O Empress of The Light, Come! Saturdays Inspiration 18, to the Loving Dana Tate

"Peace is founded upon forgiveness." - Sri Chinmoy

"Fear ends only when I realise, that fear is nothing but punishment unsought." -Sri Chinmoy.

"There is only one way to arrive at the destination: begin." - Sri Chinmoy

"Be not afraid of destructive actions by others, but be afraid of your own reactions to them." - Sri Chinmoy

Sometimes, I'm nothing but a vale of tears … a simple flute, echoing the music of the Beloved. At such times, my Heart - as if by an unknown power - becomes vast and endless and as I said, I'm nothing but a vale … a river of copious tears.

But my Beloved leaves and I continue seeking. This great Joy … this vast Peace, must be equally in the seeking as much as the experience. This Love is so profound … so filled with mystery, who can tell? I know not where I am, nor whither I go, but for the blind hope.. the faith that sustains my dreams. I am alive in You, o Love.

Bind me to you strands of music, sweet Emperor, your sweet chords playing a symphony for my solace within the soul … let me rest, in the emptiness of Your ever-transcending resonance, to bathe in this void of supernal Bliss.

You left, like a life-long bride suddenly divorced,

Triggering the grief of separation.

Deep down in the agony of my despair,

I have dyed my wounded Heart with longing.

Carving a path for Thy return, I washed my soul

With tears, became feverish from day and night rants;

Developed incoherence, from calling out Thy name.

In my sleep and in my waking;

My amnesia and hallucinations,

I see only You, my Sweetheart, only You.

In Thy absence, this Love is a hollow prison,

Awaiting Thy sweetness to be uncaged.

Come! Your royal Majesty! O Empress of the Light,

Pour into my Heart Your golden Silence.

- Manatita, The Lantern Carrier. 18^th May, 2019.

“Come! Come! Come, my Beloved!

Here it is all cold and rainy.

The splendour of the snow has faded;

The pain of aloneness, has entered my core.

Let the Light of Your fire warm my Heart;

Rub Your sweet cheeks against my face.

Stab me with the arrow of Thy Love; let us

Stroll together, locked in the embrace of Thy tenderness.”

“Come!” She said alluringly, and I walked with my Lover,

Straight into the abode of eloquent Silence.

Here in this stunning void of the Nameless,

The sentient became dissolved, in flames of Bliss.

I saw the beggar I once evaded, the down-trodden

And the oppressed; the tramp and courtesan I scorned.

Soaring in grandeur, through this celestial sweetness,

All morals were dispersed in wings of Light.

Low caste; high caste, straight, gay … liberal,

All distinctions vanished. No need for scriptures, priests …

The vanity of ego now gone; dusty mirrors … the

Mind’s brilliance … all dispelled into the Heart’s radiance.

I waltzed with Her Majesty, dared to open my mouth to praise,

Only to find myself mute; bedecked in the candles,

Of such magnificence; my tears became a river of joy,

Immersed in this intimate mystery of the unborn.

My Lover smiled and a thrill of ecstasy ran through me.

“What is this unseen realm, O Lover?” I said in stillness,

Bathing within this sea of the deathless. “Be quiet”,

She whispered. “Let us delight in these mystical conversations.

“I am the ‘I am that I am’, Love’s mysterious kiss.

The moon and sun have pressed their lips against Me’

Covering my tongue with their sugarcane juice.”

“My Lover”, I enquired. “Do you know this lustred garden?”

“My Beloved replied: “Here the humming bird sings of

Another virgin dawn; the rose discards its thorns and lie

In sweet nakedness, dancing to the drums of a new kind of melody.”

“Emptiness! Not this … not that … only the bewildering Presence, of the One.”

-Manatita, The Lantern Carrier. 22^nd January, 2019.

"Humility disappears

The moment we become

Proud of it." - Sri Chinmoy

"There is only one thing

That was, is and ever shall be.

The Love that creates, the Love that nourishes

And the Love that sustains God's universe." - Sri Chinmoy