781. Good Books – Entrance To Trance! Poem by Raman Savithiri

Comics full of graphic pages
Would drag to different ages,
Of wonderful worlds wild,
When I was mere a child!

I started Mahabharata after twelve,
Even at forty I’m unable to delve!
Its enormity and depth of wisdom,
Is understood by anyone seldom!

The heart touching love story
For epochs sustaining its glory
The Ramayana came to me too
Giving every time a valve new!

Thirukural by-hearted in school
Now helping me to swim life-pool
As a mentor always ready
Sitting in book-shelf steady

Kalki’s novels kept me awake
Lively characters that would make
Cherishing memories of teenage
Reading constantly page by page!

When endless query like
‘Who am I? ’ sometimes strike
Bhagavad-Gita will rescue
Helping mind to renew!

Vivekananda’s volumes fell in my hand
Comics and novels could not withstand!
Trivial books bid good-bye silently
Like autumn leaves dropping out softly

Through Naren’s wise window
I could see RK the mystic rainbow
Perfect mixer of all religions
Stirring the hearts of millions!

Western books too influenced a lot
As potters spin clay into pretty pot
Epictetus, Emerson, Thoreau, Allen
Helped to reform my heart broken!

From middle-east came Gibran
Only one line struck my life-span
‘Work is Love made visible’
To fortify me who was once feeble!

Realizing, most of authors of West
Draw their insight simply from East,
Now I stick just to Indian Books
They are enough for all outlooks!

Do you really want to checkup
Your heart’s receptive setup?
Do read Tamil devotional.
Must you get tears emotional!

Thiruvaachagam cleansing the soul
Hundred times more powerful than
Tagore’s Gitanjali, would accompany
My life-voyage giving me company!

If you fall upon Ramana’s words once,
To which other book would you bounce?
If you come upon Amma like living sage
Won’t all books get down from stage?

Meditation will lead to inner silence
Books will take to entrance of trance
For, nevertheless, the books by saints
Are their meditations, cleaning stains! 030409