Poetry: Chandra Mohan Bhandari

Dr Chandra Mohan Bhandari

by Chandra Mohan bhandari

1. The Wilds

Life’s myriad forms
Born and flourished
In the cradle of the wilds
Evolution rules
Survival of the fittest
The fittest take charge
Inhabit the human zoo.

Civilisation on the rise
Wilds on decline
Plunder to continue.
Planet shivers in pain,
The stage has come
That none can reign;
The scars remain
Nature’s very own
On a rampaging spree.
Distancing of life
From life giving wilds, 
All set to define
Culture’s intrinsic value.

A grand cultural tale
Got lost in trails
Centred around greed
And self-defeating goals.


The planet, the lives
And life giving wilds
Looming disaster already on cards
The ultimate is yet to unfold
Someday the tale
Would take its rounds
If enough survive
To tell and be told.

2. Reflections

Mountains, valleys,
Woods, meadows
Wilds in all manifestations
Rivers in their majestic flow
Flora and fauna
In their rich diversity
All set to grow.

On the other hand
Deserts, the barren lands,
Clouds in exotic forms
Cast their moving shadow
On the fields below.

Often I find
They are known to me
As I know those
I call my own
The forms out there
And also the formless
The flower, its fragrance,
The space unbound,
Chirping of birds
The forest around.
The raging storm,
The lightening, the rain
The burning sun,
The sound of a gutter
All these I feel within
Deep down my gut
Deeper in my mind.

A replica of these
Often find a reflection
In my psychic underground
My subconscious, unconscious
Seem modelled
On these very lines.

And the wilds in particular
As they gradually perish out there
Those whom I thought
Almost destroyed, invisible
They seem merely transferred
To the deep recesses of our minds.

3. Wisdom’s Evolution

Twenty five centuries back
The enlightened spoke of sorrow --
 It’s cause, and the ultimate cure:
 Avoid extremes,
Take the middle road.

Five centuries back,
A new wisdom dawned:
Reason on the driver’s seat,
Nature - man’s slave,
Forced to reveal her secrets
To the master
Who deviated much too far
From the middle road.

Another move forward
Yet another revelation
Evolution has at its base
Copying errors in reproduction,
All life including mankind
Appears on the scene
As by-products and
A testimony of copying errors.

A by-product of errors –
A great compliment indeed
What an enlightenment?
A new wisdom is dawned;
Not difficult to guess
Why life is sorrow’s ultimate abode,
Hotbed of conflict and confusion
With no solution at hand.

Setu, March 2019