QUESTIONS ON UNITY

I’m filled, like a mountain lake after summer rain,
Fed by a flowing stream, source of wisdom, love;
A spark, fired to light this planet, from above.
A ray of flame on a brazen, burnished plane,
To gild each leaf on my way down lover’s lane,
Warming earth’s fertile, terra cotta clay,
And emerald sea of mercy, green and grey.
Air’s balmy breath of life is free from pain,
Crystal clear, beyond the game of loss or gain.
What means it to my Master, pure as a dove,
This empty void, an abyss, a lonely way,
The costly pearl that pilgrim has to pay?

What of scriptures, tracts, Gitas, sacred books?
Lord’s lurid library of command and revelation,
Reams of cryptic comment, endless emendation,
Holy tomes which cram cathedral nooks and crooks,
To provide much caw-cawing for a crore of rooks.
Is that Self Knowledge, Upanishadic or Socratic?
Or malady of mind, narcissistic, autocratic?
When freed by Sage wisdom, from dull senses, it looks
A hotchpotch prepared by Satan’s favourite cooks,
To titillate one’s poor palate to a new sensation.
So what’s this freedom, vulgarised by folk democratic?
But my dear Master knows, he’s The One, truly aristocratic!

What’s knowledge of truth, freedom, awakening?
From ignorance, sleep, alienation, delusion,
Folly, dithering in a mad dream of world illusion?
Freedom from bonds, desire and slave attachment?
What’s the meaning of mankind’s predicament?
What’s the deep significance of ‘ego’, ‘I conceit’,
Errantly wedded to body, well bedded in self deceit?
What’s‘mine’, a grabbing hand, grasping temperament,
For umpteen baubles, attractive, yet vehement?
Or pure Awareness, to save one from confusion,
To rescue Soul from dualism and preordained defeat?
So I pray for grace and knowledge at my Guru’s holy feet.

I am ‘That’, Absolute Consciousness, ever One,
As unconditional love, awareness, reality, bliss,
Embraced by love of God, and blest by His kiss;
In radiant light of His glory, bright as the Sun,
I am ever homogeneous, second then to none.
What care I for freedom from chains or liberation,
In life or death? Or game of gaining Realisation?
Or this current world destiny predestined to run,
Rebirthing in some alien womb, ‘til kingdom come?
For after transmigration, at-one-ment I may miss.
My Master halts this baffling mental perturbation,
I let go, and abide in Heart with silent adoration.

I have no central entity, resident at home,
No one to feel elated or badly hurt by fear;
Or pleased, perplexed, pining, or simply here,
To feel depressed; yet there’s restless mind to roam
Over inner seascape of bubbles, froth and foam.
So where’s he who suffers, enjoys, plans and acts,
Who holds opinions, thinks he knows all facts?
What’s rising of thought, beneath my cerebral dome?
What’s this visible world? plaything of some gnome?
So now, there’s no fictional person to jeer or leer.
For my Master, his cards are neatly dealt in stacks,
Abiding in the Self, there’s no need for lofty tracts.

So, set in the temple shrine of the spiritual Heart,
Nestling on the dexter side of my breathing, breast;
Not on the left, where a fleshy pump beats in my chest,
Dwells ‘I Amness’, from which real awakening starts.
So pondering, I pose the vital question, what’s the part
I play in life, what’s the answer to the riddle of the world?
Who yearns for freedom from the jail in which I’m hurled?
What is Oneness, consciousness, truth, wisdom’s art?
Into my heart He fired Love’s rose flowered dart.
Who’s bound or freed as an honoured friend and guest,
Behind the body-mind, and now at last unfurled,
As space for world to happen in, lustrous and impearled?

So deep in my Heart, I Am the One, unborn,
Uncaused, unborn, deathless, Self existent, free.
I ask, what’s this stormy, bubbling, troubled sea
Where froth is foaming, from morn to twilight’s gloaming,
On Self’s ocean, lit by orange orient dawn?
What is Creation? what means world dissolution?
I ponder questions and search for heartfelt solution.
Who and what is seeking? king, bishop or pawn
On time’s chess board, God’s emerald palace lawn?
What’s the end of searching, is it peace, liberty?
Who’s the brave seeker to find absolution,
Has he found as answer? the ultimate resolution.

I am pristine, pure as Himalayan snow,
A pellucid stream pouring from a mountain height;
Chaste, flawless, without shame or blame, wintry white.
I trickle down the valley to the sea below,
And flow! curious about all there is to know.
By his Direct Path precious Self Knowledge’s gained,
To a glorious peaceful end, if and when attained?
I’ve no problems, in heaven, or in hell so low;
I’ve surmounted grief, elation, sorrow, born of woe.
Simply stated, I see what’s meant by wrong and right;
The world by preservation, is maintained
By grace of God, and His will, all beings are sustained.

Awakened, stay steady, perfectly still
As an adamantine rock in ocean stands;
Unmoved by blustery winds, or shifting sands.
What are opposites, from health to sickly ill,
Pleasure, pain, joy to sorrow, to heal or kill?
Distraction, concentration, meditation,
Reflection, rejection, contemplation?
My Master welcomes all as God’s Almighty Will!
He accepts ‘what is’, as gracious grist to his mill.
Gently through grace, he breaks all bondage bonds.
In a paean of praise of unconditional affirmation,
He rests One in the Self of conscious consummation.

I’ve lost the dread merry go round of thought;
Perpetual treadmill of self-opinion and words,
Mainly cynicism, lies, flapping wings of carrion birds,
Poisoned witch’s brew, often bitterly fraught
With totally mistaken notion that I ought
Cherish intellect and make my mind the chief.
To be burgled by thought, that villainous thief?
So the lesson that my dear Master patiently brought,
Ignore snake bites of concepts by which you’re wrought,
All that inner dialogue is truly quite absurd:
Here is pure Consciousness, a gift beyond belief,
The end of thought brings peace and blissful relief!

I am clarity, pure as a crystal and lily white,
Flowering in purple, thistle-bracken field.
So what’s world delusion ? To this question I yield;
For mind can never understand the infinite,
The magic of Maya is a trick of light.
What’s world’s dream, notion or thought? It appears
Like fantastic music, deceiving all ears.
Emptiness of egotism, a simple void of night,
Is witnessing Self, nakedness of inward sight.
So what’s unveiled when the onion is peeled?
The Master wipes away confusion and dries my tears.
He says “all’s unfolding as it should”, and ends my fears.”

Without hint of duality , One without two,
Unified, whole, absolute and seamless,
All of a piece, love and pure awareness;
So there’s nothing to divide me from you;
Perfection coming from a primal source, who
Am I but ‘That’? deathless, eternal, the same
Self-existent, truth, a God without a name.
I know there’s nothing poor puny ‘me’ can do:
All that happens is His mighty will, through and through.
I rest in the heart, blissful, benign and blameless;
So what’s my soul to that awesome Lord of flame?
He says “unknown, celebrate, enjoy My game!”

For endless rigorous effort, where’s the need?
Struggling ‘gainst one’s natural way of feeling,
Trained to prevail, practising fair dealing;
Pressed to labour if you wish to barely feed
A family, own a home, a job, and so succeed,
Conditioned like some machine well oiled.
Poor pilgrim’s now half baked, parboiled.
So my Master to his pupils, now does plead,
“Surrender, when you carry out each deed.
Forget the books, austerities and kneeling.
After all the hard years you’ve ardently toiled,
Relax, unwind, and never by this world be spoiled!

You’ve no limits, hedges, you’re no longer bound,—
No edges, land marks, verges, remain for thee.
Nothing arises, you’re empty space, for all to see
That all is well unfolded, true Self you’ve found.
You traced your ego like a zealous hunting hound,
And found your primal source, the Light of day,
Now as witness-consciousness you’re free to play.
So rest in your Heart, near a sacred mound,
Where your naked feet tread, is holy ground.
You’ve found freedom, joy, bliss and liberty.
Nothing is. Thou Art God, what more is there to say?
You’ve glimpsed the truth of Self the Non Dual way!”