The Restless Mind Poem by Rajaram Ramachandran

If you stand at the ground level,
You’ll see objects, big and small,
But from the top of a skyscraper,
To the size of ants, they appear.

If you still go up on an airplane,
These objects go out of your vision,
And you’ll see only the patches
Of fields, hills, or, other landmarks.

The mind sees the objects around,
At lower level as good or bad.
When it reaches the highest level,
It sees the good and bad as equal.

The mind runs like a horse unbridled,
As it can’t be, at one stroke, controlled.
As a creeper needs something to lean on,
So, the mind needs a prop to stay on.

A Cross or a Crescent or a Deity
Or any object of worship, one may
Choose of his own, can act as a prop
For the mind to stay on its top.

Once the mind is controlled this way,
It’ll never, like a pendulum, sway.
With the peace of mind thus achieved,
One sees the Heaven in this world.

(Note: Mind’s in its own place
It’s the man who makes
Hell out of Heaven or
Heaven out of Hell)