Poems
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim,
not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or Zen.
Not any religion, or cultural system.
I am not from the East or the West,
nor out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal,
not composed of elements at all.
I do not exist, am not an entity in this world
or the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve
or any origin story.
My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless.
Neither body nor soul.
I belong to the beloved
have seen the two worlds as one
and that one call to and know,
First, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human.
Jalaluddin Rumi
The poet, Gyaneshwara, wrote a series of poems in praise of the Divine. In his book, Gyaneshwari, the poet has given precise instructions for the awakening of the Kundalini and the achievement of Self-realisation.
In the Epilogue to the Gyanashwari, known as the Pasadyan, Gyaneshwara expresses a desire for mass realisation for the whole world. He predicts the arrival on Earth of people who will give their blessings to the whole world. These are his words:
May the wicked give up their wickedness
And develop a liking for good deeds.
May all beings feel friendly with one another.
May the darkness of evil vanish.
May the whole universe see the light, the sun of One Universal Religion.
May the desire of all human beings be fulfilled.
May the world be visited ceaselessly by the company of the faithful saints
Who would shower blessings on the earth.
Such men are the moving forests of Kalpaturu trees.
They are mines of wish-granting jewels.
They are vocal oceans of nectar.
They are moons without spots, suns without heat.
Let such saints be friends to all.
How similar are these wishes to those expressed by more recent writers, as in songs popular in the early 1970s. In his song, Don’t you feel a change a coming? Cat Stevens expressed it in this way in 1971:
Don’t you feel a day is coming, and it won’t be too soon
When the people of the world can all live in one room.
When we shake off the ancient, shake off the ancient chains of our tomb
We will all be born again of the eternal womb.
In the same year, John Lennon wrote the following lines in his famous song, Imagine:
Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world…
You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us and the world will live as one.
It is not really a coincidence that Cat Stevens and John Lennon were writing songs like this at this time. It was in 1970 that Shri Mataji developed a unique method of giving en masse self-realisation. Sahaja Yoga, which was founded by Shri Mataji, provides the path to awakening the Kundalini, attaining Self-realisation and living in peace with people from all over the world.
It is the mercy of my true Guru that has made me to know the unknown;
I have learned from Him how to walk without feet, to see without eyes, to hear without ears, to drink without mouth, to fly without wings;
I have brought my love and my meditation into the land where there is no sun and moon, nor day and night.
Without eating, I have tasted of the sweetness of nectar, and without water, I have quenched my thirst.
Where there is the response of delight, there is the fullness of joy. Before whom can that joy be uttered?
Kabir says: “The Guru is great beyond words, and great is the good fortune of the disciple.”
One Hundred Poems of Kabir. Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
Thou fair-haired angel of the evening,
Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light
Thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown
Put on, and smile upon our evening bed!
Smile on our loves, and while thou drawest the
Blue curtains of the sky, scatter thy silver dew
On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes
In timely sleep. Let thy west wind sleep on
The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,
And wash the dusk with silver. Soon, full soon,
Dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,
And the lion glares through the dun forest:
The fleeces of our flocks are covered with
Thy sacred dew: protect them with thine influence.
William Blake