Awakening at Dawn

It was the dawn of a winter morning
And the world was cozily asleep
I stepped out of the door
And wandered into the Woods deep

Down there was stillness
as in a tomb beneath the ground
And I heard the call from within
so overriding was its command ...

"Awaken O' mortal out of your sleep
And let the truth on you dawn
That trivial are your quests mundane
For eternal is the soul and not the brawn"

This dawn of wisdom
Altered my life's main tenet
And great remorse did engulf the soul
To have led a life so egocentric

And further dawned the consciousness that ...

When I am placed on the pyre
And the flames they swell higher
The caged spirit will then stand beside and wonder
Was the human ever there?

And so is it for this sack of bones & flesh
That I so doggedly chant "I" "I"
What remains of them or of me
As the flames they stroke the sky
As the flames they swell heaven high?

-- Sanjiv Mathur