As the lover waits

As the lover waits with bated breath looking listlessly about
Waiting to hear from his beloved
The tortuous route he takes through longing and separation
The path seems strewn with a million thorns
But endure the lover must too feel the warm embrace of the beloved
After crossing hill and dale and dark labyrinths
I finally see the light of a million lamps..
Momentarily  blinded I am aware of the sweet fragrance wafting throughout
And on opening my eyes I see I am in the beloved ' s presence
Long gone are the scars of separation
Healed are the wounds of longing
When I am in the beloved ' s embrace

What do others know?

As I was moving through a dark labyrinth
you rose in the night sky like a bright moon..
You sent your cool white rays
to help me walk towards you
I climbed abroad and ran towards you..
culminating in the highest ecstasy
People might mistake me for a drunk intoxicated on wine..
But what do others know what your love can do to me 

Working from the realm of God

Many a days have I spent reading history books. Many a days have I spent being infuriated with some people at the atrocities perpetuated by them. This anger in me, and the atrocities perpetuated by them stems from the same ego. A religion or an ideology can take you to heaven or take you to the depths of hell. This hell or heaven can be on the earthly plane of existence or in many of the causal or subtle worlds.

While I think it is a good thing to know what is happening in the world around you and to what happened to our ancestors in the past, it can be detrimental to oneself if one gets struck in the mire of negative emotions like anger, greed, jealousy etc etc. These contribute tremendously to stress. Someone told me something and it did not fit my image of myself. This naturally upsets me. This 'image' of myself is the ego. Most often, the person who makes the remark might have made it from this same ego centric plane and our response to it might come from the same plane. This certainly is the leading cause of all the conflicts in the world. A lot of our problems and stresses in life are self created. If these are not held in check they can certainly lead to physical ailments. In a way I guess ailments are bodily feedback mechanisms, telling you to stop doing whatever you are doing wrong. Focusing on negative emotions, finding faults with others and ourselves, not being in the present moment.

If on the contrary we can reach a stage called that of the "Sthithapragna" by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavat Gita, we can respond to any unpleasant situations from a higher plane which is the non-ego plane or the realm of the self (God). From here, all our actions will be more natural, more practical and logical. So contrary to what many people say, it is a good thing to go into your inner sanctum and stay there and draw the breath of God.

My Liege

I left home seeking world conquest
I wanted to become rich and famous

I went to one rich city after another
I was dazzled by the wares of the merchants

I spent considerable time haggling with the merchants
Trying to buy articles I really did not need

On the way I saw the emperor of the Universe
In the guise of a beggar seeking alms

I was enamored by the face and sought his help
He took me back home and asked me to sit quiet

In exchange for 2 coins he gave me the world

I wanted to sing of my beloved and share my wealth

"Sit still" said my liege, "speak only if required!"

I sat still drinking the intoxicating rays of the moon

I ran out unrestrained to the point

Where the starry heavens kissed the earth

And I whirled and danced like the galaxies and star dust

Much to the consternation of the merchants of the city

"Which drink has intoxicated this rogue?" they asked

The wine of my beloved's presence I replied!

Tavern of Love

I walked into the market on a starlit night
Where merchants of different religions had set up shop

They rushed at passersby showing their wares
They fought with each other to get to the customer

Their wares were alluring and I was momentarily dazzled
I stood there unable to decide and confused

I bought some items from different merchants
I haggled with everyone on the overpriced items

I took the wares home and looked at them
Gone was the momentary happiness that I derived from them

Saddened I walked outside the cottage towards the neem tree
There sat a fakir gleaming in the night at the foot of the tree

"Listen not to the merchants of death" said the Fakir
He took me to his tavern and served me the wine of love

I was never this intoxicated with love
The Tavern turned out to be God's paradise

One look at the Fakir's face proved
That this is the face of God

Like a river I drifted intoxicated in love
And I merged into the clear blue waters of the ocean

A Slug fest of words

"rhurbur..blah..blah...Kejriwal...blah..blah..Modi...blah..blah..communal...rhubrurbur..2002...blah..blah...Aam Aadmi..."...This is what one hears these days in the cafeteria. All one hears is a lot of jumbled voices with some familiar political names interspersed in between the noise. On one such day, I saw a heated debate between two people at a table. I the two 'contestants' tensed, jaws clenched, gesticulating wildly. I could see them going through a lot of agony. Even after the altercation, I saw the people involved still suffering from the after effects of the fight. Which leads one to wonder, are these arguments worth their salt?

Whatever a person's political leanings might be, it is an idea that would have taken root after many subjective experiences. And often, the more one is attached to one's ideology/theology/religion the more painful such arguments might turn out to be. Are such arguments even worth it?

I for one am a nationalist and I support a certain party and candidate that I feel is best for the country. A friend was trying to convince me that he is not 'secular'. Secularism has been our country's bane. I did not mince my words when I conveyed my ideas to my friend. But I could see the pain that he was going through. This world is filled with problems of many kinds. But arguments of the kind on political ideologies or religion are self-invited problems. They do not auger well for anyone.

As an ardent devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba, I remember the first chapter of the Sai Satcharita as I pen down these thoughts. "Let us avoid contentiousness and arguments of any kind!" says Baba to Hemadpant advising his devotees to follow their chosen path and avoid un-necessary conflicts brought about by arguments of any kind.

As the Upanishads proclaim, all I can ask from my Sainath (God) is  peace! peace! peace!

Orion : The source of Mankind's origin?

The  planet was exceptionally bright in the night sky and appeared with a sort of bluish hue! It also appeared to be twinkling on this particular night. Planets normally do not do that! But on this night, Jupiter, the planet who had a special place in all ancient cultures and science twinkled! In Hinduism, he is called "Guru" (Teacher) the harbinger of auspiciousness, as Guru holds a very  special place in Hindu culture. In ancient Rome he was the king of Gods, also known as Zeus in Greece and was known to hurl his fiery thunderbolt at his enemies. From a scientific perspective, this was Jupiter, the largest of the Gas giants. And the planet Jupiter was continously pounded on that night by a comet hurtling through space at an incredible speed of 37 miles/second. The impact seemed so clearly visible on earth. The planet on that day twinkled, probably it was the effect of the impact of Schumachar Levi. And on that day, unkowingly I fell in love with the art of gazing at the heavens! On a clear cloudless night, nothing brings greater peace to the soul than to gaze at the starry skies above or to marvel at the inner workings of the Human soul. I realized this truth long before I heard the same quote by Immanual Kant.



And when I actually began to study astrophysics during tenth grade, I was filled with wonder and awe at the immense and probably unbounded Universe. I also diligently read Stephen Hawking's "The brief history of time". I also happened to watch a show called "Stephen Hawking's universe" where I was introduced to String theory, concept of Parallel universes etc. I could not grasp the concept of String theory until I saw the truly eloquent documentary by Dr.Brian Greene called the Elegant universe. Anyway, I meander from the point I was trying to convey. It was that I had fallen in love with astronomy and astrophysics. Many a nights I would be sitting in the terrace gazing at the stars and making my own little observations. One object that always fascinated me was the constellation Orion. It never was difficult to spot the familiar shape of a hunter or deer (Depending on which philosophy you follow). This constellation is  located in the celestial equator and is visible through out the world. I had read that many a star births happened in a thick soup of Star dust in the horse head nebula located in this constellation. I would look for interesting books on astronomy and thumb through high resolution pictures of this nebula in the shape of a stallion. 


I do not know why, I always was fascinated by this constellation. The Rig Veda describes this constellation as Mriga (Deer). The Greek mythology describes Orion as a demi God and the son of Poseidon. He was supposedly a giant who would walk on the oceans and the water would only be as high as his waist. After his death, the Gods are said to have honored him with a permanent place in the heavens. The Egyptians associated Orion with their God Osiris, who was in charge of rebirth and afterlife. Many of the shafts in the pyramids of Giza seem to point towards Orion. The pyramids themselves some researchers claim are shaped like the belt of Orion. The Hopi Indians of the American South West chose the three Mesas to settle down in Arizona because they seemed to resemble the star formation in the belt of Orion. The Babylonians also believed Orion was like the Sheperd of the skies and took special interest in Orion. Also the great city of Tenocitlan built by the Mayans in antiquity also seems to resemble the star formation in Orion. The "Gods" from orion are said to have come to Tenochitlan to converse with the Mayan Kings. It is probably for this reason that the city came to be called the "City of the Gods".


I always used to gaze upon this constellation and never before realized that my special interest in this constellation during those star gazing sessions was unique. Many of our ancestors were intrigued by Orion. In fact if one were to look at the ancient accounts on Orion with a different light, one might see that all ancient cultures seem to point at Orion as the  source of the birth of Human beings on earth. This makes one wonder if our ancestors came from the heavens. We all know that we come from Stardust. We are all made up of celestial matter. In fact one of the reasons why I used to gaze so intently at the stars was to try to find answers to some questions. Questions like, "Are we alone in the Universe?". If yes why? If no, who else is there? And why haven't they made contact with us?". That is why I find topics like Roswell and Area 51 to be excellent Dinner table conversations. It is my ardent desire to travel the wide expanse of planet earth to find answers to so many questions. Nowadays when I look at the stars, I am reminded of a quote by Rumi -"We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering like stardust". My gut feeling always tells me, how true!