खामोशी की खाई · The Chasm of Silence

English

Son, look: before you
lies the chasm of silence.
Cross it.
This is life,
a successful life.
I know that staying silent
is hard work.
Even so, do not speak.
Keep your eyes open,
keep watching and stay silent.
This is bliss,
this is life, a successful life.
You could speak,
you could shout at the top of your voice,
but the chasm is so deep
that a man drowns along with his scream
and no one knows.
Truly this chasm is very deep.
So much has drowned in it,
and still it is not full.
In it lie drowned Ram’s sacrifice,
Sita’s trial by fire,
the pride of the Kauravas,
Vikramaditya’s justice,
Harishchandra’s truth,
Meera’s devotion,
Laila’s cry,
lost far away, not yet returned.
This chasm is bottomless.
Nothing can be seen in it,
nothing heard,
not even the call of the Vedas.
The Gayatri mantra, the Buddha’s teaching,
the rubble of the world wars,
even the smoke of Hiroshima has sunk into it,
and still there is room.
Still it keeps falling in,
whatever was left in the name of humanity:
your faith, people’s honesty, brotherhood.
You can throw yours in too, if you wish,
if you have anything left.
But look ahead and walk straight,
silent, utterly quiet, holding your conscience steady.
The chasm is silent.
It pulls you towards itself,
it provokes you, forces you to speak,
but you must cross it quietly,
without a word.
That is the secret of crossing it.
Cross it.
This is life,
a successful life.