Of Bugs and Buddha
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What happens when Franz Kafka’s existential dread meets the ancient wisdom of the Oracle of Delphi and Indic philosophy? This tongue-in-cheek sonnet sequence explores the absurdity of the human ego, which often morphs our inner anxieties into a creeping cockroach. Ultimately, it offers a witty reminder: to the true witness consciousness (Sakshi), whether we wake up as a bug or a butterfly matters very little as these two tongue-in-cheek sonnets, jointly captioned, Of Bugs and Buddha, says Aniruddha.
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Sonnet 1: A cockroach nor a butterfly
As a man’s often given to despair
That he, nor what’s his Self, exists at all,
Or he, a human only short while ere,
Has morphed unto what a cockroach we call---
Laid flat in bed upside down on its back,
Legs, all the six, wildly flailing in air,
Oh, what a Kafkan dilemma to crack!
Perchance it’s no more than a dark nightmare.
A man in him finds what he represses,
Be it hatred, envy or jealousy,
They undergo a metamorphosis,
A cockroach inside him, no heresy.
Now, if what he calls ‘I’ is mere witness,
Cockroach or butterfly, it matters less.
Sonnet 2: Let man be an escape artist
Cockroach or butterfly, it matters less
To witness, man’s divine identity---
Truth that dissolves man’s every ugliness.
Yet, ego is man’s mundane entity---
An escape artist in circus called life.
Two inscriptions as engraved at Delphi,
Apollo’s temple, seem sharper than knife:
‘Know thyself’, and ‘Nothing in excess’ try.
That, extremes to be avoided is clear:
Hell and heaven, cockroach and butterfly,
Whatever the nightmare, there’s naught to fear,
Life’s miseries emanate from mind nigh,
And so is an early morning’s nightmare,
If only man’s not given to despair.
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Musings (tongue-in-cheek) |22.09.2026 | bugs, Buddha, butterfly, despair, nightmare, truth, Sonnet
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