THE MIRROR

Is the mirror happy?
Or is it sad?
Beautiful?
or is it bad?

To the seer it says –
Why do you ask
questions that I
Reflect back?

Wipe off the dust
And wash off the grime
See me reflect the
Light

that shines

within!

THE FOUNTAIN

The Green shoots out

And stretches towards life

As the slumbering,

Careful earth cups it close

To its heart with unspoken

Tenderness.

 

Life fountains out

In a joyous gush as

The greys merge into blues

And the wisps of white

Float across

and sometimes descend

hugging the frozen earth

warming it in joyous

abandon.

 

How perfect the

Choreography!

How beautiful the

Tango!

I bow to the sublime

Dance of eternity

Continued in infinity

In life’s eternal

Backyard.

 

BREAKING DOWN WALLS

A wonderful blogger recently asked me to share my thoughts and views Religion and spirituality.

My response was as follows:

I have never identified myself with labels, whether nationalistic, religious or otherwise. The more I have seen the world the more I see the unity as opposed to differences, which are so very superficial. The joys and sorrows, the pain and happiness that govern a human life are fundamentally the same no matter, which country, religion, race or culture they belong to. Parents feel same joys and sorrows for their children, lovers the same love – what might differ is the external expression of those things. The expression being deemed as acceptable or not depending on the cultural conditioning. Ultimately everything that we tend to identify ourselves by is nothing but conditioning. Even nationalistic feeling, though considered to be a good thing can ultimately be detrimental when compared to the unity of the human experience – as it tends to separate man from man and woman from woman.

Anything that comes in the way of the unified human experience of love, which takes us away from basic fundamental human emotions and experiences of empathy, compassion – cannot be close to divinity. All spiritual paths, whatever names they go by, ultimately lead to the same destination. To claim that only one is true and the rest not so – is ludicrous. HE, SHE or IT that is all pervasive and has created the entire universe – how can such an intelligent presence differentiate between the very things it has created? That is pure indoctrination of the human mind by the human mind for nothing but control and power. How can love for God exist where no love for his creation exists!

Inner experience shows – that the more one advances, the more the labels fall off, the less is the insistence on a specific self limiting identity. How can that which is infinite be defined in finite terms? This is what i feel. The more one grows, the freer one is from small, narrow limitations; the more the walls break down. The more is the expansion of love. Not only does that love extend towards ones near or dear ones but it expands in ever widening concentric circles to include all societies, all nations, the world and ultimately the universe. It all exists within us.

The creator and the created are identical, the same holiness pervades all creation.

DIVINE

The universe meditates

within the soft Green folds,

held still

in a germinating

Silence.

WEBS!

It grows and grows,

an endless spidery web,

of wants and desires,

Life – caught in silvery,

gossamer trappings,

taken over, engulfed, drowned,

not knowing that it’s even happening.

Enamored by the Golden cage,

forever on a hamster’s wheel,

spinning, spinning, spinning!

Breathe – I say to myself,

Let it go, let it go, let it All go!

Lighter, freer, oh to float,

to open the cage and get off the wheel – what bliss!

But –

More is Gold – the world howls!

Bigger is better – it screams!

Climb and claw, fight to get it All – it preaches,

buy more and get more

you are worth it – it entices!

For without it All – you are Nothing- it hisses!

You are only the things you own – it proclaims!

Oh, how we curdle in fear, how we buy into the lie.

What a web!

What an enticing illusion,

No more, no more, no more –

I will be caught no more.

I fly with glee, my mind will be free.

I begin the untangling,

the unraveling

Free to simply Be.

A CARPET OF GOLD

Gold under my feet

scrunched up and unnoticed

Its beauty no lesser…

Gold in the heart

Hidden and unknown

Its love no less pure…

Gold in the earth

Undiscovered and covered

Its glow no dimmer…

So what if the gallery’s empty

So what if there’s no audience

So what if there’s no applause

Gold shines and beauty blooms

And love still spreads its fragrance

 In a world

Unforgiving

A SUMMER HAIKU

This haiku has now been published in the Journal ‘When Women Waken’.

http://www.booksbywomen.org/whenwomenwaken/a-summer-haiku-by-anjali-deshpande/

 

Sparkling water

Speaking silence –

reflecting.

 

 

 

BUBBLES OF EXISTENCE

To each his bubble
to each his colour
to view through a happy rose
or a suspicious grimy grey
Some do burst bubbles
with sly and shameless glee
Others blow them up
with joyous abandon
Some exist but for a moment
others scatter hither-tither
as whimsy dictates, this way and that
Yet others glide effortlessly
neither do resist nor exert,
their importance upon others
their iridescent luminescence
content to just Be
In the here and now

and Forever…

SERENITY (A Gogyohka)

A cloudy frothy wake of Saffron streams
as you majestically descend
My heart swells as your beauty transcends
all petty complaints and smallness
and Love fills all emptyness

Gogyohka is a 5-line Japanese poem. I was inspired to write it after learning about it on Staci’s wonderful blog. Check it out at http://stacilys.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/music-of-my-heart-gogyohka/

PEACE

Words fail

mere sounds

melting into nothingness…

Words tire

meaningless and trite

grating noise

on heart’s primordial silence…

The dive

into soul’s soothing cradle

of incandescent light

within and without

I so crave…

The monkey mind

jumps without meaning

Stop. Be still. Dissolve.

Into Peace

streaming consciousness

of Truth, Beauty

and Love…