The Journey Is Short

Life’s journey is short,
From birth to death, just a handful of years.
Within this brief span, we experience
Both rises and falls, sorrow and cheers.

Forgetting how short our journey is,
We fight, we wound, and even die,
For little things that scarcely matter,
Ready to take a life, forgetting why.

Childhood passes in playful delight,
Youth in love, romance, and pleasure.
Old age arrives before we realize,
As life slips away beyond our measure.

When death will come to claim us,
None of us truly knows.
Yet for wealth, possessions, and land,
Our endless strife and conflict grows.

For just a little piece of land,
We drag our disputes to court.
We spend our hard-earned lifetime savings,
Filling lawyers’ pockets as we fight.

Such is this journey—we never know
When we may be asked to leave the train.
Beyond that point, our journey ends;
No further movement will remain.

When our eyes close, our compartment vanishes;
Nothing remains within our sight.
The wealth we struggled hard to gather
Lies abandoned on the earth outright.

Human beings grow weary and breathless,
Struggling to live a hundred years,
Drinking the nectar and poison of life,
Through its triumphs, downfalls, joys, and tears.

From wherever we have come,
To wherever we are destined to go,
Within this brief span of life,
Why weave a tale so vast and slow?

Let us stop fighting and learn to love
Throughout this short journey of ours.
For the upliftment of humanity,
Let us work with all our powers.

— Vidya