Presence...

...Experience

These last few days have been a glimpst of the experience of uninterrupted presence in my life. While practising Yoga, I saw that the moving of the body is to experience the presence outside as much as I can stretch and bend. Pranayama is to experience the presence within, through the air we breathe and finding out where the air stops and gets back. Knowledge is to study the presence of the divine in the space within the mind. Nada Yoga is to see and experience the presence in the silence at the end of and through every sound. That silence and space is a holder for the presence.
Everything holds the presence. The presence holds everything in it. It doesn't matter if we win or lose, slip and fall and rise again, the presence is always there and the same. Just experiencing, like these trees.

Mouna Guru...

...Dakshinamoorthy

It was in the stillness of this lake
In a remote verdant village called Kattupalli
Off the hustle and bustle of industrial north Madras
I discovered the Lord of Silence
Mouna Guru Dakshinamoorthy
Seated quietly in meditation
This village faced several threats
Its ecosystems were gearing
To get absorbed into petrochemical "parks"
But the media intervened in time
And the scientists, environmentalists
Stakeholders and many others followed
The project was shelved
But the threat is still there
The threat, that the stillness
Quietitude and meditation
Of this beautiful village
Will soon be robbed, looms large
It is my dream
That here should happen
An ecological park and bio-research station
To cater to the need of students and scientists
And for those like me who
Touch and feel silence
A beautiful Ashram
Where there is space and time
For meditation and silence.

- Swahilya.

Maha...

...Shivaratri

The time has come
To meditate upon the formless
Called by many with many names
God, Energy, Being, Self,
Allah, Christ, Omkar or Shiva
Silence, Nothing, Everything,
Zen and the Tao
The cosmic one that manifests as many
Many forms and names
All of the one essence
Whose presence they say
Will be felt in abundance
On the Mahashivaratri
The day of penance for the Yogis
To celebrate the day of the
Lord of the Yogis
Shiva, they call him
The planets aligned so
To keep the spine erect
All night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Seated in meditation, chanting or singing
Doing nothing, but just remember the presence
It is no new presence or happening
But a conducive atmosphere
To experience the one
That is already within
Dormant and unnoticed.

- Swahilya

Love...

...is like a garden

To love is like
Tending a garden
Tilling the soil
Pouring in the required
Water for the moisture
Allowing sunlight
And fresh air
The love just remains
But there is also a love
Where one merges
With the Universe
There no tilling
Nurturing
Nor nourishing
Is required
And in this love
There are not just gardens
But whole lush forests
With all the beautiful animals
The giant mountains
The flowing rivers
Rushing cataracts
Wide oceans and placid lakes
Green fields dancing in the breeze
All beneath the roof of
A beautiful sky
Bedecked with the sun and moon
And all those stars
The love of abandon
Is as wide and deep
Infinite and eternal
As the Universe.

- Swahilya

Nadopasana...

....surrounded by a world of music

As music closes in on me
Listening to chants of Shiva
And my most favourite bhajan
Gourangu Ardhangu Gangatharange
Again and again on my walkman
As I drive through the four directions
Of this lively city
I see that music is a zone of subtle vibrations
That lies deep deep within my being
Listening or singing connects me
The height of the body is just
Five feet plus
But the mind's height has no expanse
It is infinite
And music keeps me united ever
With that eternity.
Feet on the ground
Yet mind in the high zones
Of silence and bliss
I move on and on.
- Swahilya

The test...

....of truth

My blog is the first thing on my mind
Whenever I think about writing
But getting the time to sit quietly
To simply write what I feel
Is getting rare as I spin
Around the city from morning to night
When my mind gets full of things to do
I can almost see its fabric being stretched
Breaking into splinters
Then I remind myself
Lots of things to be done
That's alright
The problem is when I am planning
For the next moment
So I am practising the art
Of living in this moment
Living it the best
That will be the greatest achievement
And the rest shall take care of itself
In this way I am enjoying what I do
As I did this drama
Of Raja Harishchandra
Staged by the boys
Of the Sri Ramakrishna Students' Home
The story of the king
Who stood for truth
At the cost of his kingdom
His child, his wife, his everything
The little children acted
Yet their voices had the ring of truth
That sent my energy surging through
As I watched the, I was being in that Truth.
- Swahilya

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.