Garden

Zehal-E-Maskeen

Zehal-E-Maskeen

Ghulam Ali

Zehaal-e-miskeen makun taghaful,
Duraye naina banaye batiyan.

Do not overlook my misery,
by blandishing your eyes and weaving tales,

Ke taab-e-hijran nadaram ay jaan,
Na leho kahe lagaye chatiyan.

My patience has over-brimmed, O sweetheart!
why do you not take me to your bosom.

Shaban-e-hijran daraz chun zulf,
Wa roz-e-waslat cho umer kotah.

Long like curls in the night of separation.

short like life on the day of our union.

Sakhi piya ko jo main na dekhun,
To kaise kaTun andheri ratiyan.

My dear, how will I pass the dark dungeon night
without your face before.

Yakayak az dil do chashm-e-jadu,
Basad farebam baburd taskin.

Suddenly, using a thousand tricks
the enchanting eyes robbed me of my tranquil mind.

Kisay pari hai jo ja sunave,
Piyare pi ko hamari batiyan,

Source: Musixmatch

Yday: Had Magical moments with Aaru n Nidhi. Listened to a beautiful mesmerising song.

Day 1 Navrathri. Joined meditation with Sir.

Unresolved questions

“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Lyric Engineering!

Today I read a little about Madan Karky and boy, I was surprised.. He's Vairamuthu's son!
Never had I known this! Also he is a PhD in Comp Sci.
How I got interested in him? He invented the Kiliki language in Baahubali and it's a scientific invention process.

Reading more,  I stumbled on his explanation and invention of Lyric Engineering.
I had also read from GVM's post abt his Agaraadhi - a Tamil English Dictionary.
So fascinating! One of the best innovations I'd say.
Also he's an Associate professor in Comp Sci and runs many interesting projects!. Very impressed!

http://madhankarky.blogspot.in/2009/11/lyrics-lyric-engineering.html

http://lifeandtrendz.com/in-an-exclusive-chat-with-madhan-karky-vairamuthu-lyricist-research-associate-software-engineer-and-film-dialogue-writer/

http://www.thehindu.com/features/lit-for-life/all-about-lyric-engineering/article6802046.ece
 

Rabindranath Tagore - Stray lines

We are like a stray line of a poem, which ever feels that it rhymes with another line and must find it, or miss its own fulfillment. This quest of the unattained is the great impulse in man which brings forth all his best creation. Man seems deeply aware of a separation at the root of his being, he cries to be led across it to a union; and somehow he knows that it is love which can lead him to a love that is final."
- FROM 'Thoughts from Rabindranath Tagore'.

The Guest House - awesome poem by Rumi

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

-- Jelaluddin Rumi,
    translation by Coleman Barks

Few more of Tagore

In our everyday world we live in poverty; our resources have to be husbanded with care; our strength becomes exhausted, and we [go] to our God as beggars [for] our joy of life. On festival days, we display our wealth and say to Him that we are even as He is; and we are afraid to spend. This is the day when we bring to Him our own gift of joy. For we truly meet God, when we come to Him with our offerings and not with our wants. 

We are like a stray line of a poem, which ever feels that it rhythms with another line and must find it, or miss its own fulfilment. This quest of the unattained is the great impulse in man which brings forth all his best creations. Man seems deeply to be aware of a separation at the root of his being, he cries to be led across it to a union; and somehow he knows that it is love which can lead him to a love which is final. 

Spirituality from a mountain angle

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/03/12/jack-kerouac-golden-eternity/

I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night. It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don’t worry. It’s all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect.

We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes into everything is one thing. It’s a dream already ended. There’s nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about. I know this from staring at mountains months on end. They never show any expression, they are like empty space. Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away? Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space, which is the one universal essence of mind, the vast awakenerhood, empty and awake, will never crumble away because it was never born.

The world you see is just a movie in your mind.
Rocks dont see it.
Bless and sit down.
Forgive and forget.
Practice kindness all day to everybody
and you will realize you’re already
in heaven now.
That’s the story.
That’s the message.
Nobody understands it,
nobody listens, they’re
all running around like chickens with heads cut
off. I will try to teach it but it will
be in vain, s’why I’ll
end up in a shack
praying and being
cool and singing
by my woodstove
making pancakes.

Poem on leisure

W. H. Davies

Leisure

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?— No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Tagore on the vision of upanishads

Rabindranath Tagore & the vision of Upanishads

from http://discovervedanta.wordpress.com/tag/tagore/

Posted on December 10, 2008

I found a few poems of Rabindranath Tagore in my notes. They express very beautifully the vision filled of wonder of the person who is awake to the presence of the Lord in his life, in nature and in himself.

These poems give us precious clues on how to integrate and assimilate the teaching of the Upanishads about Isvara, the Lord, in our lives. It is thus enabling us to be aware of the presence of a Being, to which I, the world and all human beings are fundamentally ‘connected’ to or in which all is ‘united’.

Because in reality, there is only one Being who is, and who is manifest as the multiple forms of the universe, and who is including me as an individual. All these forms are always changing within this all intelligence and power, and are never separated from Him at any time.

To understand this vision completely, what we have heard from the teaching has to percolate in the depth of ourselves, go much beyond a superficial understanding of the concepts of material-intelligent cause or manifest-unmanifest, maya, etc. The presence of Isvara can indeed become a reality, a fact we are alive to. There is no place for imagination here, nor a blind assent to a system of beliefs. But rather a slow personal work, a process of unveiling, a relation with Isvara which grows patiently and leads to a silent inner revolution, with appreciation of the  presence of His grace with us all along.

This particular type of poetry is a real bridge which enables us to see the presence of Isvara in everything and in our life, when it is allied with a proper teaching. More I think about it, more I believe that it is impossible to bypass Isvara if one wants to gain serenity, joy and ultimately freedom.

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment..’

Rabindranath Tagore

Two other poems belonging to the series of poems by Tagore. They express one of the essential themes of the Upanishads : the relation that we have with the world, with others. The first poem gives a striking image of the walls through which I close myself to what is around me. My subjectivity, fears, anxieties, arrogance, are indeed invisible but at the same time tangible walls that I erect between the universe and myself. May this narrow perspective of the world, which is only self-centered, disappear. The more objective I am to the presence of what is, the more clarity, transparency, openness I can enjoy.

How far should I go in this process of gaining objectivity? Should I disappear totally as an individual? Is it possible and even desirable? The poet replies in the second poem: ‘Let only that little be left of me, by which…’

Dungeon

He whom I enclose with my name is weeping in this dungeon.

I am ever busy building this wall all around;

and as thus wall goes up into the sky day by day,

I lose sight of my true being in its dark shadow.

I take pride in this great wall, and I plaster it with dust and sand

at least hole should be left in this name;

and for all the care I take I lose sight of my true being.

Rabindranath Tagore

Little of me

Let only that little be left of me whereby I may name thee my all,

Let only that little be left of my will whereby I may feel thee on everyside,

And come to thee in everything, and offer to thee my love every moment,

Let only that little be left of me whereby I may never hide thee,

Let only that little of my fetters be left whereby I am bound with thy will

And thy purpose is carried out in my life,

and that is the fetter of thy love.

Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali)

Bharathi the poet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrPOF6NoFIs
Yaadhumaagi nindrai kali!

Yathumagi nindrai , Kali

By

Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathi

Translated by

P.R.Ramachander

Ragam Poorvi Kalyani

Thalam

1.Yaadhumagi nindrai , Kali ,

Yengum nee nirainthai

Theethu nanmayellam , Kali,

Deiva leelai  yandro

2.Bhoothamainthum aanai Kali ,

POrigal anaithum aanai,

Bodhamagi nindari Kali,

Poriyai vinji nindari

3.Inbamagi vittai , Kali,

Yen ulle pugundhai,

Pinbu ninnai yallal Kali,

Pirithu naanum undo

4.Anbu alithu vittai , Kali,

Aanmai  thanthu vittai,

Thunbam neeki vittai ,

Thollai pokki vittai.

English Translation

1.Oh Kali , you stood  as everything,

You were full everywhere,

Oh Kali ,all that  which is good and bad,

Are plays  of the God almighty.

2.Oh Kali, You became the five elements,

You became  all the machines,

Oh Kali, you stood  as the conscience,

And you stood above all  the machines,

3.Oh Kali , you became the  great pleasure,

And you entered inside me,

Oh Kali, after  this , Oh Kali,

Can I  stand  without you.

4.Oh Kali, you may gave me love,

You gave me manliness,

Oh Kali, you removed all my sorrow,

And removed all my problems.

======================================================================
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVkG3N2q4ZY
kakkai siraginile!

(Lord Krishna was the God to whom this great poet sang)

1.Kakkai chiraginile Nanda laala, ninthan,
Kariya niram thondruthayye Nanda lala

2.Parkkum marangalellam Nanda laala , ninthan,
Pachai niram thondruthu aye , Nanda lala

3.Ketkkum oliyellaam Nanda Lala , Ninthan,
Geetham isaikkuthada, Nanda Laala

4.Theekkul kaiyai vaithal , Nanda Laala-ninnai
Thendum inbam thondruthada , Nanda Laalaa

English Translation

1.Oh Lord who is the darling of Nanda,
I see in the black of the feathers of the crow,
Your colour of black, Oh darling lord.

2.In whichever tree I see , oh darling lord,
I see your green colour , oh Lord.

3.In whichever song I hear my darling Lord,
I am able to hear your music only, my lord

4.And if I keep my finger inside a raging fire,
I only feel that sweet sensation of touching you.

Gulzar saab and saans mein teri

One of my ex-colleagues is a huge fan of Gulzar saab. She keeps tweeting abt him always. Since I cannot read Hindi or understand complex Hindi, I never ventured into poetry or Hindi lyrics.
Today, when Saans mein teri from Jab thak hai jaan was repeatedly playing in my ears,
I paused at the lyrics.

Kab tak hosh sambhale koi
Hosh ude toh ud jaane do

Dil kab seedhi raah chala hai
Raah mude toh mud jaane do

Tere khayal me doob ke aksar achhi lagi tanhaai

Read more: http://www.lyricsmint.com/2012/10/saans-lyrics-jab-tak-hai-jaan.html#ixzz2e0ToLyq5

How true! Someone in love can feel these words as emotions. 

Love surely turns one completely topsy turvy. Gulzar sab - thanks for these lyrics. I for one, understood it and fell in love with the lyrics.