Saturday, May 13, 2006

"don't despair"       [gatha]

Might you allow the great luxury
                of my thinking of you   my lord?
can you express generosity
                by revealing yourself   a little?
if you had been a beverage
                I'd be drinking of you   my lord
if you possessed a circumference
                I'd be with you   right in the middle
if   as they say   you are endless
                can your center be found anywhere?
if   O my lord   you are friendless
                I'll befriend you   don't despair!

2 Comments:

Blogger Banno said...

Hi David, thanks for sending me the link to Raman Maharishi's Who am I, but yes, it's too dry right now for my frame of mind. Like "Don't despair" very much, specially the last two lines,
"if O my lord   you are friendless
                I'll befriend you don't despair!"

They seem to give me more answers than the actual answer to Who am I?

Sun May 14, 06:13:00 AM PDT  
Blogger david raphael israel said...

Thanks Batul -- a cheering note to read this Sunday afternoon.
The thoughts underlying this little poem generally, and the line you note in particular, are, I'd say, somewhat informed by my readings in both Hazrat Inayat Khan and Tagore -- variously expounding or exemplifying the paradoxical and charming attitude this line sketches.
I borrow the word "gatha" (btw) to denote short poems I think of as "meditation verses."
One poem of Maharshi's that I recall particularly enjoying in gone years was addressed to the mountain Arunachala. Anyway, the questioning your post expresses, seems good!
cheers,
d.i.

Sun May 14, 10:23:00 AM PDT  

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