Elusive Self Realization Poem by Venkateswaran Krishnan Sreenivasan

A helpless infant at my mother’s breast,
Babbling and buoyant with zest;
Innocent and ignorant of my way
Or what will I be on a far off day.

Growing little by little by the magic power
Of the divine love of my mother
That all creatures on this earth share
In common, their little ones, to rear.

A toddler reveling in childish ego,
Running and falling, yet always on the go
In my little world of sport
With my pets and playthings of a sort

Adolescent pride transforms my mind
And body when humors begin to wind
The clock of my nerves, muscles and bone
To goad me to work on one’s own.

To learn to be informed about science and art
To get the grounding to play my part,
To shake off the roots of the dependent past
To go my own way to the last.

As a grown up in wedlock with a woman of my dream
And caring for each other in glee or gloom
“Till death doth us part”, I look aghast
At my subtle run away past.

Wrinkles of the ageing body and mind
Trounce me in a manner most unkind;
Still I remain ignorant like a baby
Of who am I and what I hope to be.