In much of the world, it's done this way
(I think it’s tragic; perhaps you also may):
No sooner than it arrives on Earth,
Within minutes of its taking birth,
A baby's given a religion and a nationality,
Declared a member of a caste, tribe or ethnicity,
Labelled as belonging to a particular race,
Or to a group with the same colour of face,
Made to identify with some group or the other,
The group to which belong its father and mother,
This being penned down in a birth certificate,
Thus sealing for it its forthcoming fate.
It came to the world knowing nothing of this sort,
But as soon as it was born it began being taught
These identities that are stamped on the child,
On the hapless infant, so meek and mild,
Who never itself asked for this to be done,
Nobody sought its permission, yes, no one!
It was all imposed without its consent
By grown-olds driven by the clear intent
That it must grow up to faithfully identify
With their group’s ways and never defy
How the group wants for it to live and be.
That this is truly tragic I hope you’ll agree.
The baby’s carefully groomed from then on,
Almost from the very moment that it's born,
To consider itself an integral part
Of a group that’s clearly set apart
From other groups similarly defined,
Their differences being constantly underlined.
To its assigned group it's made to feel to belong,
To depart from the group’s ways it’s taught is wrong.
Trapped in this vicious identity net,
The child is soon made to forget
It’s true identity, as simply Soul,
As a tiny particle of the Divine Whole,
As a spark of the All-Embracing, Omnipresent God,
Or if you prefer it said this way, as a child of the Lord,
And in that capacity to be just the same
As all other actors in God’s cosmic game.
These imposed group identities are a major cause
Of much strife in the world, and of deadly wars,
Each being made to think their group’s the best,
And that it’s far superior to all of the rest.
Oh how this world's been so brutally torn
By identities we never knew of before being born!
These identities, human constructs mere,
Such hate they’ve caused, such misery and fear!
This frenzied obsession with identity
Has robbed millions of their sanity!
How really foolish it is, do you not think
To let themselves to such a base level sink?
Maybe one day humans will come to realise
That above all these identities they must rise
And know that what we—all of us—truly are
Isn’t what we’ve been made to believe thus far,
And that actually, we’re simply the Divine manifest,
Each being in essence identical with all the rest.
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