God made you in the God mind
and then God threw his head back
and smiled.
A thousand suns filled the sky
and started setting one after another
in a golden ocean.
And that’s how you were made.
Tag: God
Hafiz poem interpretation – What Happens
Here is my interpretation of Hafiz’s poem ‘What Happens’
What happens when your soul
Begins to awaken
Your eyes
And your heart
And the cells of your body
To the great Journey of Love?
First there is wonderful laughter
And probably precious tears
And a hundred sweet promises
And those heroic vows
No one can ever keep.
But still God is delighted and amused
You once tried to be a saint.
What happens when your soul
Begins to awake in this world
To our deep need to love
And serve the Friend?
O the Beloved
Will send you
One of His wonderful, wild companions –
Like Hafiz.
In this poem Hafiz first describes someone who is falling in love – in the worldly ‘love’ sense – with another human being, with expectations of love being returned. This ‘great journey’ of love is what slowly makes this human being feel alive. In this love, we make a lot of heroic promises which we obviously break over time as this love/relationship becomes a mundane thing in our life. He says, God is truly amused at this childlike behavior of humans but God still appreciates that humans try to be noble, brave and saintly in the name of love.
Then he says, similarly a person might have another type of soul awakening to love – but this time, it could be to a divine type of love – one that is free of attachments and expectations. It is the deep need to love anyone whom you see hurting or suffering, the need to serve those who need help. What happens to a person like this? Hafiz answers this by saying that God will send you one of his messengers to help you out, to show you the way, to guide you. A messenger, just like Hafiz 🙂
Taken from ‘I Heard God Laughing : Renderings of Hafiz’ by Daniel Ladinsky.
Image credit : me
Ganapati Bappa Morya!
My father chopped off my head
I died. He attached an Elephant head instead
And resurrected me – for he was the God Shiva.
I saw his regret and forgave him in a heartbeat
Adored, loved and respected him ever since.
This is how Lord Ganesha, came into being.
Do you think, you will be able to do that?
Forgive the one who chops off your head?
Can you forgive the car that cuts off in front of you in the city traffic?
The boss who makes you feel worthless?
The spouse who has no time to hear your heartfelt thoughts?
The parents who did not understand their sensitive child?
All those who make these tiny cuts in your soul – day in and day out?
Can you forgive them?
That is why Ganesha is God and we are mere mortals.
Let us pray, that God Shiva chop off our ego-heads
and replaces it with one full of wisdom and knowledge,
just like Ganesha’s and all our obstacles shall begone.
Ganapati Bappa Morya! Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!
Image credit : me 🙂
Rumi poem interpretation – Love is reckless
Here is my interpretation of Rumi’s poem ‘Love is reckless’
Love is reckless; not reason.
Reason seeks a profit.
Love comes on strong,
consuming herself, unabashed.
Here the author is comparing logic and love. Love cannot be made to happen by a logical reasoning or conclusion. Love just happens – it is reckless. It can happen to anyone at any time – it does not see if this is in the person’s profit or not. When it happens it consumes the person – body, mind and soul. It is an all consuming feeling.
Yet, in the midst of suffering,
Love proceeds like a millstone,
hard surfaced and straightforward.
Love is also a very strong feeling – no matter how much suffering surrounds it – it keeps carrying on like a strong millstone.
Having died of self-interest,
she risks everything and asks for nothing.
Love gambles away every gift God bestows.
Once a person is in true love, the idea of selfishness does not occur to the person – for they start living only for the benefit of their beloved. In this love frenzy they don’t mind giving up anything valuable that God has bestowed upon them.
Without cause God gave us Being;
without cause, give it back again.
The author says that God has given us this life and the many experiences it provides in a completely selfless manner – in true love for us. In exactly that manner, we can use our being to serve everyone with love and ultimately give our being back to God. It is not necessary to always do things with a profit in mind. This is akin to the idea – ‘Let all you do, be done in love’ 1 Corinthians 16:14
Masnavi: Teachings of Rumi
by Jelaluddin Rumi (Author), E. H. Whinfield (Editor, Translator)
Image Credit : https://hdwallpaperfx.com/lovers-in-nature/
Hafez poem interpretation – The Woman I love
Here is my interpretation of Hafez’s poem ‘The woman I love’
Because the Woman I love lives inside of you,
I lean as close to your body with my words as I can
and I think of you all the time,
dear pilgrim.
Hafez is talking to the woman he is in love with – he refers to her as the woman inside her – because he is actually in love with the soul (not merely the body) of this woman. So he says, instead of leaning his body closer to his lover’s – he prefers to lean closer to her with his words and thoughts. He cannot stop thinking of her.
Because the One I love goes with you wherever you go,
Hafiz will always be near.
He says, because he thinks of the one inside her all the time (this means God – as God dwells inside all of us) – he is going to be near her always, even though physically he is distant. He is alluding to the fact that we are all connected via energy and via God as we all are nothing but unit consciousness.
If you sat before me, wayfarer, with your aura bright from
your many charms,
my lips could resist rushing to you, but my eyes, my eyes
can no longer hide the wondrous fact of who
you really are.
He says that if he were physically beside the woman he loves, he would see her aura shining around her bright. This bright aura is an indication of the many good quality that this woman cultivates within her being – here is where he gets a glimpse of God within her. He says, he could control himself from the urge to kiss her – but his eyes are going to give him away. They are going to give away the secret that he is in awe of her and that he can clearly see the divinity that lives inside her and is very much in love with it. He calls her pilgrim and traveller to show the fact that ultimately, she is on her way to be one with God.
The Beautiful One whom I adore
has pitched Her royal tent inside of you,
so I will always lean my heart
as close to your soul
as I can.
He says, God has made a permanent home inside her. And so he will try to be with her soul always, through his heart – love, prayer and thoughts. He is talking here about a divine kind of love, where the lover does not physically need the beloved in his life. It is a love that surpasses physical limitation. It is a love that extends into the 5D of love, thoughts and prayers – where he can love her through any distance and where one day, they both will be one with God and merge with each other in him.
Taken from The Subject Tonight is Love by Daniel Ladinsky
Image credit : Bernd Vogel / Corbis