Wake up Winebringer! Wake up Winebringer! And pour me a glass of wine. Throw dust on the head of this sad earth man. I’ve taken off my snazzy blue coat and bare-chested I clutch this full cup. Even though the rich or the politicians call us “trash,” To us their blue blood or fame means nothing. Give me more wine! All their dust blowing around in the wind of pride And desire is as worthless as a hole. The smoke from my burning heart Gags all those with ignorance as their goal. My mad heart has a secret That no one knows. The Beloved has stolen even the sweet solitude from my heart, And I am content. No one who has ever laid eyes on this silver-limbed Cypress, Would ever go looking in the woods for a cypress again. “Hafez,” the voice of inner wine will say; “Be careful what you ask for, you may just get what you want!” By:Hafez
"If I Adore You" by Rabia al Basri If I adore You out of fear of Hell, burn me in Hell! If I adore you out of desire for Paradise, Lock me out of Paradise. But if I adore you for Yourself alone, Do not deny to me Your eternal beauty.
Love - Corinithians 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a tinkling symbol. And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I dole out all my goods, and if I deliver my body that I may boast but have not love, nothing I am profited. Love is long suffering, love is kind, it is not jealous, love does not boast, it is not inflated. It is not discourteous, it is not selfish, it is not irritable, it does not enumerate the evil. It does not rejoice over the wrong, but rejoices in the truth From: Corinthians 13
Apocalypse Within, without the cosmos wide am I; In joyful sweep I loose forth and draw back all. A birthless deathless Spirit that moves and is still Ever abides within to hear my call. I who create on earth my joys and doles To fulfil my matchless quest in all my play, I veil my face of truth with golden hues And see the serpent night and python day. A Consciousness Bliss I feel in each breath; I am the self amorous child of the Sun. At will I break and build my symbol sheath And freely enjoy the world's unshadowed fun. By: Sri Chinmoy
Why wilt thou examine every little fibre of my soul, Spreading them out before the sun like stalks of flax to dry. The infant joy is beautiful, but its anatomy Horrible, ghast, and deadly: nought shalt thou find in it But death, despair, and everlasting brooding melancholy. William Blake in The Four Zoas.
Does the sun walk in glorious raiment on the secret floor Where the cold miser spreads his gold; or does the bright cloud drop On his stone threshold? Does his eye behold the beam that brings Expansion to the eye of pity; or will he bind himself Beside the ox to thy hard furrow? Does not that mild beam blot The bat, the owl, the glowing tiger, and the king of night? The sea fowl takes the wintry blast for a cov'ring to her limbs, And the wild snake the pestilence, to adorn him with gems and gold; And trees, and birds, and beasts, and men behold their eternal joy. Arise you little glancing wings, and sing your infant joy! Arise, and drink your bliss, for everything that lives is Holy! William Blake in The Visions of the Daughters of Albion.
Magnificent Existence God has made existence magnificent, He has made it through nonexistence. He has concealed the sea And exposed the foam, Concealed the wind and displayed the dust. The whirling dust flies like a dancer, The wind is invisible, known only by trust, The foam moves all about you, But without the sea no whirling takes place. Thought is hidden, speech is manifest. By: Rumi
Song of a Dream Once in the dream of a night I stood Lone in the light of a magical wood, Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang; And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang, And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed, And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed In that magical wood in the land of sleep. Lone in the light of that magical grove, I felt the stars of the spirits of Love Gather and gleam round my delicate youth, And I heard the song of the spirits of Truth; To quench my longing I bent me low By the streams of the spirits of Peace that flow In that magical wood in the land of sleep.. By: Sarojini Naidu
Forever Dance I am happy even before I have a reason. I am full of Light even before the sky Can greet the sun or the moon. Dear companions, We have been in love with God For so very, very long. What can Hafiz now do but Forever Dance! - Hafiz
The Lord Is In Me The Lord is in me, and the Lord is in you, As life is hidden in every seed. So rubble your pride, my friend, And look for Him within you. When I sit in the heart of His world A million suns blaze with light, A burning blue sea spreads across the sky, Life's turmoil falls quiet, All the stains of suffering wash away. Listen to the unstruck bells and drums! Love is here; plunge into its rapture! Rains pour down without water; Rivers are streams of light. How could I ever express How blessed I feel To revel in such vast ecstasy In my own body? This is the music Of soul and soul meeting. Of the forgetting of all grief. This is the music That transcends all coming and going. -Kabir
Love More No remedy for black hate? Who says? Just love And love more, That's all. No remedy for helpless fear? Who says? Just love And love more, That's all. No remedy for blind darkness? Who says? Just love And love more, That's all. No remedy for lengthy bondage? Who says? Just love And love more, That's all. By: Sri Chinmoy
Do not go to the garden of flowers! O Friend! go not there; In your body is the garden of flowers. Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty. -Kabir
Carrying God No one can keep us from carrying God Wherever we go. No one can rob His Name From our heart as we try to relinquish our fears And at last stand -- Victorious. We do not have to leave him in the mosque Or church alone at night; We do not have to be jealous of tales of saints Or glorious masts, those intoxicated souls Who can make outrageous love with the Friend. We do not have to be envious of our spiritsÕ ability Which can sometimes touch God in a dream. Our yearning eyes, our warm-needing bodies, Can all be drenched in contentment And Light. No one anywhere can keep us From carrying the Beloved wherever we go. No one can rob His precious Name From the rhythm of my heart -- Steps and breath. by: Hafiz
IN MY SOUL In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I knee. Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist. Is there not a region of love where the sovereignty is illumined nothing, where ecstasy gets poured into itself and becomes lost, where the wing is fully alive but has no mind or body? In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church that dissolve, that dissolve in God. Rabia al Basri
Andal praises the day (NANNAL)that has appeared of its own accord for the observance of the vow.What it means is that for a soul,that day is the Good Day when he understands all about himself and God and their mutual relationship of Lord and Servant which is stated in the Tirumantram. 2.The fruit in getting one's body is for serving the Lord here and hereafter (NEERADA PODUVIR) 3.All those who have a longing for the service of the Lord are qualified to join her.(PODUVIR PODUMINO) 4.She speaks of the radiance that attended on the face of her companions on hearing her requisition.(MADI NIRAINDA ;the moon is not in the sky alone!) 5.The prosperity of Gokula consists of Sri Krishna's amiable pranks in stealing butter and girls; i.e.,the wealth of a Sri Vaishnava consists of his intoxicating love for and enjoyment of Lord's company. 6.Nandagopa's vigilance in guarding Krishna with his very sharp spear in hand symbolises the "ASTHANE BHAYA-SANKA" and "MANGALASASANA-PARATA" which characterises a SriVaishnava. Yasoda's over-indulgence of Krishna is responsible for all his pranks and misbehaviour towards the young gopis. 8.SrimanNarayana is the SOLE MEANS of attaining His Feet. This strikes the keynote of the Song Divine-TIRUPPAVAI. NARAYANANE (Upaya Swarupam) NAMAKKE (Adhikari Swarupam) PARAI (Phala Swarupam) TARUVAN.The safest means of securing Him is not Karma yoga etc but His Grace only. That is the sum and substance of this verse.
The Music My friend, the stain of the Great Dancer has penetrated my body. I drank the cup of music, and I am hopelessly drunk. Moreover I stay drunk, no matter what I do to become sober. Rana, who disapproves, gave me one basket with a snake in it. Mira folded the snake around her neck, it was a lover's necklace, lovely! Rana's next gift was poison: "This is something for you, Mira." She repeated the Holy Name in her chest, and drank it, it was good! Every name He has is praise; that's the cup I like to drink, and only that. "The Great Dancer is my husband," Mira says, "rain washes off all the other colors." ~Mirabai~
If A Tree Could Wander Oh, if a tree could wander and move with foot and wings! It would not suffer the axe blows and not the pain of saws! For would the sun not wander away in every night ? How could at ev'ry morning the world be lighted up? And if the ocean's water would not rise to the sky, How would the plants be quickened by streams and gentle rain? The drop that left its homeland, the sea, and then returned ? It found an oyster waiting and grew into a pearl. Did Yusaf not leave his father, in grief and tears and despair? Did he not, by such a journey, gain kingdom and fortune wide? Did not the Prophet travel to far Medina, friend? And there he found a new kingdom and ruled a hundred lands. You lack a foot to travel? Then journey into yourself! And like a mine of rubies receive the sunbeams? print! Out of yourself ? such a journey will lead you to your self, It leads to transformation of dust into pure gold! ~Rumi
A NOISELESS, patient spider, I mark'd, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated; Mark'd how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself; Ever unreeling them--ever tirelessly speeding them. And you, O my Soul, where you stand, Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,--seeking the spheres, to connect them; Till the bridge you will need, be form'd--till the ductile anchor hold; Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul. - Walt Whitman
(The Thousand-hooded Serpent) Shesha, Ganesha,Mahesha (Shiva), Dinesha (Sun), Suresh (Indra) all sing in HIS praise HE who is infinite, endless, unbreakable, unpiercable, undifferentiable, so the Good Vedas say Narada, Sukhdeva, Vyasa have all failed in their quest to fathom HIM And yet the daughters of cowherds make HIM dance for a glass of buttermilk Gods like Shiva and Brahma wish to spread dharma through dhyana But because Raskhan has a good heart,Krishna comes to him, even though he[Raskhan] is unintelligent Beautiful wives of the Gods would not hesitate to give their lives for HIM And yet the daughters of cowherds make HIM dance for a glass of buttermilk