Philosophy
Dr. R. Rabindranath Menon
The term is familiar, not its contents,
it’s an overcoat to cover all the vents
of expression from closed tents.
Challenged by and between dilemma’s horns,
one taking it as the Ultima Thule
of all knowledge, the others a mere schedule
of views oft conflicting; its real role
few comprehended, as a time-bound
compendium of knowledge in a sound
framework of pros and cons
that probes, propounds and warns
against take certainties, to find the truth.
Philosophies abound and each age
perceives a truth-face perhaps
according to its ability and intent,
and each discovery we need to gage
against the time, it’s level, it’s stage
of developing a liberal visage.
Conception of right and wrong differ
even of nobility and meanness,
and each era distils its thoughts to offer
its judgment, free at times of under duress.
The grand mist of time covers all,
and truth survives in the final roll-call.
Adavaita, Dvaita, and Vishistadvaita,
Monism, dualism and in between
cogitations valid in respective scenes.
Sartre’s humanism where existence
preceded essence, the Hegelian insistence
an force and a tragic view of time’s tense
progress, the ubiquitous presence
of Marxian dialectics, each has a place
as a phase or aspect of truth and can’t replace
the other without a valid doubt’s trace