Let us look in the mirror (2)

| by Basil Fernando


[ February 26, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian] 

Let us look in the mirror
To discover ourselves
As Siri Narayana Guru taught
The Keralites

In the mirror in front us
We will see a big nasty cat
And many fearful rats

Who is this cat?
You may ask
Someone may venture to say
This name or that.

The cat is no one in fact
It is an image of the mind
The rats also are images
Prompted by fear

When we begin to see
The fear in our minds
And dispel it
The cat will disappear


We will begin to see
Our real strength
The cat image will dissolve
Our human faces will reappear

We are not rats
Our cowardice is rat-like
Rats always imagine cats
To remain as cats

Let us look in the mirror
Let us regain ourselves
When there is no fear
The cat will die.