Will Over Time's Writ Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

Temples nor tombs nor churches built to stay,
Nor pyramids that human spirit hail
For senile centuries long could prevail,
Bridges and dams would all one day decay;
But mankind's words of wisdom would still sail,
I've stood in childlike awe and ever will
Of this great survival of human will,
All else against time when get slowly pale.

A great killer's time, everything gets spent,
But words of mouth survive, teacher to taught,
Father to son as knowledge's freely sought—
One thing whereon time cannot leave its dent;
A triumph me seem of human spirit,
Of Vedic heritage over time's writ!
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Tomes of knowledge has hardly survived on printed pages, nor ancient manuscripts on hand-writ leaves, nor have words writ on stones and structures survived the scare of time. Never could today's modern magnetic discs and tapes give us guarantee that the memories captured on them will for long prevail unharmed and un-erased by Nature's elements. Nothing can stand the will of Time, a greatest killer and creator at the same time. Against this backdrop, one cannot help wonder, how India's Vedic knowledge has largely survived for so long.
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Musings | 01.04.11 |