In the early years of Islam's spread
The ancient wisdom of the Greeks and the Hindus
In their search for knowledge of Allah's Creation
As called for in the Quran.

Zero and the Arabic numerals are but a few
Of the notions and ideas
That the West learned from the East
To move forward on and on
To the miracles of Modern Science, Technology
Literature, Commerce, the Fine arts and what have you

With their beginnings in the early years
Of European Renaissance
Coincident with the discovery of the Americas
And the spread of Colonialism worldwide.

Unbelievable as it may seem to some likewise
Be it the practice of Relaxation Response and Self Hypnosis
Introduced by Herbert Bensen and Daniel Aman respectively
Or the emphasis on Posture and Breath regulation
As in Pilates and Physical Therapy,
The seeds came not from within
But from Hatha Yoga, Pranayama, Savasan,
Mantra Meditation and the like
Of the ancient Hindu traditions.

Yes, it is yet the Western Genius
That stripped them off their Religious context
And made them part and parcel
Of mainstream psycho and physical therapies today.

The Designer at Twilight

The Setting Sun in the Western Sky
Rejoiced at the joys of humans passing by
As it exited from the horizon’s edge
To seek new ways with Nature to merge.

Water molecules assembled in the Eastern Sky
To make rainbows for bright display
With just the visible colors in the play
And the rest denied to the human eye
As if decreed by the Designer’s sigh.

In the twilight of the Sun’s parting strive
In his favorite park on Homestead Drive
A lone witness was on his usual Walk and Run
With occasional stops as a student of Zen
To watch flying birds with formations anew
As if they are on rehearsed displays as they flew
While the genes in the region’s flora and fauna
Reacted with their own persona.

The lone witness wondered what it would be like
To bounce back and forth from atoms
Like the electrons in the man made park lights
That just got turned on.

Up from the Upward Sky
The rising Crescent Moon wondered why.

Life, Death and Rights

We know not
If we had the right
To be born or not
Before we were born.

We do have the right though
To accept or reject
Any belief system or paradigm
Be it from Religion, Science,
Politics or whatever
While we are still alive
Here on Earth.

Alas! how sad
We are denied the right
To die or live
No matter how great the burden.

Nature's Mathematics

Grasping a bit here and a bit there
Of the mysteries of Nature everywhere

Hidden within its laws

All but structured in Mathematics

All but ultimately Digital,

We human beings have evolved

To imitate Nature and its thrills

And develop technologies

Not found even in Nature otherwise.

Are we the only ones thus privileged?

A Pledge at Easter

May  we  all  pledge 

To  think  with  our  Minds

And act  with  our  Hearts

As we spread  Harmony

In  whatever  we  do

In  tune  with  His  sermons

As  we  remember

The  Reason  for  the  Season

Enlightenment

Learn not to play games

With selfish motives in mind
But with harmony for the greater good.

You are half way to Enlightenment.

The Brain and the Senses

"Thoughts in the Brain first
Then only sounds from the mouth.
Sounds into the ears first
Then only thoughts in the Brain.
Inputs and Outputs
Back and Forth
Between the Brain and the Senses.
That's is all there is to our lives."
So they claim
The atheists amongst us
Even as they know not
How and Why
The mind and emotions evolve
Out of processes in the Brain.

The Four W's

The Four W's
Wine and Women
Wealth and Wars
Passions of successful men
For the most part,
Impediments to Enlightenment

For the Rishis of the distant past
And for the spiritually inclined
Even in this day and age.