Experiment With Truth, Now With Instrument Poem by Bashyam Narayanan

Experiment with truth,
Now with instrument
A TV programme is
Presently being aired
Where telling truths
Will help a person
Win rupees to the tune of a crore

Truth is here defined
As telling what is there
In the thought

Truth is sharing your thought,
Which most of us
Will not like to do
As many of us
Nurse bad, wild and ugly thoughts

This programme
With the award it projects
Induces people to come out
With what they thought, think and will think
At a specific a past, present and
Probable possible future event
An instrument, they call it polygraph
Detects whether what is said is true or otherwise
As it is capable of
Recording changes in
Blood pressure,
Pulse rate,
Electrocardiogram
And similar other
Changes in circulatory and nervous systems
That occur
When a person misrepresents
His thought

This programme is held
In the presence of persons
Involved in the participant’s life

All look fine till the time
When the truth shared by the person
Revolves around him/her and
Does not surface the actual thought process
With regard to the relationships
With others,
And especially those who are on the stage
And witnessing the event

Though the participant can
Have the satisfaction of
Having shared his/her thoughts
People in his/her life
Are coming to know
Who actually the participant is
And this understanding
Has the potential to break relationships
Beyond repair

While truth pays
It lays foundation
For hatred

Experimenting the truth
Within is spiritual and
Experimenting the truth
Without is commercial

Truth triumphs
If a clear cut battle line is drawn
Between truly true
And truly otherwise people

Truth never changes
But in this instrumental experimentation
With thoughts forming the base
So called truths change
As thoughts change with
Changing environ and experience

So branding some of the
Declarations of the participants
As True or otherwise
Is unacceptable to those
Who believe in truth

Truth wins wealth
In this programme
But, truth really wins people’s hearts
And brings them nearer
Not breaks their relations,
Which this declaration for the sake
Of winning currency can do

It is enough if you know
What you think
You need not put them across
To earn a wealth
As this could threaten
Relationships on which foundation
The entire human race rests

Be truthful
For the sake of being truthful
Not for the sake of becoming rich

Truth is truth
Only when it can unite people
And it is not truth
If it can bring in disunity

Even the life sustaining oxygen gas
Has to be inhaled with
Other gases as well
And then only it will be
Beneficially absorbed and be helpful
In ensuring survival

So too is truth

Truth is like fire
Play with it safely
Unsafe and overindulgence
May engulf human race