Say I Am You

I am dust particles in sunlight,

I am the round sun.
To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.
I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.
I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.

Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.
I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.
The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of stone, a flickering in metal.

Both candle,and the moth crazy around it.
Rose, and the nightingale lost in the fragrance.
I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy, the evolutionary intelligence,
the lift, and the falling away.
What is, and what isn't.
You who know Jelaluddin,
You the one in all, say whoI am.
Say I am You.

Translation by Coleman Barks

On My Way To Chicago Bookfair

I was flying from New York to Chicago to attend the book fair held in the American Booksellers Association. Suddenly, a young man stood up in the aisle of the plane and announced:
"I need twelve volunteers each willing to carry a single rose when we get off the plane."

Several people raised their hands. I did too, but wasn't chosen. Even so, I decided to follow the group. We landed, and the young man indicated a young woman in the arrivals hall at O'Hare Airport. One by one, the passengers presented their roses to her. At last, in front of everyone, the young man asked her to marry him, and she accepted.

An air steward said to me: "I've been working here for years, and that's the most romantic things that has ever happened in this airport."

Paulo Coelho

Wish

"Wish we had a second chance
to live the days once more,
And rectify mistakes we've made
to even up the score.
Wish we had a second chance
to use our knowledge gained,
Perhaps we might become at least
as fine as God ordained.
But we can't retrace our steps,
however stands the score,
BUT tomorrow brings another chance
to finally try once more."

What's In A Name?

The first rays of the morning sun kisses my face, making me bask in its warmth and light, filling me with a deep sense of bliss and I wake up with a jolt from my sleep. What must I give in return? Can I?

The moment this thought pops up in my mind I think of the mechanism, named relations, that is existing since times immemorial. Relations. Life is a river of relations - moving faces of people around you. They happen to you for a certain reason. The reason can be as simple as giving you company when you are in need of silence! When one starts discussing about this otherwise taken-for-granted mechanism of existence, one instantly returns to the relations, past and present in one's life. But must all relationships have names? What was your relationship with that lonely figure watching you from a distance when you returned from school? What was your relationship with that stealing glance and lowered eyes when she pretended to ignore you? What was your relationship with that stranger in the street who helped you in times of trouble? What was your relationship with that baby in his mother's lap, who just gave a toothless smile with twinkling eyes and stole your heart away? Can you give a name to such relations? Perhaps not! Do they make you sad? Never!

As time grows, so does the nature and depth of relations. Some painful, some blissful - but they are all there. As maturity overwhelms the child in us, we come to understand some relations are just there - no beginning traced, no questions asked, no expectations expressed, no meaning unearthed! Its just there - just like the rays of the sun touching the earth and spreading its warmth and light. The moment you try to dissect its existence, limitations and boundaries crop up, expectations arise, additions and subtractions are calculated, blame game begins and the relationship starts to groan under the pressure of too many explanations!

So, some relations are better left pure - untouched by our bottled, worldly thinking pattern. The rose does not think about where to its fragrance will travel, while blooming; the apple tree does not think about who will eat its fruit when it is ripe and neither does the rain think about what it is worthy of giving when it rushes down to meet the earth! And we the earthlings know the riches we reap because of their unawareness in giving unconditionally. I wish, sometimes, so be it with us, to realize the beauty of a spiritual bond! No wonder Rumi once penned, " Beyond what is right and wrong there is a whole existence. Lets find each other there."

Pamira

The Sea and The Solitary Soul

Quiet, near the sea
But miles away from the crowd
Stands the solitary figure
Whose gaze pierces the depth
The dark sea and the dark night
Appears mysterious and too frightening
But she stands unbaffled and remote.




The dark sea echoes within her
Remote and alluring…
Both are calm.
But with a tumult inside
She is now closer to the sea
Herself the solitary figure
To be one with the sea
To share the isolation
And the alluring mystery

---Bindu Borle

Baby's World

I wish I could take a quiet corner

in the heart of my baby's very own world.

I know it has stars that talk to him,

and a sky that stoops down to his face

to amuse him with its silly clouds and rainbows.

Those who make believe to be dumb,

and look as if they never could move,

come creeping to his window

with their stories and with trays

crowded with bright toys.

I wish I could travel by the road

that crosses baby's mind,

and out beyond all bounds;

Where messengers run errands for no cause

between the kingdoms of kings of no history;

Where Reason makes kites of her laws and flies them,

the Truth sets Fact free from its fetters.

Rabindranath Thakur

Light and Shadow

I love. I love so many things trivial. I love them because they show me the reason for this beautiful existence. For instance, a trivial taken-for-granted happening, like the sunlight creating a divine aura, of the dancing shadow of the rustling leaves,that is falling through the window behind me, on this blank page, as the fountain of feelings are starting once again to gush out. Unnoticed was this occurence in my childhood. Not now. Now, after all these years, the child within me has really learnt to observe.

Life is colorful and without all the colors it is indeed very dull. Imagine being happy all the time. I doubt whether anyone would have realized what is being happy if now and then that blue bird would not have sung that old blue song from that far, far away blue land. Now, imagine being sad all the time and I similarly doubt whether anyone would have realized what is being sad if now and then that yellow sunshine would not have spread its light and warmth from that far far away vanilla sky! I doubt whether anyone would have valued happiness if there was no sorrow. Happiness and Sorrow, Light and Shadow and so many such things - together they create the set for the show to be played by us in this stage called Life.

There are shadows - shadows of the past - playing too in my life shaping the etheral beauty within me - the beauty of the soul. Yes. I love so many things trivial, for trivials takes me to the depths of the deep - to the illuminating view of the pearl lying deep on the ocean floor within me.

Pamira