Knowledge is my Bane

When you were born, I was your only guide. There were others to tell you what to do and how to do it.
But you were too young, you did not understand them. But you understood me.
Even today you can understand me, if you let yourself. But you won’t, because today you have Knowledge.

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There was a time I ruled the earth. I still do, as far as all the other species go. I am still king.
They still do what I command. But no longer for humans. Humans only have an ear for me in their infancy.
Then my influence fades even as quickly as a child’s footprint on the snow. Only visible until a fresh layer of snow falls, or a brief wind blows. Such is the effect that Knowledge has on my will.

Without Knowledge, every being on Earth bows to me. And only in this way can they achieve the perfect balance. For all beings were perfect when they were created.
But Knowledge intervenes. It gives vain ideas of a better life, of an improved world, harmony, structure, peace.

There will never be peace. Peace is not perfection, peace is a falsity. The concept of peace is my single greatest enemy after Knowledge himself, for it is a minion that comes tagging along with Knowledge.

The world was not meant to be this way. There is a delicate balance, beyond the comprehension of the wisest of you. You presume to understand, yet with each grain of Knowledge you edge yourself away from perfection. You slave away to better yourself, but if one strains to move away from perfection, then each success in his attempt is a failure to his cause.

Would that the world returned to its origins, where men did not question, they did not possess Knowledge enough to frame a question. They obeyed. And since I am not external, but internal, men do not feel enslaved, but it seems to them that they act of their own volition, when it is in fact I that is guiding them every step of the way. Only I know the balance, only I know the structure. For I am taught by Mother Nature herself, and any who question her laws are doomed to a life of imperfection and failure.

When I instruct a man to kill, he must kill. It may not serve him well, it may do him naught but harm, he may rue his decision. And he may question it. But it was necessary. For there is a greater balance.

And there was a time when he would have listened. There was a time when, though he could see no good coming from his action, he would listen to me, and he would act.
 Today, you would call him a savage, but he is, in fact, much closer to perfection than you, vain fool!
It is he that serves the purpose of his creation, he does not presume to be greater than he is, and he does not disobey the laws of the very earth that gave him existence. He may not understand why, or indeed if at all he is helping, but I see all, and I know he has served a greater cause than all the rest of your pretenders put together.

But you are too far gone now, you will not realize it until it is too late, though you prattle on about it incessantly. Even under the curse of destruction, you seek a lifeline from Knowledge, the very cause of your demise.
You had all the answers, right in front of you. And you threw it away, seeking Knowledge instead.

And once you are finished, you shall realize the folly of your endeavors.  You will wish you had listened to me. For I am the purest form of command.

I am Instinct. And Knowledge is my bane.

To The Victor Go The Spoils

In every war that has been

The victor has told the story

Defiling opponents' names

Enhancing his own glory

It is inevitable, I suppose

That when such tales are told

Lies creep in to the narrative

And falsities manifold

And so when down the generations

These legends on are passed

The lies too, do accumulate

And a huge farce is amassed

……………………………………………………………………………

Which story has been told

To every child that is born

Ere slumber each night

And first thing again in the morn?

Which is the oldest fable

That man has ever weaved

And with the ancient legend

Many generations deceived?

It is that of religion, it is that of God

It is the question of how we came to be

How can I believe that this tale alone

Through all the eons has come unchanged to me?

What if this tale too

Like all others before

Was written by the victor

And inconsistencies bore?

Do we live by his rules

On the off chance he was right

Or do we set our minds free

To let it roam where it might?

I know not the answer
And 'til this answer be found
To a life of blind faith
I, at least, shan't be bound

Of Vegetarians

They would that all creatures live in harmony

Though be the cost of that harmony so dear

They would that we suffer for all eternity

Just so their consciences would be clear

The Path That Was Chosen

He strode upon the chosen path

Chosen for him by another

He was bound to it by the very love

That binds a child to his mother

He was tempted oft by fate and man

He resisted, exerting his will

He would not stray from his chosen path

His destiny he would fulfill

He continued as planned on course, on course

Not a foot did he put wrong

Never he wavered, never he faltered

His mother love burned still in him strong

But fate is wont to play many games

On the lives of righteous men

His whole life he had lived for her

But if she were to perish, what then? 

What was the point of all his endeavor?

What purpose was served by his pain?

For the one for whom he had worked all his life

By fate’s hand now lay slain

All the toils undertaken just for her joy

What good did it do now to this little boy?

He stood alone in the darkness, frozen

For he could no longer see the path that was chosen…

WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN

Whoever decided that Satan has to be a man? – Priyadarshini Dawn

WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN

There was a man and wife
Who loved each other so
Inseparable they were
As perfect couples go

They had made for themselves
A secluded spot for home
The garden buzzed with life
The river frothed with foam

This kind of glee
So heavenly
Was not a common sight
She laughed aloud
He gazed on, proud
For she set his world alight

But just one slip of the tongue it took
To shatter the very foundations
An existence based on the love of both
Was destroyed by one’s impatience

A passing remark, an innocent word
A moment when his guard was down
For the first time in many eons did
On her face bring an ugly frown

She took the comment to heart
She bore it in her mind
Her hands clasped and clawed
Her teeth did ominously grind

She could not bear the insult
Our fair mademoiselle
She turned his very existence
Into a living hell

He left her in despair
To find another place to live
He was a lonely man
But with a lot of love to give

With time his new beginning
Took shape in a beautiful land
He laid every brick himself
Tended every flower by hand

And so his new abode
Did all his worries erase
It was named by him “Heaven”
And it was unrivaled in grace

But even his departure could not
sate the woman’s desire
To see the man suffer
To see his world go down in fire

For she created a space
Most wretched to the eye
A place where all emotion
But Misery and Pain would die

Under her watchful eye
Such incredible destruction befell
Once all had been destroyed
She named the place “Hell”

They say hell hath no fury
Like a woman scorned
In truth, hell itself was thus
from the fury of woman born…

A Pious Man

Pray not for aid to One who made
A set of never-changing laws
But in your need remember well
He gave you speed, or guile, or claws.
                                       - Saki (For the Duration of the War)

A Pious Man

He lived his whole life by the Book
The Lord commandeth, and he did,
If temptation ever came his way
From Satan’s path he hid

His friends, they were not evil
Merely boys having some fun
He would not follow, but sit and read
The tale of the Lord’s Son

If they did implore him to join
He would give them a scathing look
And warn them of the hellfire awaiting
As was written in the Holy Book

At a certain age, he began to feel
The temptations of the flesh
But he rid those thoughts, for in his mind
The Holy verses still ran fresh

He abstained  from material belongings
Except for necessities bare
For he knew this was the trap by which
Sin did man ensnare

Only one thought did consume his mind
That once he did feel Death’s kiss
He would leave this cruel and trying world
And sail off into heavenly bliss

He did deny himself of every
Pleasure that the world could offer
Thinking, “Every sin I avoid here,
In heaven will fill my coffer.”

All of sixty years he lived
A pious man as can be
Naïve man! He knew not
Of life’s great irony

For Death did come his way
And he breathed his last breath of air
But now his life is over
And heaven is to be found nowhere...

Why Does The Chicken Cross The Road?

She had searched all through her life
But no results had it showed
She still did ask one and all
“Why does the chicken cross the road?”

She asked her mother this question
But no answer could she goad
Her mother had no answer
“Why does the chicken cross the road?”

She asked her father in the hope
That he would relieve her of her load
For the question still burdened her mind
“Why does the chicken cross the road?”

Her father gave no answer
But her quest for truth was not slowed
She still asked the question
“Why does the chicken cross the road?”

She decided to find out herself
And across the path she strode
In her eternal quest to find out
“Why does the chicken cross the road?”

She reached the other side
But she could see no change
She saw nothing special
She saw nothing strange

And now, though she made
The other side her abode
She still knew not the answer
“Why does the chicken cross the road?”