The Reach of Light

Dear Tulsidas,
what compassion
to say

the Name of
Rama is

more precious than

Rama--

and what
truth.

om sri ram jai ram jai jai ram

It is the Name
that leads me to

the depths
of Love

were

I am both Rama
and
a lover,
a lover of Rama

swallowed in
the

reach of Light.

Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra

As explained by Swami Chinmayananda.

Emptying Your Cup

What does it mean
to empty your

cup? If the contents
are you--you can't

simply

turn the cup
over.

That
would spell
catastrophe

by turns either

sudden

or

slow.

Ground & Sun

First one thinks, "What
about me?" That is

a crude part of
the human plant. Then a kind
guru
comes along and
begins
to patiently snip away
those crude branches--until

out of that
snipping the

insight

emerges, "There is
no me."

What relief! What relief!

But then there is
the plant

in a garden filled
with plants--but then

there is

the ground, the Sun.

Salt Dolls

Imagine a salt
doll

falling into the

ocean. This is
what happens when
the "I" is drawn by
Love

into the
One.

Descriptions
repeatedly fail
to suffice--because poems

such as this one
are lost in

the One

too.

To the Goddess

You spit

the resemblance
of myself

out of
the eye

of my mind

leading me, losing me in
the joy of

helpless longing.

There is no cause to
this play of Yours

that You beam through
every shape,
colour,
thing
that is.

"By the Will of God"

"By the will of God"
means by the will of
Ishvara.

This Ishvara is the other face of God
and also should be realized.

By the will of God
every person lives with greater peace
and happiness and joy
by the
will of God
to see clearly

by the will of God that
Ishvara is
the sole Doer
and willing all for
the Good by
the will, by the
will of God.

Shiva Lingam

What is Shiva in
a Shiva lingam is
beyond description.

Still

there is the lingam
so that Shiva can be

realized;

a piece of

eliptical stone

that leads to
allowing for
leading.

The Axe of Discrimination

A reasoning person says,
"I have to trust my
emotions."

A discriminating person

examines

what emotions are--
finds them to be
a cord of
repeated thoughts

tightly wound.

Discrimination is
an axe
striking the root
to fell

the rising Ashvatta tree.

Feet to Feet

Before listening to their lessons ask,
"Who is
this teacher's
guru?"

A teacher with no guru--
no matter how
well-intentioned--
will be

deceived,

deceiving.

Even gentle Ramana had
his beloved Arunachala
for his guru,
his Father.

So Ramana's feet
were bound to
the mountain's
feet.

Trustworthy teaching
flows, flows

always

feet to
feet.

The Gravest Sin

Soon as one believes,
"I have no ego"
this is when one is
most in danger--
is when one is ripe
for the gravest of

sins--least

likely to

listen

to words such as these:
"Touching the Essence
is not all

when all is for
the Good.

Saguna Brahman

That Brahman is Lord
as well as
Essence is
often overlooked.

Yet sages all honor

and saints all worship
and pray.

Because the flowering of
human life grows preciously from
the ground

each one depends, depends on
the ground.

Swirling

One thing
is
that can not be found:

the blue of
sky;

the wet of
water;

the atman of
jiva;

the Brahman of
life;

the swirl of a thousand
universes veils it
from the mind
and yet it
ever is.

Inside & Outside

A seed pressed in dark dirt
is death with
life locked
inside.

Inside; yet outside
conditions
must be
accommodating to draw
such life to

miraculous action.

Doubters doubt about
the life inside, while

fools fool themselves--believing
outside doesn't matter,

doesn't exist

at all.

A Rudraksha Mala

Often a rudraksha mala is hung
dustily around
some dusty figure on
some dusty altar
somewhere.

If, if this mala is
taken in hand for
counting beautiful japa

even the figure can
come to life as
Lakshmi, Ganesha
or Buddha.

The Name, the Name
is
so beautiful--is the
fragrant whole of the Named.

Imagine

Imagine a road
that begins
were it
ends;

that travels

itself;

that

falls

into its own face
each dancing step
it takes.

Imagine a road illuminated by
the starlight of its own

stardust.

Self-Portrait as a Guru

"The longer the guru's beard
the more you should doubt
his spirituality"--

said a guru

whose beard

stretched to

his waist.

But a guru with
no beard at all?

He must be
pure

charlatan.

Parmenides & Death

Parmenides went to the underworld
like a child's hand
plunged in
water.

And what he came up with
was a mossy stone
dimpled with
periwinkles.

But more unimportantly
reason
has been read
from that

Rorschach;

so that what was found might
be found unfound
and the gem stay rhinestone
to the mind made of rhinestone.

Krishnavatar

Once Krishna's mother
peered into His tiny mouth

and saw He held the universe

inside it.

And Arjuna--if you pause
to imagine--saw Krishna
numinous,

terrible

in one loving instant.
Only Ishvara has the power
to create and to destroy.
Only Ishvara is
omniscient,
omnipresent.

Like Brahman Krishna is both with and without qualities:
a perfect conundrum of
a ring that is gold

that is a ring.

All is That

Three, four, one, or zero:
who can say
how

Reality is?

And yet, and yet

no one can say
It is not--

though those who say
say and those who
try try

to pry themselves
out of
the teeth of
a garble
that can not
be scrambled--

all is Awareness--
is That.

To the Goddess

Sweet Ramakrishna realized You.

Then his arm was broken by You
and he realized You

more.

O Bhavatarini!

the maya You use to veil Yourself
is subtle and deep.

Salutations to You for the true realizers.

Salutations to You Whose secret Name
is all and all names and forms.