Nothing but God

“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” C.G.Jung

Despite all the pleasures and achievements of this world, the human pursuit of happiness is never fulfilled; there is always an inherent memory that true joy lies only in God.

With  a fierce and ancient longing , across all the lifetimes, this human heart yearns to love and embrace God.

In the distant stars scattered like jewels across the night sky, these human eyes try to see God.

In the secret melodies of wind and rain and sea, these human ears try to hear God’s voice.

In theories and philosophies and complex concepts, this human intellect strains to understand God.

Until at last, beaten down by suffering and despair, the human being totally surrenders to the merciful grace of God.

The individual seeks within, dives and dissolves in the deepest core of self .

This is the holy grail, the fountain of immortality, the ocean of  everlasting bliss.

The human  awakens to his own infinite Being.

God becomes God.

Thus dawns the revelation: there is, was and always will be nothing but God!

All struggle, all effort, all suffering ends.

God is a Poet

     ( Celebrating 250th  Anniversary of Tuesdays with the Bard at Urban Solace Cafe ,B'lore )

They say poets bleed more than other men- I cannot say if this be true;

 I know only that the tangled metaphors of love and desperation

Can drive tormented hearts to cry out in primordial rhyme

As sad and as ancient as the very birth-pangs of Time.

A solitary blue-robed Madonna afloat on a  troubled sea

May remind us of  the hidden depths of implacable destiny.

Our laments are of lost causes or  distant memories  of the dead,

Like  the echo  between star-crossed lovers of all the words left unsaid.

           A long-forgotten bard may whisper a fragile truth across the years,

           Of life’s desolate ironies and deep inherited fears.

           For poetry can touch all hearts, play upon inner strings,

A sacred chord that reverberates in the sound of all beginnings.

We could sing of joy too: of sudden, sunny mornings  dissolving the mist

Of winter’s cold grey tresses-  unexpected radiance, ephemeral bliss.

Or of the secret, hidden treasure in each soul , that seed divine,

Effecting miraculous transformations of the mundane into the sublime.

True poetry arises from the depths of silence in a humbled heart     

Seeking solace in stillness and in surrender’s  graceful art.

This house of form is always changing- few know the indwelling Light,

Ever changeless, formless, eternal,  this is the endless delight.

God must surely be a poet for he sings in every tree ,

All life  joins in  the chorus of this divine harmony.

The wind across the water ,the stars bright in the sky,

All sing the story of the glory of the One infinite “I”.

This Silence

" The Guru's silence is more vast and emphatic than all the sastras ." Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharishi

In the lotus of the Heart, this silence shines as a steady, smokeless flame.

           It throbs like a drumbeat, vibrates like thunder, shatters the delusion of ignorance forever.

Once you have known this, perception will never be the same.

This is the effulgent, divine wholeness that contains all that exists.

Everything dissolves in this vast , impeccable stillness – here is the One where no others remain.

Infinite, eternal, omnipotent, this silence is the source of all joy.

One glance of the Guru drove me deep into this silence; now I have lost my mind and forgotten my name.

Like the addict pursues the tears of the poppy, I pursue this silence;

One taste is enough to know that this is all that there ever is.

This silence is source and goal, Shiva and Shakti, Guru and Grace.

Like an arrow unerringly driven into the heart, I am hurled into this .

This  silence is the ecstatic perfection of  immaculate peace.

             It is the song of truth, the light of awareness, the endless ocean of bliss.

The Mad Rush

Where are you rushing to in such a hurry?
You know this life is short, yet you hurtle on the highway of destiny to a certain death.

When you  know beyond doubt that all attainment, all achievement, all possessions and attachments are but dust, what is the point of all your frantic efforts ?

This blind pursuit of fulfilment is folly! Slow down!

Being is real – becoming is fantasy.

Infinity and eternity are right here and right now!

There is nothing to do: life flows by itself.

What needs to be done will get done.

Every heartbeat, every  breath you take bears witness to this.

If you would know true happiness, be still and discover Grace.

Like a dry leaf blown by a hurricane, the wind of Grace drives you inwards to the Self;

Like driftwood caught in a whirlpool, the current of Grace sweeps you deep within to the Self;

Like a moth drawn to a flame, the fire of Grace draws you in and melts you in the Self.

Nothing more needs to be done.

Rest as the Self - in perfect, blissful peace!

The Source of All Blessings

When you surrender,with total love and devotion,

The Master’s command, “Be still!”

Dissolves thought and word, body and mind, God and world,

Like the last trumpet call at the end of all things.
Here, all your stories end- everything disappears in an infinite sky of bliss.

In the heart of being, in unmoving silence,

The luminous perfection of the Self

Shines with the glory of a thousand suns.

Firmer than a mountain, vaster than space,

More liquid than water, more radiant than fire,

This is the unveiling of  the mystery of Brahman,

            The source of all potential and all power.

This is the end of  craving, the extinction of fear,

The ecstatic peace that is beyond all understanding.

Abide quietly in this stillness: this is enough.

From this, all blessings flow.

My True Home

Diving deep

In search of myself,

I  found that secret cave

at the innermost heart of being

Where a forgiving, compassionate sky stretches out to infinity.

Sun and moon are wedded here, as are all the stars;
This is the perfect whole that is the One

Whose nature is grace-consciousness-love.

This is my true home where I will stay forever.

This empty fullness

pervaded by the ecstatic fragrance of the Real

is where I disappear.

            All  that exists

            dissolves here-now

             in this timeless ocean of bliss.