THE WIND OF THE LAMP

It was a sacred evening

of the “Festival of Lights.”

 

A tiny lamp had been lit by a child

in the verandah of his house,

where passersby could see

its symbolic flame of good’s victory

over evil.

 

Suddenly a puff of furious wind

came  and slaughtered  the flame.

 

The child sank into loud sadness. 

“The wind has no right to kill the flame ” he shouted ,

and by relitting the lamp felt elated.  

 

But the wind lost no time to revisit and re-extinguish

the flame; and the child who was determined  to defeat

the wind, relit the lamp and burst out:

 

”O mad wind, you cannot win this battle

against my lamp, which is a  source of eternal light.

 

The soul of the flame, a transient expression

of immortality, is in the lamp.   Like the human

soul , it, too, is governed by the law of reincarnation.

 

Each time you come, you will find me there   

to beat you away.

So, better abandon your vain attempts and bootless revisitings.  

  

                                                --------  

7^th November 2021                                          G.R.KANWAL