Happy Birthday to the Unborn One

 ( Homage to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi on the 141st Jayanti Day)

“ You who wish to celebrate the birthday, seek first whence was your birth. One’s true birthday is when he merges with That which transcends birth and death – the Eternal Being.” Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi.

At year’s end, the winter sun shines bright in a clear blue sky.

Sprung from water and fire, earth and air sing in perfect harmony.

My heart overflows with gratitude to hear such soulful delight.

All around me there is only your loving Light.

In ecstatic surrender, I melt in the radiance of your gaze.

With every fibre of my being, let me always sing your praise!

Be still and all will be well,  you said -

There is nothing else to know.

Beyond words and mind, beyond space and time,

There is nowhere else to go.

An indescribable spring of joy wells up inside me;

So cherished am I, so protected am I, so beloved am I, so blessed am I !

Om Bhagavan! Jai Bhagavan ! May this wonder never cease - 

May I dwell forever in your deep and perfect peace!

“Higher than quietude there is no achievement; higher than quietude there is no effort; higher than quietude there is no tapas; higher than quietude there is no deathless life.” Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi. 

What is here called quietude is the state of stillness of mind. This can be achieved only by unceasing enquiry [vichara]. When the mind knows that in truth there is nothing to reject or to accept, it will lose its movements and will abide in supreme peace. Sri Muruganar, Guru Vachaka Kovai

Here and Now

 “Blessed, supremely blessed, are they who are installed in the eternal now, 
transcending time and place and form and matter, 
unmoved by weal or woe or wealth or want, 
for in so far as things are motionless they are like eternity.” Meister Eckhart, Sermon 16 

Listen, my friend, trapped in mind-smoke, you have lost touch with divine Reality;

Will you let your whole life drift by in this fog?

Break out of your prison, wake up from your lotus-eater dream! 

Past and future are illusions, only the now is real  - in which time are you living?

Like ancient cobwebs in an abandoned ruin, thinking spins endless stories around you.

Shake yourself free, like a dog coming out of the water shakes himself dry.

Throw away the garbage, stop singing that same old song.

Vigorously cast off the illusion that has held you in thrall for so long.

Direct perception is the key.

Switch off the ticker tape mind and, for the first time, you will truly see.

Alert, aware, thought-free, 

here and now,

is the most alive you will ever be.

“When the tricky senses are controlled, when mental conceptions are removed, and when one is unshakably established as Self in the Heart, then the Knowledge which shines in that State of firm Self-Abidance is the Real God . Such a True Seeing, which is devoid of illusion and deception, is the State in which one shines as the Ocean of Bliss. Only in the Supreme Silence which is thus achieved in Self-Abidance, will the soul never again have a downfall.” Sri Ramana Maharishi, Guru Vachaka Kovai

Again and Again

 

O Beloved, soaring, ecstatic music floods my being entire

as  You caress the strings of the lute of my heart.

Like the leaves a-quiver in the wind, like the flying sparks at the edge of a fire,

I dance and shimmer in the warm breath of Your art.

Though they say You dwell in splendour beyond the highest heaven, in secret,

You are right here, inextricably mingled with the air, with the rain and the sand.

Invisible, yet ever-present, You are the living power that pervades all creation 

In one sweeping, timeless rhythm, like the waves making love to the land.

Wherever I go, I find only You, whatever I eat, I taste only You; 

Your voice echoes in every cry,

Your scent is in the fragrance of every flower,

the light of Your gaze shines bright in every eye.

For this, and only this, did I come into existence:

No matter the tears and the pain,

Sweet Beloved, I would gladly be born a thousand million times

just to find You again and again.

Life Just Is

 

Life is not about the things you do or the pain you feel or the joy you find;

It’s not about the people you meet or the places you go to

or the aging body that surprises you when you look in the mirror.

It’s not a lesson to learn or a riddle to solve or a theorem to prove.

It’s not that mysterious hunger for a once-remembered bliss, that grasping prayer,

That déjà vu feeling that you have been here so many times before.

Life is a poem, a story, a song,

A dance of wonder feeling its way through space and time,

A vast oceanic love that surges like an eternal tide against an endless shore;

It is a red-gold dawn arising in a sleeping sky,

it is the truth of being, pure existence, a wild, fierce cry

Of exultation and praise

Ringing out like a trumpet in the silence.

I tell you this:

Beyond all thoughts and words and concepts,

Life just is.