One Stop Poetry Spotlight, Shashidhar Sharma (aka Shashi)

Welcome to Dustus Friday
on One Stop Poetry!

If you participate in One Shot Poetry Wednesday, then chances may be good that you are familiar with Shashidhar Sharma.  But did you know that Shashi is a 46 year-old CEO of a small interior contracting firm based in Chennai, India? He works mainly on large office projects and has been in the field of Architectural and Interior Designs for the past 22 years. In addition to his poetry and professional career, he is also a Karma Yogi.

What is a Karma Yogi?

Shashi: "In simple words... it is to do what comes to your table with your 100% sincerity and hard work, and then don't worry for the results. The key point here is what comes to you as ourselves, being the part of universal consciousness, will attract only right things for us to do. I again firmly believe, is that what is good, or required by universal consciousness for us to do, will come to us on its own as our nature will attract it towards us. The second active part is don’t worry for the results, which basically means that worry is negative, and it will end up attracting negative things for you— so you should not worry about things that you have finished doing because you could not have done any thing more, if in the first place you have had already given your 100% to the work, situation, or things at your table handled with all your dedication and hard work. You could not have done any better; what is the point of worrying?

Why did you start writing poetry?

Shashi: "I started writing poetry and blogs through very interesting but slow development. Being born in a Brahmin (the priest class) family at a place (located near Buddha’s Nirvana Place as well as one of the most holy city in India, Varanasi) spirituality was in my blood, if I can say so. My family was full of spiritual guru’s, hence Vedic rituals, mantra chanting, and sound of temple bells were my morning alarms. All this environment and close proximity to swami’s, astrologers, and Vedic scholars gave me a false sense of confidence about knowing spirituality and being spiritual. Slowly as I grew up and started reading books, religious scriptures like Bhagavad Gita, Veda, Bible, Koran etc..., I realized my total ignorance.

Unknowingly, in the beginning, I started my spiritual journey with basic questions like what is life, and why we suffer etc....Over a period of time, during this journey of life, I started learning many things, knowing many things, internally, which included the realization that we are here for some purpose that needs to be explored and realized. Search for that reason, lead me to many excursions through books, many journeys to Himalayas, spiritual centers like Rishikesh, Varanasi, places in south India, and ultimately turned inwards to inner self.

This inner journey needed an expression externally. Hence, I started writing my thoughts—first on the personal blogs and then later on publically, in order to give body to my thoughts, experiences, and learning; which I can go back to, to relive, re-learn, re-collect. In the beginning, I started taking pictures, but then they were inadequate as they gave those powerful places, nature, emotions a body but not the soul. So I started writing poetry, free form of Haiku’s, my thoughts, etc..."

And now a few selected poems from Shashi....

OLD MAN AT THE GHAT

I saw the old man at the Holy Ghat
Long time back, but
He still continues to follow
Me and my thoughts
Incite me to dig deeper
On life
On death
On the path that he has lost.

He does not know
I am handicapped too
By pain, loss and loneliness
Life to be, has become
A colorless phase
Slowly passing by, grain by grain
Like the sand, in the hour glass.

I have no clear vision
But only a blind spot of living
Even dreams are marred
By imposter Hopes
Playing kaleidoscope of light
At the end of life’s tunnel

Why there is a light,
only at the end
Which never ends, Alive
In the end
And we blindly live, on and on

Yet I keep walking, on and on
Dripping past Karma
In drops of sweat, tear and duty
Believing, drop by drop
I am loosing it all

The life’s been so long and slow
The old man caught up
Holding my hand,
Talking
Knowing
Feeling
That I am lost too
In the maze of life

Dust claims dust
We will die too
Karmic baggage still
All intact and packed
Another journey
Another tunnel’s end

****************
Pain is
When you feel like
Stopping the sunrise

****************

WHISPERS OF DISTANT STARS
 
The valley silently
Unfolded herself
As you walked across
To sit besides me
And smile

The birds sang to
Tall and silent Deodar Trees
In their melodious songs
And you reached out
To hold my hand

Looking through the setting sun
Smiling through the distant stars
Whispering to me
In the bird songs
That you missed me

And I turned around
To find you
Far away from me
But
I could still kiss you

****************

“...Today, if you ask me, where I am. I am not sure yet, but I am experimenting with and living the life of Karma Yogi.  As, I have still not found the right path or the right reason for me. I am practicing Mantra Yoga for peace and positivity in life too (I actually started teaching the path of Mantra Yoga for meditation to few of very deserving and dedicated people online too). ” —Shashidhar Sharma

Check out more of Shashi's poetry @ http://shadowdancingwithmind.blogspot.com
Comments & feedback are always appreciated!

Cheers,
Adam