Poetic Ruminations: Free At Last!

She learnt of You at her mother’s knee.

You do recall (since You forget nothing) the sweet, direct communion that she enjoyed with You then

Sans complicated theory and convoluted theology,

Till some years later, when she heard grown-olds somberly say:

“You need to follow a path—the right one—if you want to please Him, especially if you want to avert His terrible wrath”

(This was also how she came to conceive of You as an unpredictable and fearsome fiend (as opposed to the loving friend she once so well knew),

Though she never voiced this aloud,

For fear that You might order some angel, or perhaps a devil,

To hurl her into Hell).

                                                                   *

In the grown-olds’ world, there were numerous ‘paths’, she soon came to discover,

And each with many different branches that were touted about as the ‘only true’ one.

Their votaries zealously declared, demanding the whole world listen:

“Ours is the only path that’s pleasing to Him,

The only way to avert His wrath and merit eternal felicity in Heaven.”

“All other paths lead to eternal perdition,” they insisted.

Each of these ‘paths’, and every branch thereof, had its own particular beliefs and practices, she came to know,

That set them apart and fiercely against each other,

This producing seemingly never-ending conflict,

Causing the death of millions and untold misery down the centuries.

                                                                   *

 “You’re now at the age when you must choose a path,” the grown-olds insisted,

“Your claim of having been in pathless direct communion with Him is mere childish delusion,” they would have said had she interjected.

“He demands we follow a certain path—the right one, that is, which is ours,” each set of grown-olds declaimed. “He won’t accept you if you don’t.”

Bewitched by the grown-olds,

In her innocence believing their every word

(They seemed so utterly sure of what they said that she thought they must certainly be Your chosen spokesmen),

In great fear and trembling (for they claimed You delighted in seeing us reduced to this pathetic condition),

She did as they said she must if she cared not to burn in Hell.

And so, quickly abandoning the sweet, direct communion that she had enjoyed with You,

She took to a path that its votaries claimed to be the only one You approved of,

But very soon to another, and then another, and so on

(Going on to spend in this way almost half a century),

Believing and doing as the champions of each ‘path’ insisted she must in order to please You.

Yet, each time she discovered, sooner or later, to her great horror

That what had once seemed so enchanting to her,

And to which she had thought she would dedicate the rest of her life,

Was riddled with beliefs and practices both immoral and irrational

That she just could not assent to or approve of.

Her conscience rose up in revolt, her Inner Voice cried out:

“It’s utter nonsense, the work of some devil, rather than God, more likely”,

Causing her to quickly abandon one ‘path’ and then seek out another

(For she had been made to believe by the grown-olds that one could please You only by following a certain ‘path’).

Alongside this, as the years went by

She grew increasingly disgusted with the abundant evil

Committed in the name of faithful adherence to this or that ‘path’:

Things like oppression, persecution, hate, violence and war,

And just plain stupidities that rob people completely of their sanity and also their humanity

(If you read the newspapers regularly or watch the news on TV or your ‘smart’ phone,

You will know what I mean, and so there’s no need to elaborate).

Then finally, one glorious day, tired of it all, she decided: “Enough is enough! No more of these ‘paths’ for me now”,

Having finally understood that the ‘paths’ she had sought out had simply been the work of human hands

(Some of them, the product of deluded or devilish minds).

She recounted her sweet pathless communion with You in her childhood and understood.

“How foolish I’ve been these fifty-odd years,” she said to herself, startled at her grand yet simple discovery.

Addressing You, she said:

“I knew of no ‘path’ to You when I was little,

And yet I enjoyed sweet communion with You (and in a manner far more intimate than ever afterwards),

Surely, it can be the same now, too.”

 “To Hell with paths that claim to be the only way to please You

And to be the only way to avoid being burnt by You in Hell!” she cried out as loud she could,

Wanting the whole world to hear.

“I’m done with this ‘path’-thing for good! Oh, what a grand liberation!" she said to You.

"How wonderful it is to cast away the self-imposed shackles of mental slavery in Your name,

That mere men have invented and we have adopted out of misplaced fear.

Oh, to be free at last!”

                                                                   *

Although she had heard it said before

And had read about it here and there,

It was only now that she came to understand

(After years of being told that You are somewhere very distant,

Seated on a regal throne or relaxing on a gilded couch, in a palace in some grand city far above the skies)

That being Omnipresent, You are actually everywhere

(There being nowhere that You are not),

And that being everywhere, it means You are in every being and thing,

And not just that, but being within everywhere in us, You actually are us (and more, though all this few may know).

 If this is so, obviously it means, she now realized,

That there’s no need for any 'path' in order to reach You.

It was only now, when she could see through the grown-olds’ claims,

That she came to understand that Truth is a pathless land.

A path is required if you want to go out,

Beyond yourself, from one place to another.

But when one’s destination is within oneself, and, in fact, is oneself,

What need is there of any path, for there is no going anywhere out?

All one has to do to ‘get’ there, then,

Is to turn one’s gaze within

And at once to arrive at one’s destination—which is You—,

Finding You already seated there!