Life’s a great blessing, this they say, But we may not always feel that way. Sometimes, a burden it may appear, An onerous load, a great torture sheer. If again I feel so, maybe what I must do Is to turn my attention all back to You, Saying, “This life to me it’s You who gave, So, from this anguish me You must save. If as a great blessing this life I’m to know, You make me feel that it’s really, truly so.”

A good measure of the worth of a lifetime spent on Earth is the contribution it has made to what can be called ‘the stock of goodness’ in the world. The same can be said of the worth of our use of each day, or even each hour, that we get to spend on this planet. What value-addition, through our actions and through our very being, did our one hour, or our one day, or our lifetime here as a whole make in terms of the overall ‘stock of goodness’ in the world? Did we simply pass

Into this new day us You've brought, A chance again to be here we've got, Make its each moment be best spent, That is, fully according to Your intent.

No charming spot on Earth's face, Or in the rest of vast cosmic space, Can for us in beauty and joy excel That place in us where You dwell: Our heart's throne, where You preside Over Your kingdom, Your realm inside.

Tozy (name changed) is now an old man, but he has spent the better part of his life living in the shadow of fear. Over the decades, that fear has shifted shapes and forms, but its roots trace back to his earliest childhood memories. For as long as he can remember, anxiety has been his constant companion. A Childhood Built on Fraught Foundations Tozy grew up in mortal fear of his parents, navigating an deeply ambivalent relationship with both. His mother was capable of warmth,

Do you sometimes feel that time weighs heavily on your hands and you wish you had something exciting or meaningful to do instead? Do you at times feel empty or flustered for lack of something truly purposeful to keep yourself engaged in and with? In short, do you sometimes feel bored? It is perhaps natural to feel bored, at least occasionally. In fact, it is quite likely that most, if not all, of us do at times feel that way. It may not always be that we feel we are using our

Last week, I created a new record for myself by watching almost half a dozen movies in less than the same number of days. This is possibly more than the number of movies I have watched in the last entire decade as a whole! I rarely see movies, but last week, a cultural centre that I often visit was screening a number of films, all free of cost. From their description, they seemed to be on important social themes, and so, I thought they might be well worth watching. A friend o

When your destination is so near, Within your own self, inside here, Why far-off need you seek to go, That’d be foolishness, isn’t it so?

You decide what I must do, I leave the matter all to You. You tell me, You be my guide, Make me do what You decide. My own course I won’t choose, To decide on my own I refuse. This burden You must fully take, Deciding all for me, for my sake.

In love deeply with their chains That their belief system ordains, Some people just refuse to agree To any offer of being set free, Claiming this is their god’s will Which they are bound to fulfill. In darkness their lives they spend, In misery seemingly with no end, Bearing a burden of fear and hate, That they’ve been told to cultivate, Believing this their god demands In obedience to his grim commands. Ah precious lives thus spent in vain, In spiritual slavery, self-cho

I can commune with God direct, So, your foolish demand I reject That I take you as a middleman, Who, you declare, alone can Connect us both, me and God, Be off with you, I say, you fraud! Your noxious claim I stoutly refuse, I can see through your cunning ruse That you deploy in the hope that I Will fall flat for your most foul lie, And so will consent to be your slave, Be off with you, I repeat, you knave!

We can craft for us our own personal ‘Scripture’ With our every thought, word, deed and gesture.

I can see through your knavery, I won’t submit to your slavery, To agree to all that you claim, All you say in some god’s name. There's no reason why I should Treat your word as true and good Just because this god you invoke, And declare that to you he spoke. No proof of this can you adduce, No evidence can you produce, Every reason thus have I to doubt What your claim is really all about. So, contrary to what you expect, Your foolish claim I firmly reject! I can see through

If this fact we come to realise, (It may come as a great surprise!) That within ourselves, too, You are, (And not just in some ‘Heaven’ far) How differently we might then view Ourselves, the world, and You, too!

From the book you say is God’s Word (A claim that I think is most absurd), I can take the good I might there find, And can then leave all the rest behind, For this I know and clearly understand: That it’s the work of mere human hand, And not God’s Speech, as you proclaim, And of oh most great, hallowed fame, So, a mix of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ it must be, That this is the case is very plain to me, And so, from it I may pick and choose, To accept it all, I just have to refuse!

I’ve no need for your tome, For within my own ‘home’: Deep inside my own mind, The guidance I need I can find.

Their book they proclaim as ‘Divine’, Its each tiny dot, its every single line. “God sent it down,” they loudly say, “So, all its teachings we must obey”. In their madness they’ve turned blind To the many absurdities one can find In this book, for they've all been told That anyone who dares to be so bold As to doubt even just one of its claims, God will punish them in Hell’s flames, Where they’ll remain for all eternity, A fit punishment for their temerity. In this way, v

Turn away from all other sounds To the Voice within that resounds.

We on Earth are guests mere, For a short while we are here, Moving ahead, passing through, As we journey back home with You.