To rise or not
I looked at the god and said:
“I have risen post haste
Vaporised by intense heat
Driven by desire dominant
Reach your abode and with you to unite.”
The heavens thundered in answer:
“I rush down the dizzying heights
In torrential flow down the steep slopes.
What can the stone barriers do,
When I decide to be with you, in you and around you?”
To rise or not?
Where does the twain meet?
-Subrahmanyam
21st march 2007
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The rain came pouring down,
Accompanied by the thunder,
The parched fields were soaked,
The seeds smiled under.
They sprouted and shot,
Out of the earth to bloom,
A few frogs croaked,
The heavens had come home.
The sun scorched bright once more,
The water turned to air again,
It reached the clouds that had,
Emptied themselves with thunderous pain!
The clouds wondered why,
It, these vapors always sought,
Should it keep making the effort,
To fall on earth or not!
The heaven's said,
The water comes back to you whole,
But through their journey to the earth,
Many a lives are lived in them,
So let it rise and let it fall!
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The poem reflects the classical quandary of the ‘spirit’ and ‘source’ dualism. The poem is talking about the yearning of the spirit (atma) to unite with the source (paramatma) and is wondering where and when does the union come about. The union HAS to come and WILL come; and only them would the creation continue.
In the 1st stanza, the spirit is saying that it had enough of the body and wants to rise up to meet the ‘source’. In the 2nd stanza, the ‘source’ tells the ‘spirit’ that HE is there everywhere and in fact, showering himself all the time at the beings on the earth. HE exhorts the ‘spirit’ to realise the presence within oneself, rather than leaving the body to meet HIM.
Both have to unite. But ‘where’ is the question.
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United or Separated?
Spirit and the Source have to unite,
Solemnly said the sage wise.
But 'where' is the question.
Does the source come down,
Or the spirit has to rise!
The source laughed,
At the innocence of the query,
Why do we need to unite,
When never were we separate,
Where you end and I begin,
Can you ever differentiate?
You are me and I am you,
You don't end where I live,
And I don't end when you are born,
Difference is only what you believe.
Unite, did you say?
When did we ever separate?
