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!

By Mesha Among the greatest blessings a person can enjoy is an intimate, loving relationship with their parents throughout the latter's lifetime. This was one great blessing that eluded me, especially with regard to my late father, who left the world around a quarter a century ago, when I was in my early 30s. Our relations, for the most part, were strained, and remained so right until his passing. The fact is that my father and I hardly knew each other. We were to each othe

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.

Leaving all else for a while behind, In chanting Your Name what joy I find!

I wish I could see Your world, Your beauty therein unfurled, Those forms Your Face displays, On them in sheer joy to gaze. Grant, please, this my request, If this for me is for the best.

Holding me in Your embrace, Your world I can bravely face.

Ah the crimes in faith’s name done, Driven by tales that they have spun, Vast millions trapped in their snare, To question them, they don’t dare, Being told that for this they’ll face, Divine wrath and awful disgrace, In this world, and when they die, On meeting God high up in the sky, If they ask, or even simply doubt, What their stories are really about. Hate, even wars, of a deadly type, And crimes of almost every stripe, Fear and misery, also madness, rife, Almost every

Changing contexts to you I give, In each for a while you must live, It's there that you must be and do For that while what I will for you.