Wanting to see the world...

Wanting to see the world...
Before renouncing it...
My mind eagerly whirled...
Never letting me sit!


“Just show it what it wants!”,
One more voice in me said,
“Allow yourself some jaunts,
In a lulling soft tread!”


The lulled mind by me lured...
Was now much less restless.
This calm though, was secured,
By a pace more breathless!


If pace slowed the mind moaned,
Denied its feast of sights;
In mind's tow my limbs groaned,
Drained by these fancy flights!


“Just one more mile”, I thought,
“And that should be enough!”
The old urge though I fought,
Keeping my word was tough!


“To see more of the same,”
I ask my tired mind,
“Will you our whole life claim?
For ends you'll never find?”


The spent mind was silent,
And I could now sit still;
Though just for a moment,
I could muster my will.


In that moment I found...
That all I need is here!
But then somewhere around...
A stirring I could hear.


I told myself, “Stay still!”
But what did I just hear?
Now the mind will ask till
Its source is somehow clear.


Do I have everything...
That the stirred mind now seeks?
Or do I err sitting,
Unmoved when the World speaks?


Wanting to see this world...
Before renouncing it...
My mind eagerly whirled...
Never letting me sit!


So saying I look around...
And set out yet again...
Unseen sights still abound;
For things aren't where they'd lain!

-Arvind Iyer (1st July 2010)