Meera...

and her Krishna

This Krishna was a gift
From my Guru
To Ojasvin, my son
Who also made a golden cap
And painted it blue
To crown his peacock feathered head
There was another gift from me
To my other son, Omjasvin
She was a beautiful Meera
With her tampura
In ecstatic meditation
Whenever I dusted the shelves
And rearranged the conscious dolls
Meera would find her place
Near her Krishna
Once when we shifted homes
The Krishna was intact
But the Meera was broken
Yet, not having the mind
To cast her to the dust bin
I put her on the kitchen shelf
There the broken and shattered
Meera, sits alone in Tapas
This time around
She did not insist on
A seat next to Krishna
I clicked her too
For this post
But some how
An error deleted her
Methinks, she has lost her self
And merged into her beloved Lord
And is no longer a separate Meera
But just Krishna alone.

- Swahilya

The Yogi...

...and the dancer

He is the Lord of Space
Seated in the realms of Silence
He is my guardian deity
Shiva he is called by many
But all names and forms
Belong just to him
The formless too is he
When he sits
He is a picture of bliss
But when he lets go
Even of his sitting
And begins to dance
The dance of ecstasy
Beating at his little damaru
It is the dance of liberation
It is the dance of the Universe
When Destruction, Creation and Preservation
Follow one after another
Ever changing, ever blissful.
He is the form of the formless
He is the everything
Born out of nothing.
He is Space.
He is Silence.
He is the Dancer
and the Dancing
And the Dance
He is Nataraja
He is Shambho
He is Mahadeva
He is Shiva.
And his abode
Is in a tiny cave
Within my heart.

- Swahilya.

Thank you...

....for the restful night

When darkness appears
Moving away from light
It's a glorious time indeed
When all activities quieten down
The senses withdraw
And sleep blooms
In the silence of night
Preparing the soul
For yet another blossom
Welcoming the cheerful
Face of the morning sun
Yet one more time.

Flowers...

... of the soul


As I wait for the flower to bloom on this screen
These few words I type
The essence of the plant
That lay embedded within
For millions and millions of years
Expresses as a flower.

The soul of the human
Lies deep deep within
Finding expression
One here, one there
Over many lifetimes

There is yet a time to come
When blooms of consciousness
Will smile all over this beautiful Earth
And a time when all we can see
Is love, laughter and light.

The time will come
Just like this flower
That was hidden within
And smiles from nowhere.
- Swahilya.

Contemplations...

....above the clouds

The plane was up in the saphire blue sky
Spreading over like a silky canopy
The sun was shining bright
Illuminating an ocean of fluffy clouds beneath
A perfect example of the world of Maya
Now here, now there, but not anywhere
Appears as if it is
But in fact is not
Yet a beautiful to meet the eye
There is bliss, joy and light above
But just below
The clouds form a thick roof
Shutting out the light of the sun
Smothering the Earth in darkness
Dull and gloomy on the other end
Bright and sunny above
It is just about letting in light
Or shutting it out.

- Swahilya.

Some paintings....

....to ponder while I get back home

There are quite a lot of them here, just filling up with the joy of colours as I will be away from the computer for the next three days from tomorrow.
I enjoyed my stay in the United States and conversations with my blog friends.
1. A friend Rugma painted this while I was painting in meditation.
2. Painting of what my Guru, Swami Akshara once took out a paper and drew.
3. A vision of what I once saw when I looked into my bike's rearview mirror - I am That.
4. Shiva, the Lord of Yoga.
5. The crown chakra - Sahasrara.
6. Aagnya, the chakra between the eyebrows.
7. Vishuddhi - The energy centre at the throat.
8. Anahata - The heart centre.
9. Manipura: Fire centre in the navel
10. Swadhishtana: One's own seat of energy
11. Muladhara: Where one's roots are located
12. The Om in the end is hand-drawn out of blood that spilt
following a minor injury! My painter's mind saw it as yet another colour,
immediately reached out for a paper and painted it with the tip of my finger.

'Monkeys...

...live in Yoga."

It is indeed the grace and blessings of Hanuman, the Monkey God of India, who has given me this beautiful opportunity to write about him, following my comment, 'Monkeys live in Yoga,' in a post at Warrior Geezer.
When I said, I would write on this, little did I realise that I would post this beautiful picture of Hanuman in meditation as Yoga Anjaneya (he is called Anjaneya as he was the son of Anjana Devi) and Rishab or Nandi the divine bull, who is considered by some as a manifestation of Hanuman. And all this is so beautifully happening at a time when people in India are now celebrating Hanuman Jayanthi, the birth of Hanuman.
When I said, 'Monkeys live in Yoga,' I meant not just monkeys, but all forms of animal, plant and everything else about the Universe is existing in meditation. There is a beautiful line in Sanskrit, Dhyayativa Prithvi, Dhyayativa Parvataha, Dhyayativa Sagaraha,' which means, 'It is as if the Earth is in Meditation, the mountains are in meditation and the oceans are in meditation.' In just the same way monkeys are in meditation. Living in Yoga, is living in total union with the cosmic energy and everything that moves or stays in this Universe is living in Yoga, even the human mind. The difference lies in just the Awareness of one's existence in meditation.
When I say monkeys live in Yoga, I mean, a monkey eats when it wants to eat, sleeps when it wants to sleep, jumps when it wants to jump or just do as it pleases and that's just what it is designed for - nothing more nothing less.
It is seeing monkeys, crocodiles, snakes, cats, dogs, cranes and peacocks that the Yogis and masters of various martial arts devised bodily poses and methods of breathing that goes into the vast body of literature and practice of Hatha Yoga and Pranayama. They don't need to practice Yoga, because they are already living it. It is human beings who have to practice Yoga, observing and learning from the Universe as they have the equipment called mind, which has evolved out of the animal existence, which is invisible and hence not known and understood.
When the highest principle of the divine consciousness manifests in animals, they become self-realised souls, transcending even the human mind and examples of such beings that are venerated and worshipped till date are Hanuman and Nandi.
A compilation of discourses of my Guru, Swami Akshara on the qualities of the Hanuman mind, is published as a book called, 'Hanuman The Hero In You,' by the Akshara Foundations. It is a wonderful book to read, unfolding the positive qualities that becomes of a mind, which does not spring at the outside world, but is quiet and turned to the eternal inner silence of the soul. The power of Hanuman and Nandi can be might, when expressed, but in quiet composure the mind is a great reservoir of energy when it is merged with the soul.
In the words of Sri Aurobindo, All Life is Yoga. Everything is happening in tune with the flow of cosmic energies, but our individual life is able to experience that flow only when it is aware of the flow and not fighting against it.

Om Agni...

...Swaha-a

I thank George Breed for sending me back to a subject of meditation - talking about a part of myself which gave me this name from my Guru, Swami Akshara. I just browsed through various sites searching for the name Swaha. They all speak of the same mythological story of the celestial nymph who is also the daughter of Daksha, who became immortal when she married Brahma's eldest son Agni. They also say that Skanda, the Hindu war deity is her son.
Swa-ha - also means 'I offer.' Swaha is the feminine shakti or energy of Agni, the god of fire, who manifests as the sun in space, lightning in the sky and fire on earth. Her nature is to absorb negativities and purify. In Yagnyas of oblations and offerings of all kinds - cloths, cereals, grains, fruits, flowers and also prayers, made to fire created in a pit called 'Homa Kund' amid sacred chants of Mantras, end each time with 'Swaha-a'. It requires the feminine energy of love and compassion to decimate the gross offerings into the fire, convert them into subtle vibrations that will unite the one who offers to the Universe to which it is being offered. Just as heat converts water into vapour, Swaha makes the gross offerings and turns them into subtle foods fit for consumption of the gods. She is the silent being that connects the gross world of matter to the subtle world of the spirit.
The mantras to all gods - like Om Vada Vada Vakvadinyai Namah Swaha - to Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning, Om Namo Bhagavate Dhanvantraye Amrutakalasha Hasthaya Sarvamaya Vinashanaya Trailokya Nathaya Vishnave Swaha," to Dhanvantri, an avatar of Vishnu and the Lord of Medicine, many mantras from the Upanishads - they end with Swaha, who takes the chants to the gods decimating them into subtle vibrations.
But just pronouncing the name 'Swa-ha' as a chant, contains in it tremendous energy, opening the channels that connect the mind to the cosmos.

The tree

...and the sky

Trees are poems

That God paints

On the Sky

Said a great soul

I see them trees

Taking from the Earth

Growing in Greatness

And offering what they have

With arms thrown wide

Into the vast sky

Beneath the smiling Sun.

- Swahilya.

Happy...

...New Year

When sparkling electric lights
Pines and red ribbons decorate homes
And massive, colourful pyrotechnics
Go up into the black night sky over Chicago
I celebrate this new year with
Millions and millions and millions
Of people around the world
My prayer is to
Experience the newness
Of a life lived
Moment to moment
Breath by breath
Step by Step
A life of Awareness
Asatoma Sadgamaya
May I always move from
The transient untruth
To the Ever permanent
Indestructible Truth
Tamasorma Jyotirgamaya
From darkess
Into the light of Consciousness
Mrityorma Amritam Gamaya
From the ignorance in mortality
To the Wisdom of my Immortal Being
May I Live
Now, just this moment
No past, no future
But just now in Eternity
Fully as the Universe.

- Swahilya.