As I muse on Thee
a thrilling fountain spray lightninglike
spreads from my heart to all cells of my body,
saturating them with divine devotion.
I seek to enter the inmost heaven of Thy presence.
The soul’s secret door suddenly opens;
and, oh, what bliss I feel at the sight of Thy light!
– Paramahansa Yogananda
Whispers from Eternity by Paramahansa Yogananda
Source of poetry and image: Poetry Chaikhana on Facebook – thank you Ivan.
A selection of favourite word-weavings on the theme that underpins this blog, beginning and closing with beloved Rumi.
I drank that wine of which the soul is its vessel.
Its ecstasy has stolen my intellect away.
A light came and kindled a flame
in the depth of my soul.
A light so radiant that
the sun orbits around it
like a butterfly.
– Rumi
I, the light of pure Knowing, can never be seen as an object or known as a state,
and yet all objects and states shine with My light alone.
– Rupert Spira
The great, shining light of divinity is not a light you can see;
it’s a light that sees.
– Adyashanti
Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent
and the divine is shining through it all the time.
This is not just a nice story or a fable,
it is true.
– Thomas Merton
Such love does
the sky now pour,
that whenever I stand in a field,
I have to wring out the light
when I get
home.
– St. Francis of Assisi
Meditation is that light in the mind which lights the way for action;
and without that light there is no love.
– J Krishnamurti
You are the light of the world.
You are the consciousness that illuminates the world.
Know yourself as that, and that’s freedom, liberation, awakening,
the end of suffering and madness.
– Eckhart Tolle
Vast is That, and self-luminous, of unthinkable form, and subtler than the atom.
It shines forth, farther than the far, and yet It is very near, for those who see,
residing in the shrine of the heart of every being.
– Mundaka Upanashad
The lamps are different, but the Light is the same.
So many garish lamps in the dying brain’s lamp-shop.
Forget about them.
– Rumi
and this Light does know all other light as its shadow
Image credit and first Rumi poem – Amrita Nadi on Facebook
~
Light, my light, the world-filling light,
the eye-kissing light, heart-sweetening light!
Ah, the light dances, my darling, at the centre of my life;
the light strikes, my darling, the chords of my love;
the sky opens, the wind runs wild, laughter passes over the earth.The butterflies spread their sails on the sea of light.
Lilies and jasmines surge up on the crest of the waves of light.
The light is shattered into gold on every cloud, my darling,
and it scatters gems in profusion.Mirth spreads from leaf to leaf, my darling, and gladness without measure.
The heaven’s river has drowned its banks and the flood of joy is abroad.Gitanjali – The Offering Songs
~ Rabindranath Tagore
Photograph by Alan Larus
God
pours light
into every cup,
quenching darkness.
The proudly pious
stuff their cups with parchment
and critique the taste of ink
while God pours light
and the trees lift their limbs
without worry of redemption,
every blossom a chalice.
Hafiz, seduce those withered souls
with words that wet their parched lips
as light
pours like rain
into every empty cup
set adrift on the Infinite Ocean.
~ Hafiz
Art by Claire Beynon
this unlit light 