Haiku — 0038: Ashes

That after death, before birth.

It’s only apt that I start with Jurassic Park’s pearl of wisdom:

Life finds a way.

A land touched by fire,

A scorched end sowing seeds,

A cradle for life.

I come from a culture that sees fire (Agni) as something pious. It is both a destroyer and a purifier, a bringer of life. I can think of many examples even in the very limited segments of the Vedas that I know which talk about this aspect. One of the more famous epithets is the “Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya”, which talks about knowledge being the fire/light that dispels darkness.

But there is also a different cosmic proportion here. I mean, think big bang. Assuming that happened, was there a bigger example of fire in this whole universe?

The presently accepted theory of how our planet came to exist involves a lot of hot, burning rocks too. The land that was scorched to ashes sixty-six million years ago, has led to the evolution of mammals, up until us.

With all this in mind, please indulge in one more imagery — The one of fire symbolizing pure, all-consuming emotions — Be it joy, purpose, rage, grief, fear. The advent of something so very strong, the mind touched by this fire, and the aftermath of it burning every other thought and emotion in its wake.

And through the burning emotion, the self is also reformed, if we use the famous “crucible” analogy here. This leads to a renewal of other emotions and the new self, the cradle of life.

Very much like the Earth that rebound from a fire, into the planet we know and love today.

Life, the famous dialogue goes, finds a way.

Yesterday’s Haiku —

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