Spiritual Poetry

From ‘Savitri’ by Sri Aurobindo.



This bodily appearance is not all;
The form deceives, the person is a mask;
Hid deep in man celestial powers can dwell.
His fragile ship conveys through the sea of years
An incognito of the Imperishable.
A spirit that is a flame of God abides,
A fiery portion of the Wonderful,
Artist of his own beauty and delight,
Immortal in our mortal poverty.
This sculptor of the forms of the Infinite,
This screened unrecognised Inhabitant,
Initiate of his own veiled mysteries,
Hides in a small dumb seed his cosmic thought.
In the mute strength of the occult* Idea
Determining predestined shape and act,
Passenger from life to life, from scale to scale,
Changing his imaged self from form to form,
He regards the icon growing by his gaze
And in the worm foresees the coming god.
At last the traveller in the paths of Time
Arrives on the frontiers of eternity.
In the transient symbol of humanity draped,
He feels his substance of undying self
And loses his kinship to mortality.
A beam of the Eternal smites his heart,
His thought stretches into infinitude;
All in him turns to spirit vastnesses.
His soul breaks out to join the Oversoul,
His life is oceaned by that superlife.
He has drunk from the breasts of the Mother of the worlds

*occult in the sense of hidden.

 

A Celtic Blessing

May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work that you do
with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light
and renewal to those who work with you
and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of
refreshment, inspiration and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in bland absences.
May the day never burden.
May dawn find you awake and alert,
approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.

Anon

 

The Sacrifice Divine

Satisfied with a little, afraid of the vast,
Narrow are the confines of man's boasting and vainglory.
Always preaching, always boasting and bragging, turning the ear deaf.
Seven inner seas are now wild and churning, each life is tired and sad.
Satisfaction and fulfilment only a dream.
The entire world is filled with suffering and conflict.
The silent, the liberated and the realized are rich in their heavenly treasure.
Let man's inner moon of infinite Light get total satisfaction
In the sacrifice divine.

Sri Chinmoy

 

Soft Touch.

You're a soft touch baby
Like a snowflake falling
My whole heart is melting.

As a warm sun rises
Into joy I'm sailing
To your soft touch baby.

Eyes that shine from depths of your soul
Fixed by their charm, take my control
Love so sweet as the ocean is wide
Caught by your waves
Drawn to your side.

As a cool wind blows me
All the treetops whisper
To your soft touch baby.

As a new moon rises
Those ideas of heaven
Fall in your soft touch baby.

Eyes that shine from depths of your soul
Fixed by their charm, take my control
Love so sweet as the ocean is wide
Caught by your waves
Drawn to your side.

You're a soft touch baby
Like a snowflake falling
My whole heart is melting
As a warm sun rises
Into joy I'm sailing
To your soft touch baby.


Not Guilty.

Not guilty
For getting in your way
While you're trying to steal the day
Not guilty
And I'm not here for the rest
I'm not trying to steal your vest.

I am not trying to be smart
I only want what I can get
I'm really sorry for your ageing head
But like you heard me said
Not guilty.

Not guilty
For being on your street
Getting underneath your feet
Not guilty
No use handing me a writ
While I'm trying to do my bit.

I don't expect to take your heart . . .
I only want what I can get
I'm really sorry that you're underfed . . .
But like you heard me said . . .
Not guilty.

Not guilty
For looking like a freak
Making friends with every Sikh
Not guilty
For leading you astray
On the road to Mandalay.

I won't upset the apple cart
I only want what I can get
I'm really sorry that you've been misled . . .
But like you heard me said . . .
Not guilty.

 

I <3 George Harrison songs...those two are quite good indeedy.

 

:sunglasse I was listening to the old 'George Harrison' album earlier (only have it on tape - must get the CD sometime) and I just felt inspired to post those two.

 

Its a good album...not my favourite...but a very good one.

 

The Only News I Know

The only news I know
Is bulletins all day
From immortality:

The only shows I see
Tomorrow and today.
Perchance eternity.

The only one I meet
Is God, the only street
Existence; this traversed.

If other news there be
Or admirabler show,
I'll tell it you.

Emily Dickinson

 

The Kingdom Within

There is a kingdom of the spirit's ease.
It is not in this helpless swirl of thought,
Foam from the world-sea or spray-whisper caught,
With which we build mind's shifting symmetries,
Nor in life's stuff of passionate unease,
Nor the heart's unsure emotions frailty wrought
Nor trivial clipped sense-joys soon brought to nought
Nor in this body's solid transiences.

Wider behind than the vast universe
Our spirit scans the drama and the stir,
A peace, a light, an ecstasy, a power
Waiting at the end of blindness and the curse
That veils it from its ignorant minister,
The grandeur of its free eternal hour

Sri Aurobindo

 

God's Sadness

~

You feel sad that you have failed.
Dive deep within.
You will feel that God's sadness
At your failure
Far surpasses your sadness.
Does it not console you?
It should and it must.

- Sri Chinmoy

 

On The Seashore

On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.
The infinite sky is motionless overhead
And the restless water is boisterous.
On the seashore of endless worlds
The children meet with shouts and dances.

They build their houses with sand,
And they play with empty shells.
With withered leaves they weave
Their boats and smilingly float them
On the vast deep.
Children have their play on the
Seashore of worlds.

They know not how to swim,
They know not how to cast nets.
Pearl-fishers dive for pearls,
Merchants sail in their ships,
While children gather pebbles
And scatter them again.
They seek not for hidden treasures,
They know not how to cast nets.

The sea surges up with laughter,
And pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach.
Death-dealing waves sing
Meaningless ballads to the children,
Even like a mother while rocking her baby's cradle.
The sea plays with children,
And pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach.

On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.
Tempest roams in the pathless sky,
Ships are wrecked in the trackless water,
Death is abroad and children play.
On the seashore of endless worlds is the
Great meeting of children.


- Rabindranath Tagore

 

“I lost the honour of the royal family.
I went astray with the sadhus...
I constantly rise up,
Go to the god’s temple,
And dance,
Snapping my fingers.

I don’t follow the norms as an oldest daughter-in-law,
I have thrown away the veil,
I have taken refuge with the great gurus,
And snapped my fingers at the consequences.”

Mirabai.

 

From Jealousy-Fever to Oneness-Heart

Jealousy,
You are my mind's purity-stealer,
You are my heart's peace-intruder,
You are my life's divinity - invader!



Your mind's jealousy-dagger
Has severely wounde you.
If you want to be healed,
Try to discover as soon as possible
The flames of your aspiration - heart.



You want to conquer
The perpetual fever of jealousy?
I will tell you a great secret:
Just love and become one
With your oneness - heart

From "Wings of Joy" by Sri Chinmoy

 

My Beloved dwells in my heart,
I have actually seen that Abode of Joy.
Mira's Lord is Hari, the Indestructible.
My Lord, I have taken refuge with Thee,
Thy slave.


Life in the world is short,
Why shoulder an unnecessary load
Of worldly relationships?
Thy parents gave thee birth in the world,
But the Lord ordained thy fate.
Life passes in getting and spending,
No merit is earned by virtuous deeds.


I will sing the praises of Hari
In the company of the holy men,
Nothing else concerns me.
Mira's Lord is the courtly Giridhara,
She says: Only by Thy power
Have I crossed to the further shore.


Mirabai.

 

Love is the Cure

Love is the cure,
for your pain will keep giving birth to more pain
until your eyes constantly exhale love
as effortlessly as your body yields its scent.

by: Rumi

 

A Better World

Inner Compassion
And outer tolerance
Can easily make a new world,
A better world



by: Sri Chinmoy

 

Oh Krishna, Lord of Hindustan, I sorrowed by the lonely Jumna river bank, where Thy flute-notes thrilled the air and led the lost calves to their homes. O Lotus of Love, musing on the sad absence of Thy delusion-dispelling eyes, I saw Thine invisible Spirit take form, frozen by my devotion's frost.

Thy divine form of sky-blue rays, with feet of eternity, walked on the banks of my mind, planting lasting footprints of realization there. I am one of Thy lost calves which followed Thy flower-footprints on the shoals of time. Listening to the melody of Thy flute of wisdom, I am following the middle path of calm activity, by which Thou hast led many through the portals of the dark past into the light.

Since all of us are of Thy fold, whether moving, sidetracked, or held stationary by the fogs of disbelief, Oh Divine Krishna, lead us back to Thy fold of everlasting freedom. Oh Krishna, Thou reignest on the heart-throne of each knower of Thy love.


Mirabai.

 

I speak to Hanuman
Thus I speak to King Ram, the perfect, gentle one...

I speak to Shiva Himself, the ocean of grace.
Beware! And listen all!

Of joy and sorrow, love and anger, of virtue and vice
has the creator made all.
Of time and nature and fate,
Ram is the doer.
So I have known this Truth
having dwelt upon it in my heart.
Ah Lord, only quench this moping and grieving.
What is there that You can't do?

Let me grow silent
having known
that I reap what I have sown.

Tulsidas' Last Poem

 

Tao Te Ching

Can you coax your mind from its wandering
and keep to the original oneness?
Can you let your body become
supple as a newborn child's?
Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them
without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from you own mind
and thus understand all things?

Giving birth and nourishing,
having without possessing,
acting with no expectations,
leading and not trying to control:
this is the supreme virtue.

by: Lao Tzu , translated: Stephen Mitchell

 

From The Garden of Heaven

FROM the garden of Heaven a western breeze
Blows through the leaves of my garden of earth;
With a love like a huri I'ld take mine ease,
And wine! bring me wine, the giver of mirth!
To-day the beggar may boast him a king,
His banqueting-hall is the ripening field,
And his tent the shadow that soft clouds fling.

A tale of April the meadows unfold--
Ah, foolish for future credit to slave,
And to leave the cash of the present untold!
Build a fort with wine where thy heart may brave
The assault of the world; when thy fortress falls,
The relentless victor shall knead from thy dust
The bricks that repair its crumbling walls.

Trust not the word of that foe in the fight!
Shall the lamp of the synagogue lend its flame
To set thy monastic torches alight?
Drunken am I, yet place not my name
In the Book of Doom, nor pass judgment on it;
Who knows what the secret finger of Fate
Upon his own white forehead has writ!

And when the spirit of Hafiz has fled,
Follow his bier with a tribute of sighs;
Though the ocean of sin has closed o'er his head,
He may find a place in God's Paradise.

by: Hafiz