MAYA: Lifting the Veil by @amarbsingh is a Stress Busting Festival pick #poetry #ownvoices #giveaway
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  • N. N. Light
    • May 19, 2020
    • 5 min read

MAYA: Lifting the Veil by @amarbsingh is a Stress Busting Festival pick #poetry #ownvoices #giveaway



Title: MAYA: Lifting the Veil

Author: AMAR B. SINGH

Genre: Poetry

Book Blurb:


Thousands of years later, Krishna and Arjuna meet again in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Arjuna finds himself in a new battle – that with the virus…


The bravest of warriors is helpless against nature and seeks some fundamental answers from the Creator himself...


With his son dead, will Arjuna listen to the Lord and get over his grief or, have times changed...Written in verses, the poetry takes to the human experience of life and the basic quest of understanding how life works and why... The impossible task of knowing God's mind...

Excerpt:

‘I heard there’s a virus

Killing human beings

What do I do but…?

Have to feed my kids!’

‘No, the world cannot just stop

Not like this…

I don’t have a bank balance

And, I have kids!’

His wife came forward

Smiled weakly and said,

‘Let’s move forward’,

She touched his head.

The night sky their shelter

They rested under a tree

Food wasn’t forthcoming

Survival wasn’t free…

The boy was close now to the father’s heart

Fever wasn’t the word, like coal he burnt

Arjun couldn’t do much, except hope his sweat

Cooled his son down and now, the falling tears…

He was his favorite son, he thought

Always waiting for him, stars in his eyes

When he reached home, made him feel an emperor

Lost his frustrations, in the company of his son dear…

But, today was another day, this hour

The night wasn’t the time they said,

To reach the night shelter…

He sat under the old oak tree

Only God provides, he thought,

At all times, a shelter free…

The son kept burning

Until the sun was burning…

There was the need for some registration

Before the child got medical attention…

He was ‘positive’, they said

The virus, the poor child did infect

‘While we take care of him in the ICU

You’ve to stay in quarantine, nothing you can do!’

The nurse, she came walking out

She must’ve seen many cases, without doubt

She moved her head, right to left

Then back to the right…

Indicating the child was gone,

Before a bed they could find!

Arjun looked at his wife, she looked lost

Staring as if, at some mid-air spot

Shortly afterwards, he realized shock was better!

The shock gone; memories kicked in…

The sorrow storm clouds gathered much faster!

What’s this world, dear Lord?

Are you really there? Are you the God!

Why the pain? Why to only some?

Why not clarify the rules of the game!

You never said anything… You didn’t ask

Sent me to the world, take away in cask

I’m fed up! This body I’ll kill

You are the creator, but I’ve my will!

This is my warning! Answer me now!

Hide n seek you play, mercilessly how!

Why should it happen to us?

Resentment and anger, in his voice.

Tears beginning to fill his eyes

Trickling now down his cheeks…

We were good to our son

He was joyous, mischievous

Brought him up so carefully

His face always, seemed ready to laugh!

We planned a rich life for him

His joy always flowing above the brim…

Has been too much for me,

For my ranting, please excuse me!

Only a few days ago

He was playing, joyfully shouting

Now he is gone forever

God, you indeed, are so cruel!

Why should it happen to us?

I have been honest, led a decent life

Loved my wife, loved the son even more…

He’s gone now, my life is an empty thing!

Life is ugly, life is meaningless

Sobbing he said, full of bitterness!

Krishna said:

Comfort is one thing, truth another

They lead away from each other

Seeking comfort, is seeking security

A satisfactory explanation, a comforting belief

Puts you soothingly to sleep…

But there is no comfort lasting

Back on your door, will be life knocking

That knocking, the awakening, is sorrow

Will come back, today or tomorrow!

Your mind can generate any state you desire

To find out the truth though, is a different matter…

Who in his right senses

Would want to cultivate bitterness

Karma is the determining cause

By past actions, the future is fixed

As you sow, so shall you reap

Through the chain of cause and effect,

All the world happens, has its being!

Is effect though, separate from the cause?

Is there a gap between them, is there a pause?

If cause and effect are constants

There’s no freedom for man, destiny is the destination!

Your mind need not be held

Can free yourself from the effects

Not get bound to follow the cause

Start with a blank slate, take a pause!

Your yesterday shapes your today

Your today shapes tomorrow

A wrong means can’t get a right end

One contains the other, the means is the end

Your thoughts become actions, do you see

The seed it’s not, it is the tree!

Do you have time, Lord?

I have many questions.

I am not convinced

Want to reach an outcome…

#

Do I have time! God laughed

I’m timeless, do you understand?

When you wear green glasses

You see only green?

With your mind, your orientation,

You can’t see the unseen!

Time exists in me,

As even space does

What do you want to know?

Am caught by your focus…

#

Arjun said:

You say your rules

Are the same, demon or sage

Why, I can’t agree at all

Have seen you influence

Have seen you participate!

Buy Link:



What’s your favorite way to combat stress?


Self-awareness, meditation.

Why is your featured book a stress busting read?


Seeing how life works is the best way to bust stress. We have several ways to be full of sorrow and stress but the solution is only one – the realization of who we are. My book deals with one such situation and helps the reader see the fact.

Giveaway:

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Open internationally.

Runs May 1 – June 3.

Drawing will be held on June 4.


Author Biography:


Born in Jamshedpur, India, in 1979, Amar B. Singh grew up in the township of Telco Colony. His early schooling was at the Chinmaya Vidyalaya which helped shape his interest in Hindu Vedanta philosophy. In 1997, he went to Bihar Institute of Technology, where he studied metallurgical engineering. He went to XLRI, Jamshedpur for his MBA and studied finance and strategy for his major areas. He later added the LLB degree to his educational qualifications.


He worked across areas of finance, marketing and strategy but he refuses to brand and limit himself to any name or function, that can define him. This existential question of who we are, remains his essential point across all his writings.


About his own work, Amar has said that he is helping create conditions for a more perceptive society – a society that doesn’t live blind. His poems and narratives have the ancient wisdom of religion and culture embroidered together with the context of the modern day. The early influences on him, of the great epics, run like a thread through all that he writes.


Amar’s interest areas lie in philosophy, psychology, religion, and more specifically, into the concept of human existence w.r.t space and time. He sees science and religion as two sides of the same coin. In his own words, “a non-scientific person cannot be truly religious, and a non-religious person will never know beyond the known sciences.”

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