29.  At the End of Life Journey

An old man’s life is a barren land;

Who can make it a fertile land?

There is nothing to sow, nothing to reap;

All that remains is a waste in a heap

A man whose days are numbered

Continues life on lease borrowed.

God is the benevolent lease-giver

And man is the dependent lease-holder

A man whose hopes are shattered

And whose mind is always battered

By problems that he cannot solve

May in the end lose all his resolve.

Birth and death are the two events

In man’s life which is a non event.

If life is wasted or ruined

And is never going to be regained.

We are born sons of the soil,

We are ever bound to toil.

Our sweat is not going to be wasted,

Our reward will finally be tasted.

World is the dream of a waking man,

Heaven is the dream of a dying man;

For there his agonies would ever cease;

There his soul would rest in peace.

Some old people suffer from amnesia,

Some others suffer from insomnia.

Both of these make them weaklings.

What on earth can make them darlings?

There are old men who are in distress

And are very anxious about its redress.

They may have no children in their vicinity

Or may have children with no affinity.

To live in this world more or to leave it sooner-

This is the thought of many a long-sufferer.

What do they gain by more suffering

If they can’t make it to God an offering?

There are multitudes bemoaning the passing away

Of big men who in their own days held sway

Over the minds and hearts of ordinary men;

But this bemoaning ends as the day passes away.

Life on earth is not one of perpetuity;

It is a life of continuity.

The next passage is to eternity

Where we enjoy God’s paternity

Death comes to all at the destined moment,

But great achievements remain as a monument

When time passes and all the rest are forgotten,

Not to say anything of the ill-gotten.