By Atharv Kumar
Cursed by surroundings,
Dejected by friends,
I sit alone in the corner,
Being told to make amends.
Solidarity has changed me within,
From cranial skull to balancing toes,
Protecting my achieved enlightenment,
Awaiting to be destroyed by foes.
I ignored God
And rejected traditional establishment.
I danced in joy and freedom
And achieved my enlightenment.
My parents tried to deprive me
Of my inner consciousness,
And attempted to throw me
Into the lava of belief and blindness.
I learned about a power figure,
Controlling this universe from afar.
He created this superstitious hell
Where everyone has been put in bars.
I was debarred from exploration,
To understand this so-called harmony.
When I attempted to see through,
There were no rhythms of symphony.
People hid all their problems,
Using "fate" as a scapegoat.
The rivers of elixir became poison,
Allowing no innocent to float.
I have always received beatings
Due to my rational beliefs.
I became logical after sudden realization:
I would doom myself living with conservative thieves.
The main goal of this realization:
To recognize the Buddha inside myself.
I left my conservative world
And was left with no help.
The path of truth, thorny and obstacle-filled,
I restlessly walked, searching for salvation.
It is here I learned many things,
When true knowledge hugged my admiration.
I fought the restlessness
Pricking my soul.
I soon learned the statute:
Life never had a goal.
It is when I defined my life—
A barren land with a choice
Of making it polis or green,
Along with a river of rejoice.
All alone I am now,
No guardian or peer.
The norms are left behind,
Nothing left to fear.
I still recall the cruel words:
"Follow the rules to live."
Everyone tried their best to assimilate me,
But I remained stiff.
I countered by rejecting all norms,
Declaring I would create my own world.
This insightfully opened my mind,
Which my controllers had unfurled.
Solitude was my first step
In search of truth,
Successfully completed with joy,
The journey becoming smooth.
Peace — second step towards truth —
I meditated throughout my path,
Attempting to awaken my inner peace
And feel a delicate elixir bath.
I felt an inner defeat
Of all sadness and depressive thoughts.
I sensed an untying in my brain
Of all conservative knots.
Learning — my third step —
To understand the perceived thoughts.
People force themselves upon others
Through forced ideological branding.
Everyone thinks they are right
Without being analytical about their beliefs.
People don’t care about truth,
They just become deaf.
It is perception
That makes them feel above all.
They ignore the truth
To avoid their old beliefs' downfall.
It is here I learned:
Perception creates restriction.
People, too rigid to think anything new,
Could not stop their mind’s destruction.
It is my creativity.
I found a barren land.
I began creating a polis,
With others joining my hands.
I invited freedom lovers,
Who gave effort for a garden —
Extending the river’s tributaries,
And waiting for bricks to harden.
A citadel of freedom,
A fountain of glory —
We successfully created a new world
Every kid will read in a story.