Faith And Reason Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

To today's man of ken ever on move,
Deprived of faith, re-supplied with reason—
The reason why deprived he feels of love,
Faithless and love-starved he lives under sun.

But why faith and reason poles apart stand?
Faith helps believe what man can see the least,
And a sole means is things to understand
Ere science proves a thing of faith exists.

Man when plays a devil's dire advocate,
Faith to him is belief from logic fled,
That can't stand at reason's illumined gate,
And poor heart pleads in a court chaired by head.

And comes then a philosopher from far
Believing what's on wings of extinct bird,
Unknown to world, as unseen as unheard,
The chair feels: faith comes from an alien star.

And so, faith-born belief looks a strange bird,
Avoidable, swears the voice of reason,
Blind belief is illusion, feels this world
That sings tunes of old well past the season.

Needing no faith than one in human breast,
A poet toils, his heart searching warm hearth,
In faith he sings of wonders of this earth,
The reason whilst primes its wings in the nest.

Wait for the day the hatchling new wings sprout,
Grow up to go far, mate and multiply,
The wiser world when vanquishes old doubt,
To push out siblings of faith ere they fly.

The siblings seem to yell on their way down,
But what's seen as fall is no fall at all,
Nor is it faith that ye seem to frown
All alive it thrives as a miracle.

A gift of God so hard to comprehend
By reason and logic of a fixed roof,
And too much wisdom wills wonder to bend,
And faith has no room for merited proof.

Yet, faith fallen short of fair reason sinks,
The two well need each to each for life breath
As reason too, robbed of faith, often stinks,
Reliant are rivals— reason and faith.

And too much reason for mortals seems odd,
Faith seemed to say regaining its lost voice,
It's faith that helps flourish peas in their pod,
Reason may at the best render them choice.

The ego now could not but intervene,
We aught know, yesterday's faith is fable,
To minds of today's men far from serene,
Faith is a horseless deserted stable.

It looked as if this debate may not cease,
Faith may never wear good enough reasons,
Nor would the reason wait till faith seasons,
Faith and reason can't coexist in ease.

Let graceless zealots fight battles till death,
An old faith many a candle may light,
A burly truthful reason might them blight,
Still, reason's one thing, another is faith.

Though head and heart hatchlings are of one bird
Nestled by soul, which, when deserts its stead,
The belief and faith too desert this world,
And man with all reasons, all rhymes, is dead.
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This poem is woven with a variety of warps and woofs of arguments between faith and reason, between head and heart, soul and ego, and shades of opinions from philosophers, thinkers, and poets. And yet remains inconclusive. A compromise is reached at the end. ______________________________________________________
Ode | 01.06.06 |