Mind Over Matter! Poem by RAJ NANDY

MIND OVER MATTER

If all things are manifestations of my
consciousness,
And everything emanates and dissolves in
the mind;
Those hard and materialistic realities -
Against which I often bump my head;
And those goose bumps that rise and swells,
For once do not radiate or subside with my
thinking process,
Nor by any acts of abstract contemplations!
But only when an object hits my head,
Or when my head fails to avoid it!
When Descartes said, “ I think therefore I am! ”
Bertrand Russell had laughed and remarked, -
“ You think therefore you have thoughts! ”
Yet both Descartes and Russell rise and fall;
To remain or dissolve with my existence, -
Along with my mind and thoughts!
A wit had once summed up, this confusion over
matter and mind,
When he said that if you had no mind, it hardly
mattered,
And if there was matter, you should not mind!
-Raj Nandy
New Delhi
(The subject of matter and mind remains as a
debatable issue of Philosophy; I had tried to
reflect it in a lighter vain!)