In the quest of life

By Madhusree Kundu

I
I met IITian Baba
At the holy confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati,
where a hallowed constellation of planets has churned spirituality.
Baba wants to be no-one:
He had everything in life to be envied of-
a sky-soaring career, safety of job, cocoon of home, and warmth of relations,
he refused everyone's expectations and left them all like peeling an onion.
Baba wants to be no-one.
He has embarked on a journey of renouncing everythingness:
including his identity; a signature of mortality,
he has embraced anonymous people as family,
and walking trails as destinations tenderly,
In search of his real-self, he wants to succumb to nothingness.

Over the canvas of nothingness:
Longing meets aversion, pain meets solace, life meets death--all in unison,
where all queries converge to a solution.
Baba wants to be no-one.

Suddenly, ‘time’ appears in the chariot of ‘eternity’:
Under the constellation of Orion, ripples in water, fragrance in the breeze,
The reverberating earth whispers,
“You come to the point of nothingness in countless instances,
time and again, your valour allows you to choose a journey of suffering from everything,
you have chosen nothingness in the urn of everythingness.”

II
Monalisha is selling garlands of flowers and beads to the blessing mongers in the confluence of devoutness:
She is a shack living girl from an unknown and unseen village in my country,
her rustic and startling appearance tells the nuance of her being,
she is someone with obscure identity-a truly no-one
with a promise to fill the urn of her life to the brim of everythingness.

In this churning water of spirituality:
Devotees are rushing to take holy dip to renounce the dirt of soul,
they have come to seek ‘amrut’-the essence of immortality,
Monalisha doesn’t understand spirituality and immortality,
she too takes a dip to earn a blessing for making both ends meet for her family,
the ripples of her desires for a descent earning, recovery of ailing father and a dream of imminent marriage mingle in the turbulence of serendipity,
in this churning water of spirituality.
For her, it’s a journey of fulfillment-
a journey to get reflected in every passing eye,
a journey to snatch her identity and recognition,
as if ‘immortality’ remains embedded in attainment.
Fortune smiles on her, she takes dip in peoples’ salutation,
netizens marque her as idol of beauty,
In this churning water of spirituality.




III
What is life in this collocation?
An unremitting and ‘to and fro’ journey between everythingness and nothingness,
each time the bob of life touches the mid,
a sense of acquittal from the pursuit of life triumphs,
at this ‘zero’ of life, it’s liberation