We Brag That India Is The Land Of Sages And Saints Poem by Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

We brag that India is the land of sages and saints

They retired from the world enamoured of divine colloquy

Their feelings have been recorded in the Vedas and the Upanisads

They lived in the forests and sang hymns to Nature

They worshipped Nature in her every mood

They worshipped the storm they worshipped the flood

They worshipped the corn they worshipped the woods

The fiercest and the poisonous animals they loved

Nature was at the centre of their thought

They felt that they were the offsprings of Nature

And they searched Nature in their innermost heart

Today their descendants—I mean the sages and saints

Of India today brag that they inherit the lore of the Vedas and the Upanisads

But they have retired into massive palaces

Built at the places of pilgrimage

And the built space has destroyed Nature in all its aspects

Oh Durkheim Oh Coleridge

Men do distinguish the sacred from the profane even today

But it is no longer the forest where one could wail for her demon lover

It has to be a temple as massive and gorgeous as the Pentagon

Or as imposing as the Eiffel Tower

The gurus have their personal boeings and shatter the primordial noise

With noise

Oh gods have fled from the holy places

Haridwar and Hrisikesh are the sites

Where billions of dollars from India and abroad flow

Alas Adam Smith you could not guess how India could be great and wealthy