Flooding My Soul With an Effusive Joy. An Offering to Nikki Khan. Sunday's Inspiration 1

In the analysis of Manatita’s poem, Flooding my Soul With an Effusive Joy,

the word ‘drunk’ requires scrutiny. It is not an alcoholic endeavour, but rather an immersion in an ineffable love, coming from a touch or kiss, out of the breath of Delight.

It is an esoteric state; a spiritual one which, while mimicking the ‘reeling’ and staggering of the mundane drunkard, carries the speechless joy of a much higher experience of ecstasy-bliss. Here the emphasis or focus of the devotee, of the Bhakti Yogi, is with the one-pointed; the inescapable pull of God.

Manatita covers this in a very succinct, yet lofty way in the first two lines of the poem:

“I’m so drunk today, so drunk,

Reeling from the vintage wine of the Unknown.”

With the addition of his ‘so drunk’ and ‘reeling from the vintage wine of the Unknown’, one senses that something beautiful, yet mystical is going on. The poet tries – by using powerful images – to show us this play of the Divine; the fact that even the seemingly little things are enhanced or magnified, by the glory or wonder of the Spirit.

This theme; this use of extraordinary images, run throughout the first twenty five lines, while repeating, in order to make effective use of the word ‘drunk.’ Consider the fourth stanza:

“I’m so drunk today; so drunk.

I ran into my nemesis at work;

The power went as she engulfed me.

I was wrapped immediately by an effulgent Light,

Shimmering from the axis of the sun.”

Here the nemesis is ‘darkness’ as implied by ‘the power went out as she engulfs me’, but the Light of the Beloved instantly steps in:-

“I was wrapped immediately by an effulgent Light.’

This fight between darkness and Light, runs throughout many of his poems. The poem ends with a couplet as Manatita merges with; acknowledges the absorption in the sweetness of the Divine. Here’s the poem:-

Flooding my Soul With an Effusive Joy

I’m so drunk today, so drunk,

Reeling from the vintage wine of the Unknown.

I saw an autumnal leaf,

Spinning and dancing with the breath of heaven;

Riding the stratosphere in its delight.

I’m so drunk today; so drunk.

I heard the wind rustling merrily,

Saw the grey-stained evening opening its heart;

As the clouds unfolded and the rains fell,

Beating upon a silvery pool of transparency.

This morning, I ran into my Beloved Queen;

I was amazed by Her vivacious streams of beauty.

She’d hidden from me for a thousand lives!

Now we embraced in my drunkenness;

I felt a million stories singing in my Heart.

I’m so drunk today; so drunk.

I ran into my nemesis at work.

The power went as she engulfed me.

I was wrapped immediately by an effulgent Light,

Shimmering from the axis of the sun.

Sweet drunken craze! Stay, my Beloved.

This core is intoxicated with Thy wine.

My Heart is like a river,

Oozing the perennial nectar of Thy sweetness;

Flooding my soul with an effusive Joy.

O Hari, I am a tiny sugary granule, who,

Losing its distinction, melts into Your Ocean and becomes sweet.

–Manatita, The Lantern Carrier. 17^th February, 2018.

~ Awakening The Inner Light ~

The poem is free verse, but carries its own metre, with the return of drunkenness and unusual images, all playing their part to augment the striking beauty of the poem.

"An array of colours;

A sacred flame from the palm of God's Light,

Tugged at the fire of my Heart.

Releasing an unfolding canopy of clouds,

They filled by Soul with an ocean of longing,

The bliss of which remains anew." -Manatita