My Voice
“Cogito ergo sum,” I think, therefore I exist — René Descartes.
In the first Mandala of the Rigveda, one of the seers says, “I can’t say that I know myself; I wander around with a heavy mind with thoughts to understand who I am. Whatever truth comes to me, I take my share.”
“The systems view of life involves a new kind of thinking – thinking in terms of relationships, patterns, and context. In science, this way of thinking is known as ‘systems thinking’ or ‘systemic thinking’.”
In human life, thinking is mostly systemic, though our thinking is not reasonable many times. A man is thinking a lot, mostly for his own benefit, his own beliefs, his own needs, and many things around him. We are living in a time when the boundaries of human hearts are shrinking. Our beliefs are struggling with others’ beliefs. At this time, if our thoughts are not as systematic as needed for the service of the universe, for Nature, and for the welfare of the living and also non-living things around us, they cannot be called systems thinking.
Systematic thinking is important for philosophy and science at the same time. Poetry is the language of both kinds of knowledge.
Poetry was the language which introduced man to nature, which gave him the strength to talk to the Creator of the universe, and which gave him the power to create his own deities, beliefs, and ideologies.
This is the power which introduced man to the scientific world. Omar Khayyam was a good mathematician and an astronomer at the same time; he was also a good poet. The Indian astronomer Bhaskaracharya II could write Leelavatiyam, the best mathematics book in poetry.
Understanding one’s own self is the base of philosophy, and the language of philosophy is poetry.
In modern times, when the whole world is burning in the fire of pain, sorrow, and suffering, the idea of globalization is fading. The leaders of prominent countries are talking about building up walls between developed and underdeveloped countries. The unity between countries is breaking down, and the walls of hatred are growing between people. In such difficult times, we need a language in which we express the pain of the whole world, including human beings and animals—a language which has the same emotion and which can help us to talk in a more humane way.
Poetry is such a language. In poetry, emotions matter more than words. When the poet talks about his time and space, it crosses the boundaries of the personal and reaches the wider expanse of the universal.
In this world scourged by violence, inequality, terrorism, and forced migrations and disappearances, and the painful situation of refugees fleeing war, violence, and hunger, we cannot expect from its poets and artists anything less than forceful action deploying the best of the human spirit. Poetry comes from the heart and connects the heart. Poetry is beyond caste, color, and creed, as it has only one color and one faith, and that is love and humanity.
Does it mean that the poetry of modern times is becoming the voice of resistance? Here is the question: why do poets have to stand against all odds? Why do they have to withdraw to their own dens? Are they destined to work as social workers?
Traditional poetic theories take poets as seers of beauty or philosophy. Even at that time, poetry was not isolated from society. The Kavya Mimansa (a book of poetics) says, if the feelings of a poet cannot reach the common people, what is the use of his being a poet? In Harshcharit, too, it is said, “What is the use of a language which cannot fit in the world?”
Poetry can be therapy for burning humanity; at the same time, it cures our mind and inner soul. Historically, the first poetry therapist on record was a Roman physician by the name of Soranus in the first century A.D., who prescribed tragedy for his manic patients and comedy for those who were depressed. It is not surprising that Apollo is the god of poetry as well as medicine, since medicine and the arts were historically entwined.
For many centuries, the link between poetry and medicine remained obscure. It is of interest to note that Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, which was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1751, employed many ancillary treatments for its mental patients, including reading, writing, and publishing of their writings.
“The poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious; what I discovered was the scientific method by which the unconscious mind can be studied.”
— Sigmund Freud said.
In Indian philosophy, the word is called a supreme power, Shabd Shakti; Kabir said, ‘Shabd sadhna kije.’
We all poets and poetry lovers are Sadhaks of the Word, meaning poetry, and we have to use this power for the welfare of humanity, nature, and man himself.
May our poetry festivals be the venues where poetry can speak to us in words loud and clear, where each of us gets to see what we need to see and help others to see, where we can put our heads together and understand our responsibilities. Let us capitalize on poetry’s inherent capacity to soothe, comfort, and instill hope even in the most troubled times and at times of loss. Let us wield the power of the spoken word to craft a more meaningful, “brave new world.”
I finish with a few lines of my poem-
Poetry is not iron,
Poetry is not iron,
but cuts the iron.
In iron there is no poetry,
but the sharpness of poetry.
Rati Saxena