POEM_: ODA 101 - Laws, and Laws

ODA 101 – Laws, and Laws

Asked the disciple:

“So, all things in Nature

happen, as per Natural Laws?

“No”, said Oda,

“They do not.

“Citizenslive”,

continued Oda,

“as per the laws of their land. 

And courts judge,

as per those same laws.

“But laws arebroken”,

concluded Oda,

“Laws are ordained

by the powerful human beings, which other

less powerful ones, sometimes

endeavour to work, in contravention of.”

“But”, the confused disciple

blabbered: “Aren’t the laws of Nature,

similarly ordained by Nature?”

“Not really”, clarified Oda,

“Everything, including humans

is Nature.  And everything in Nature

works as per Nature.  A contravention

is notpossible.”

Oh, Oda,

now we understand, what you are telling

your disciple: Human laws

and Nature

are categoriesapart –

laws are those that can be broken;

Nature’s working, is always natural –

no contravention is possible,

no matter how much

it seemsto be so.

Thus, Nature’s “laws” are not mere

laws.  They are

the Reality,

the Truth,

the Nature.

That, I do not understand

what isnatural, in what situation

is a testimony to my ignorance;

and the seeming contravention

of the Natural

is onlythe failure

of mydogma!

And my dogma

any dogma

can bea law; a law,

not the Reality.

Not the Truth.

Not the Nature.

We mustn’t term them laws:

the Realities of Nature;

for then, we begin to believe

that like the laws of the humans,

the Nature’s “laws”

are also “made”

and canthus be “broken”. 

And Nature, thus

can be at par

or inferior

to our dogmas,

springing out of our

infinitesimally partial knowledge,

and humungous ignorance.

-

owais

-

This is first being published here. A note on this poem below...

This poem is about how we get confused between Natural 'laws', and human laws: Human laws are conventions that we have accepted as supportive of quality in our lives, while Natural 'laws' are actually the way Nature works.  The fundamental difference is that human laws can be flouted by some, or even all of us.  However, Nature, or Reality works the way it does: the Sun never rises in the West, and when it will, it will do so perfectly naturally.  Nothing and no one can ever countermand the Natural 'laws', quite irrespective of the quantum of ignorance we have of those ‘laws’. 

Even the most uncertainty promoting principles of human knowledge, those of quantum mechanics primarily talk of the uncertainty merely in observation / knowledge.  There is no way it can be known for certain that everything is uncertain at quantum levels!  In fact, if things actually do function at random, then quite logically ours cannot be the only Universe, and by that token Reality is only an illusion!  What's worse, only an illusion out of infinite illusions!! 

It can therefore safely be said that Natural laws cannot be broken; not merely that we have never observed a natural law having been broken.  Thus, to call both kinds of 'laws' as laws is extreme idiocy.  It is this idiocy that has given sellers of various dogmas, especially the religious ones, a legitimacy which they can neither have, nor deserve.

This poem, which I have just written today, rues this blunder of ours.

--

ODA - I

ODA - I

Oda woke up

from his long slumber.

Or, did he?

Was he merely dreaming

that he had woken up?

Or, at least,

that he was waking up?

Oda had slept through

all his life,

all the long, five decades

that he had existed

biologically.

Part of the sleep

was, of course,

actual sleep.

Part of the sleep

was, of course,

the zombified living

that we all do: lost in

‘the dreary desert sand of dead habit’.

Part of the sleep

was also, of course,

the sum of those rare moments

when he was fully awake,

fully aware, fully living.

But perhaps, that sum,

Oda felt today,

was so miniscule,

the moments of awareness so rare

as to merely constitute

a dream:

a vivid, a realistic,

a colourful dream.

But a dream, nevertheless.

And today,

he had decided to make

that dream, a reality:  

he had decided to remain awake,

aware

for the remaining moments

of his life.

He told himself

that he must now

be mindful always. 

If he could, even during

his biological sleep.

Would Oda keep his word

that he had given himself?

Could he?

Only time

will tell.

-

owais

--

This is first being published here.