gulab khandelwal selected poems

THE SINNER AND THE SAINT

Sinner—

I want to slide down the bowels of the earth
Like a snake.
My consciousness, like a foaming river, is running
Towards the ocean of darkness.
Every hair of my body is being dragged
Down and down
By some unknown power.
The earth is again and again asking back from me
My existence.

I am being smothered by a smoke of burning sulphur.
I am unable to get out of this melting lake of fire.
My soul is writhing in the prison-house of the Satan.
Flames leap up higher and higher
As I try to calm them.

I was clasped by the arms of light once.
I also wanted to fly in the skies like an angel.
Flinging aside my body like an old garment,
I also wished to get a glimpse of the Absolute.

But what’s that now, I was a tool of my destiny..
None of my efforts avail
In bringing me out of this mire.
My passions are multiplying thousandfold
With each attempt to pacify them.
My strongest resolve collapses at the slightest touch.
Of emotion.

Saint—

His doors are never closed
For the fallen and the. anguished.
You and I live side by side, no wall divides us.
Heaven and hell are only imaginary
States of our mind.
We reside only where we wish to.

You know, you are bad, therefore you are not bad.
You are struggling, therefore all doors are open to you.
Your pain will carry you to the throne of the Supreme.
Faces, washed by the tears of repentance,
Are ever dear to Him.

Therefore, try and try again,
The gates of heaven will open.
The gods above are watching every step
That you tread,
How you rise and fall, how you fall and rise.
We have arrived here through this very process