“Be a child and keep your slate clean”

“Be a child and keep your slate clean”
P K Routray

To my query how to get bliss of life and live in peace,
My friend in advanced stage of spiritual path had an advice.
“Keep your slate clean and be a child in your action”.
To get the bliss in life, heeding his advice I concentrated my attention,
As he was a man of spiritual worth and to us he is above lust, anger and greed,
And a child is loved by all irrespective of cast, color and creed
I found my jealousy and lust are far more than that of the child,
To control the same I was failing since my senses had gone wild,
I had a feeling that with practice and outward acting,
The inner self gets cleaned and tuned to one’s purpose and liking.
Hence I decided to act hiding my inner feeling
For perfection in executing the child’s role I had to learn acting.
I promised to follow the advice in spirit and deeds,
With lot of determination to start following his advice, an auspicious day was fixed.,
Morning I got up and cried of course not for milk but for tea
My wife the ignorant and imbecile lady misunderstood and fired me stinging like a bee.
Forgot like a child her admonishment and also forgot my ablution as a part of my daily duty,
Instead I danced with my granddaughter to her utter delight.
Smiled, laughed and cried imitating her,
Fighting to own a toy given to her by her mother.
A doctor perhaps a psychiatrist was called,
I was given best of food and best of love which on the grandchild they might not have showered.
As a child, to all these treatments I pretended not to understand,
I saw the shadow of worries and anxieties on all faces and they did not dare to impose on me their daily demand.
I ignored and acted as if I have not understood any rebuke and tolerated the oft repeated censures which on a child they command.
Initially it was a pleasure and bliss for me,
I thanked my friend, the Guru as I thought I shall continue to live like a child with glee.
Acting to follow the advice had clicked; my usual fight, toil and tension got reduced to my delight.
But telling a lie to one self continuously and acting perfectly for long was too much for me hence the Guru’s advice I could no more hold tight.
I argued with self that pain and pleasures are inherently woven intimately in men,
The feelings for them cannot be altered so that you cry in pleasure and laugh in pain.
The sweetness to tongue, melody to the ear and beauty to the eye,
A saint or a sage cannot alter the feeling however he may try.
When the child starts reacting to the feelings of hotness and coldness is unknown,
It is built in our system and with any amount of penance and austerity it cannot be thrown.
If God has given both good and bad to stay together, let us face them both as inevitability,
Let us season ourselves to see both enjoyment and harassment on our emotion with equanimity.
At last I understood the underlying teachings in the advice live,
“Annihilate all negativity developed on this earth after the age of five”,
As from dawn to dawn, since time unknown for a man, both positivity and negativity prevail,
What can be the possible methods to kill negativity so that with only positivity a man can excel?
Perhaps man is a man and not a divine being or demon and to have only virtues and vice,
With joy and sorrow, love and hate he has to live and flourish.
If food is only sweet or only salty, it does not suit to our taste either
For human life a little lie and a little truth, a little pleasure and little pain make it lively and healthier.
If search for bliss has to be made as the sole aim of life in this human birth,
Has anyone attained the same as a man with his practice of penance and austerity on this earth?
Let me live as a man with feelings of pleasure and pain, good and bad, sweet and bitter,
And enjoy the life as a divine gift without worrying further.