Life is a flash in the pan,

What a mystery it is, man!

One moment you are here, the other you are gone,

And, as per our beliefs, a new mantle you don!

And so the journey of the soul goes on

While you reap exactly what you have sown!

Is this the truth or just a construct to make sense of what at the bottom of life lies,

For all we know, it might just be a game of dice!

May be our lives are governed by blind chance,

And we just to the tune of random forces dance!

And lest the randomness of it all frighten us,

We tend to believe in a greater design without much fuss!

Don’t all these eternal questions make life an enigma,

And lend it its ineffable mystique and charisma?

Arun Bhagat

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The festival of colours tells its own beautiful story,

It bespeaks a tradition most hoary!

It is a token of happy times,

With a festive mood it perfectly rhymes!

The sinister darkness of ill-will should it dispel,

Towards heartfelt  amity and fellow-feeling should it us propel!

Let us hope it impels us to fill others’ lives with  colours of love too,

As there can be no better thing than this for us to do!

Let us pray that this vibrant festival strengthens the bonds of goodwill,

And our lives with mutual love and affection does fill!

Hope and pray that Lord Krishna and the gopis bless us to our lost humanity find

And our lives to the better and more amiable days of yore rewind!

Let us rediscover this Holi its lost essence, 

And bless each other’s lives with our fragrant presence!

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Arun Bhagat

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Take it as a challenge when you are in a spot,

Do whatever it takes to stem the rot!

The rainbow in the distance is yours for the taking,

Why an issue of your difficulties are you making?

How does it matter

If you do not get things on a platter?

No one in this world ever got it easy,

This is how life keeps you occupied and busy!

We all have our rainbows to chase,

We all have to sweat it out to find a way out of the maze,

Do it with all your heart if life makes you run,

We all have to work to find our place in the sun!

If you confront impediments head on,

In no time will they be gone!

This is how life tests your spirit and your mettle,

Every storm in life will subside if you give it time to settle!

Whenever trouble in your life does brew,

It is your patient understanding that will take you through!

Arun Bhagat

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Stand with me like my shadow,

Be with me without much ado,

Encircle me like a protective waist-band,

When I am drowning, offer me your hand!

In this world filled with anger and hate,

Be my soulmate, be my soulmate!

When I am parched, fall gently upon me like the soothing rain,

Be my healing balm when I am in pain!

Be my mirror to show me, warts and all, what I am,

Serve me the naked truth and don’t give a damn!

Measure me against what I proclaim to be,

From my hypocrisy don’t let me flee!

Give me as good as you get from me,

But stand hand in hand with me on the pleasant lea! 

When I am dead and gone, bury me with your own hands,

I will love it when you write and rewrite my name on the shifting sands!

You will see me beckoning from somewhere far away,

Setting eyes on you, my soul will light up and I will be aglow, I will be gay!

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Arun Bhagat

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Alone we have to fight our battles inner,
Whosoever the winner!
Alone we have to our wars wage,
Even if there are others on the same page!
Alone we have to plod our weary way,
Whether while doing it we are sad or gay!
Alone we have to our formidable mountains scale,
Whether we move way ahead or behind trail!
Alone we have to our demons face,
Whether we do it grumpily or with grace!
Alone we have to through the maze of life our way make,
Alone we have to the blows along the way take!
Alone we have to grapple with the lurking dangers,
Since we are destined to be lone rangers!
Alone we come and alone we go,
Alone we the seeds of our happiness or unhappiness sow!
Alone we the happy or unhappy crop reap,
Alone we sink into the bottomless deep!

Arun Bhagat
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Once the tiger of power you moun

You find well nigh impossible it to dismount!

Power easily goes to your head,

It makes you toxicity wed!

Your perspective it can well distort,

When power-drunk, to every well-meaning suggestion you have an egotistic retort!

Your vision it can severely blinker,

It can turn your behaviour into a real stinker!

Power for the sake of power is a deadly curse,

It will take your life from bad to worse,

So never such an accursed ambition nurse!

Naked pursuit of power turns you morally blind,

It is a sin of the deadliest kind!

Of your humanity it can you well rob,

It can turn you into the amoral swayer of mob after frenzied mob!

It can tempt you to barter your very soul,

It can ensnare you to slip into some diabolical role!

So mount this tiger with utmost

care,

Do it only if to use it as an instrument of good you can yourself dare!

Arun Bhagat

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Let love be your creed,

And like anything you will succeed!

Love begets love manifold,

Has anyone you this thing told?

Love makes your whole being glow,

So let the river of love unimpeded flow!

When love courses through your veins,

You gain and the whole world gains!

There is no bigger gift you can someone give,

So let this bounty inside you always live!

Don’t let your inner fount of love ever run dry,

Shorn of that, you will never be happy,howsoever hard you may try!

In love lives God’s infinite grace

Which in material things you can hardly trace!

If the torch of love you carry,

Bliss and contentment you marry!

So never be, even if unwitting, a peddler of mindless hate,

That is the surest way to court an accursed fate!

Be a purveyor of selfless abundant love and grace,

And for ever find yourself in a happy and blissful place!

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Arun Bhagat

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Success is a heady feeling,

It can leave you reeling!

But when it really starts going to your head,

That is the time to see red!

That is the time to restore your sanity

Lest you fall a prey to

insidious vanity

And start seeing yourself of all that you survey the master

Than which to the road to perdition there can be no movement faster!

So view success with caution,

Lest a moral crisis for you it set into motion!

The more you succeed, the humbler you should be,

To a happy and balanced life that is certainly the key!

Offer your each success at the lotus feet of the Lord

So that the ocean of life with equanimity you can ford!

Arun Bhagat

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The pandemic so much havoc has wrought,

So many invaluable lessons it has us taught,

But have we learnt any is a question that is fraught!

Are we as a species ready to turn over a new leaf?

Have we been sufficiently chastened by our collective suffering and grief?

Has our insufferable ego really been cut down to size?

Have we secured from the scourge caring and sensitivity as a coveted prize?

Do we now realise that there is something much bigger that exists outside of us?

Have we learnt to accept in the larger scheme of things our humble place without any fuss?

Has all our much touted material progress really been worth it?

Are we, even if late in the day, ready to reconsider our stance a bit?

Have we now developed for nature a new found respect

Or our behaviour is still going to be egregious and suspect?

In short, are we even now going to mend our sordid ways?

If not, we would better count as numbered on this planet our days!

Arun Bhagat

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We Are All One

We are all entagled, we are all one,

Take it as a truth dusted and done!

I and you only different appear,

It seems that each of us belongs to a different sphere!

But what seems is not true,

We are all made of the same brew!

All talk of differences and cleavages is just sham,

No need to withhold our feelings from each other and our love dam!

Rivers naturally flow out to the ocean,

They become an indistinguishable part of its motion!

So let us flow out to others with love and without rancour,

Let us not after the false otherness of others hanker!

Of the all-pervasive cosmic energy we are all a part,

Let this message go from heart to pulsating heart!

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Arun Bhagat

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