Being Is Enlightenment, Becoming Is Ignorance Poem by Bashyam Narayanan

You are on the move
Always
On an elevator
Or a belt conveyor
That keeps moving
Steadily and at the same speed
Since the day
You landed on this earth

And this winch or conveyor
Is driven by time

No one else is on your belt
Either ahead or behind
And you are the lone
Passer by in your elevator

Each second
This mover takes you
To a new situation
Unfolding to you
Shocks or surprises
Depending on what you
Have been expecting

Practically the next step ahead
Is in dark
And every thing becomes clear
Once you step in there
Giving you a feel that
It is all-continuous
With no break
And submerging you in a false understanding
That you know every thing that is happening
That will happen and that had happened

Once you move to the next scene
The scene left behind becomes hazy
And you will not be able to
Recollect the past events exactly

But you may remember
Vividly certain scenes and events
Depending on the
Pleasure or pain
With which they impacted you

You are always on the move
And nowhere you are stagnant

You invariably keep nursing
A thought of becoming something
What you are not presently
At that point of time

And never you know
Whether you have become that
Something which you want to
Become sometime before

You keep counting
On the experiences
Of the left behind situations
And you are hopeful of
This being helpful in
Shaping you to that
Which you want to become

You keep swinging from
What you were and
What you want to become
With no time left to you
For assessing what you are

Being aware of
What you are is wakefulness
Being lost in
What you want to become is
Ignorance as
Every thing ahead is in total darkness

Being is enlightenment
Becoming is ignorance