A Prayer

Paradox is thy form, O Secret One; who then can ever perceive thee?

Just as a mighty banyan tree grows from a tiny seed, everything grows out of nothing.

Effortlessly, without intention or bias, you weave threads of Absolute and Relative, warp and weft, into the shimmering fabric of creation.

In the very depths of being, you make your home in a lotus bud smaller than an atom, yet vast enough to contain all the scattered galaxies and the infinite space that holds them!

This Heart is the secret cave where you as In-dweller shine eternal-
what eye can see the wonder of this overflowing emptiness, what ear can hear the hidden mantra of this silence?

I was lost in the burning desert of samsara, driven by the winds of fear and desire, desperately grasping at a mirage to slake my unquenchable thirst.
With infinite tenderness, you led me into the cool oasis of your Grace, into the Heart where the wish-fulfilling tree flowers over the fountain of immortality: one drop of this nectar slakes all thirsts, sates every hunger, satisfies all desires.

Intoxicated by the taste of such ecstatic bliss, who would ever seek any lesser joy?

In this your kingdom, how sweet the songs of devotion and praise, how wondrous the blessings of your love, how restful the fragrance of your perfect peace!

Sweet Lord, I am so weary of leaving and longing:
pray let me dwell forever here at your feet.

My Father's House

“In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Bible

My father’s house is a hill wreathed in clouds that is older than Time.

My father’s house is an old hall filled with radiance, a gnarled old tree, a cowshed, a grove full of peacocks and monkeys, tombs, temples and Gods in black stone. It is a dream echoing with the sound of sacred songs, of bells ringing and cymbals clashing, of timeless chants sung by a chorus of fire-waving priests and little Brahmin boys.

Garlanded by shops and shrines, by traffic and commerce and noise, it shines still, tranquil and pristine in the midst of chaos like a jewel set in gold, resting on the mountain’s breast.

Every space in my father’s house is filled with his benevolent and blessed presence.

My father’s house is vaster than the cosmos, welcoming all that seek for peace: no doors are ever shut, no one is ever turned away; here all living beings are recognised as being equally divine.

My father’s house is like the mighty Ganges river: how much water you can carry away depends only on the size of your vessel and your own strength.

In my father’s house, bellies and hearts and souls are all fed freely as a matter of course.

In my father’s house, the welcome is always unconditionally loving and forgiving, always a benediction of benevolent,perfect Grace!

Businessmen and pilgrims, beggars and housewives, sadhus and tourists, the rich and the poor, the young and the old and the in-between- all are embraced in this healing place!

I go to my father's house to rest and recuperate.

In my father’s house, I am at peace: here I discover that my father and I are One.

Here I can drop all my cares, my masks, my pain, my tears, my fantasies of loss and gain: here, at last, I can just rest quietly and gratefully, like an old dog snoozing in a patch of winter sunshine.

How good it feels to be home!

Are You Ready?

“Bhakti is the mother of jnana.” Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi





"It is said that, in the Kaliyuga, if a man can weep for God one day and one night, he  will see Him. The most important thing is faith.

As is a man's meditation, so is his feeling of love;

As is a man's feeling of love, so is his gain;

And faith is the root of all.

If one has faith one has nothing to fear."

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

Do you know what it’s like to love like God does? To BE love?  No words can begin to describe it:

To give totally and universally, like the sun, with no conditions, no restraint and no demand,

Just a never-ending outpouring of life-giving energy and radiance.

To love like the rain loves the earth, like the wind loves the sky, like the moon loves the sea!

To love with the primordial power and heaven-shaking grandeur of a tropical storm, the vast totality of infinite space, the blissful, bone-melting ecstasy of absolute surrender, the deep and perfect peace of immortal union!

You can never know it or acquire it…you have to melt in it like the candle thrown into the sun, dissolve in it like a salt doll that dives into the sea.

Only when you disappear thus do you become this Love, this infinite, wondrous, joyous delight that is the source and substance of all things.

How great is your desire to find Truth?

Do you thirst for the Divine like the traveller lost in the desert thirsts for water?

Is your heart filled with love and longing for Him?

Fortunate is the one who’s faith is unshakable as a rock, for faith is the one element of transformation that cannot be denied!

Beyond knowledge and ignorance, beyond form and formless, beyond all duality, what is that perfect Void that is always full to overflowing?

Can mind begin to understand that which is beyond the mind?

Can all the sacred books teach you anything about God?

Can you expand your heart to embrace all creation?

Can you gladly and joyfully perish in the embrace of the Beloved like the moth in the flame?

O child of Grace, are you ready, at last, to go home?

It Takes A Hero

...in praise of all the unsung heroes and heroines who face their demons so bravely every day!

It takes a hero

To stand firm, alone, in the fiercest of storms, anchored only by Truth,

To face the world with courage and oneself with honesty,

To look pain straight in the eye and still be able to fashion a glorious destiny from the shards of shattered dreams,

To hold to one’s faith unshaken despite all odds and obstacles,

To love totally and unconditionally, giving all from one’s heart, yet asking nothing in return,

To live each day with childlike wonder and serve gladly, without needing to rule or control;

To find the divine treasure that only the pure of heart can find.

It takes a hero to be humble,

To let go of everything in total surrender and be nothing,

To let oneself sink deep into the Silence in the Heart,

To rest in the Self - unmoving, unchanging,

To know the joy of stillness and the bliss of unity,

To willingly dissolve, without a trace left behind,

in the infinite ocean of the Unknowable.

It takes a hero

To be.