Narendra Modi - A Poem

Here is a poem by Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India

You will feel proud of the man.

Inspiration for New Life

Mother

I bow to thy feet.

The final day of the camp.

Until yesterday

There was rush and work and urge for whose construction

Now inclines towards dispersal all that arrangement

These short-term arrangements

Are like the symbols of human life!

This world too is like this!

Who doesn’t know it is an illusion?

But why then human mind

Get emancipated from it?

All this is meaningless.

This sorrow, this pleasure, this bliss,

This satisfaction, this tendency, this aspiration,

This desire – all that are transient.

Perhaps satisfaction gives a fleeting bliss,

Maybe mental resolution will be achieved,

Maybe there will be contentment to conquer the others,

But this satisfaction too is transient.

As it is, the joy of attainment in the mortal world is especially transient.

Still, Mother, everybody including me

Is after achievement.

Why so? In fact, in human heart

Where is expected to cultivate culture

Why does there arises

A tempest of such transient tendencies?

This is the tempest that raises human

From his base life

To throw far.

Mother…as a human I too

Will be a victim as natural.

Eternal desires, eternal satisfaction,

Awakening of eternal desires,

Is there no way out?

Perhaps the eternal desires will enlighten

The path of eternally contented life.

The discovery of that path is

The greatest introspection of human life.

I have experienced the bliss of introvert life.

There is contentment of fulfilment.

Extrovert life may be impressive,

But not inspiring.

Extrovert life will focus on the aura,

But introvert life will manifest inner-self.

Inner life has no noise,

It is replete with silent peace.

A quiet stream flows continuously.

This stream may not be able to fertilise

The whole land, but this quiet stream

Certainly infuses life into barren land.

It too has unique bliss.

The stream creates a true, quiet dialogue,

In which melody of music jingles

And then human tingles with it.

How short-lived is the flow.

No sound, no noise, no mass like a lake,

No tempest like an ocean, no flow like a river,

Still the stream is self-contented!

Tiny strength of it even

Marks multitude within it.

Yes, this all is grateful to introvert abidance.

So its area of influence

Sharpness of its impact – is not all despite size,

How sharp is its motivation?

It is the outcome of that discontinuous flow without a desire.

My eternal flow of inner-self is linked to it inseparably.

No destination, no rest is possible.

This liveliness of its becomes fragrant,

Inspires for new life.

Mother…all this is true yet

I am going against it.

Free from quiet, healthy mind,

I am seeking noise.

No confusion exists in the mind.

Mother…I am aware.

Now this body has to ascend a new theatre.

I have to adorn it as per the new theatre.

I have to transform as per the new theatre

All my organs of the body –

Mind, intellect, heart.

Mother…it will occur with your blessings,

You will have to make feel liveliness there,

But I am after the soul, the inner soul

Now I shall be with you by this inner soul.

How I appear before the world

Has no significance in my heart.

The eternal flow of my inner-self

Is inseparably connected to you.

No goal, no rest is possible.

Perhaps this devotion of mine

Will preserve me in this inner-outer situation.

                                                                        --Narendra Modi

Date : 9 December, 1986

                                                            (English Rendering by : A.K. Gandhi)