Spiritual Intimacy - on soul mateship, divine communion and communitas

EPIGRAPH





Thirst for soul mateship
is not quenched by the Divine.
Its simply refined.

.

A devotee who wishes to remain anonymous has emailed me and permitted this quote for discussion



Yes, I can elaborate on my haiku
but I cannot say what is correct or incorrect
in terms of each person's interpretation of a poem.
Meanings in poems often exceed the writer's conscious intention
and that is how it should be, don't you think ?

There are many who think that progress in spiritual life
is marked by a self sufficiency that makes us impervious
to the soul's longing for friendship.
My initial post here sets the ground to challenge this.

Your first reaction to my post is really quite beautiful
and beyond what I expected. I am beginning to feel
like a sorcerer's apprentice .

Thank you for this inspiration.

Chitra Sakhi ki Jay!

Souls are not mated by meetings
but by greetings
in separation

I am receiving much private correspondence
from non "full members" about this topic.

The topic deserves liberal input from both heavy and light hearted
devotees.

I hope Madhava and the Moderators will
allow all Members here to take part in this topic.

Distant Felicitations to All

Distance is not a measure
For greeting souls
Its the greatest treasure

Satyabhama muses:

Until I have experienced meeting
Until the iron of my soul had melted
In the furnace of His heart
(a process which begins in the longing
and ends (or again begins)
in a transformation which brings
new life to the soul)
I will not comment on the true nature
of spiritual intimacy, except to say
That there is no separation save apathy
And to burn in flames of separation
and the flames of Union
is one and the same fire.

Call this the fault of the flute, or his name,
Call it his form, or my own past fate;
Call it God if you will—still this flame
burns not with ecstasy, but with pain.

Satyabhama (in the voice of His girl) muses:

Whether He touches us
or leaves us alone, we endure
The wound of the memory of His glance
Or the bleeding wounds of love-bites still fresh
We may feign pride and call Him cruel,
a snake, a cheater, a thief
but in the end, it is Krishna
who controls us, who binds us in chains, Krishna
Who holds my heart between His red red lips
and chews it like betel nut...

The Sitter Muses:

Were I for hire for the task of tending
To a little girl’s half-baked desires
It would be reasonable to be expected of me that I said,
“Wait a little longer my dear,
your cakes are not yet baked, I fear”?

But if of me it is wanted (merely),
Half servitude and full diplomacy,
I will pack a basked of cakes
With crusts as crispy as dragon’s’ wings
But cores as mushy as cream.

And to a picnic, off I will send my pretty,
Designing for her a path, not lengthy,
But short, for shortly she wants her goodies.

A straight line (the shortest distance between two points),
A short cut is desirable, achievable, undoubtedly.
So I must go about my task of making
Mushy-Core cakes and picnicking.

Waiting for the day that I can say,
“My precious, the thing is,
Love actually moves in a crooked way…”

The path of love is SO curvy
That unless one keeps one's eyes
On one's own path, one may soon end up
Back where one started. Or worse
Lost in the forest with no path of breadcrumbs
To lead the way home. Therefore the moral
Keep your eyes to your own path
Tend your own desires
And bake your cakes to suit your own taste.

Eyes on your path
Nose in my cake
I must have, I must have
Cream all over my face!

If you bake a cake for a starving man
can you really blame him if
while you take the time to let the cake
bake through to perfection
He cries, he shouts, he trembles and complains
or just stares dejectly
at the tabletop?

A Magnificent Girl
Is whom I muse on
If a man is starving
Let Him bake His own

Satyabhama says:

The path curves with such subtlety
that unless you walk it yourself
you cannot discern its bends and twists.
From the outside it appears arrow-straight
But it takes you places you'd be too fearful to explore
If the Beloved were not waiting at the end.
It is a path without markers. The only roadsigns
say "One Way" and point behind
while the traveler presses onward.
Turn back, turn back, whisper voices
From the forest's depths.
But she would risk her life and soul
a billion births and rebirths
infamy in the world, hatred from strangers,
enmity from teachers, family, friends
if once, if only once she chanced
to acheive her Lover's touch
to gaze upon His Face
to feel His gentle hands...


------------------------------------------

You may laugh at me and say,
"The path you're on is full of curves!"
Yes-for the curve of His eyebrow
I have traded in my soul!

~Rumi

If Rumi were so lucky
to have, perchance, mused
on the straightest of arrows,
released only by the curve
of HER eyebrow.

Oh, Rumi is Her priyasakhi... just see how he implores Her. She is the the Saaqi (lit. a girl who serves wine) to whom the wine of divine ecstasy belongs, and who pours the wine in the cups of the hearts of His lovers. Let me find some verses...

O Saaqi, sweet sight of my eyes,
I've never seen one like you
in all of Persia or Arabia.
Pour the wine that takes me beyond myself,
for this petty existence
brings nothing but fatigue.

one more...

I'm in a daze-
your wine overflows,
sweetness falls from your lips.
O Saaqi,
once you show yourself
everything will be so clear.

one more

I smell the fragrance of my Beloved
and my heart is lost.
I see a ray of light from His face
and my soul is enraptured.

Why are the earth and all its creatures
bubbling up in delight?-
A drop from the Saaqi's cup
has spilled upon the ground.

Gone, looking for Rumi's desert wine
She is never to blossom in Rupa's forest vine.

The Saaqi is divine grace personified. I don't think the Lord's grace has to ask permission from Rupa manjari or anyone else to enter Vrindavana. It lives wherever the Lord's form is, wherever He casts His glance, wherever His name is spoken, wherever His devotees reside...

According to...?

The Saaqi occurs in sufi poetry wherein She is supposed to be the embodiment of divine grace. Literally a saaqi is a girl that goes around pouring wine in a gathering. Here she is the beautiful woman who brings the wine of loving ecstatic devotion to the gathering of devotees. So sometimes in his ecstasy Rumi cries to the Saaqi, "come pour us another round," imploring Her to fill the hearts of the mystics with more and more intoxicating love.

As Rumi says in his poem, how much of Her wine does it take to inebriate the whole world? Just a drop.

I can post something from one of my texts... give me some time to look it up. I am actually supposed to be studying for my final exams now!

Wait, never mind about your texts. Tell me what you know about Rupa's opinion on "divine grace personified"?

I make no claim on Divine Love but I feel so for my Guru Maharaj, stuck among us children, longing so for an adult conversation about his Beloved!

Oh my Gurudev, if only I could have done some small thing to ease your burden.

I don't think Rupa ever made any comments about Islamic mysticism.

And who but... would know. And is the concept of a personification of divine grace exclusive of Islamic mysticism?

Oh- not at all. In the Sri Vaishnava context we see swamy desika writing a hymn to Dayaa Devi (the personification of Lord's compassion/grace). Dayaa Devi is seen as a divine mother who pleads the case of Her children to the Lord, and the Lord is so charmed by Her that He forgives them even the most grievous sins. Dayaa Devi is none other than personification of His own quality of compassionate love for His devotees.

Dayaa Devi Herself is described in several verses: all the Consorts are manifestations of the Lord's Mercy. When the sea of dayaa is churned, the amritam that rises to the surface is the divya deham of the Lord Himself. Another verse says that Dayaa resides in the Lord's lotus feet, and out of that dayaa grows the divine form of the Lord.

In a Gaudiya context I would say that Radha is dayaa devi. It seems She is the storehouse of all divine bliss- so any bhakti that we may feel towards the Lord comes only by Her grace. Thus when Rumi says "O Saaqi, a drop of your wine has fallen to the earth, " it is this Personification of divine grace (Radha) which puts the devotional feeling in our hearts (pouring the wine of love into our cups). So, we love Him not with our own love, but with Her love manifested in our hearts. Thus, She is the source of bliss, and She shares that bliss with us.

I also remember madhurya kadambini talking about the Lord's mercy coming through His glance and manifesting as bhava in the hearts of the devotees. Am I summarizing that correctly (jagatji)?

Anyway, that's what I thought of when I read those poems of Rumi.

What effect do you think the poems of Rumi had on Rupa?

1) Did not impress him enough to keep him in the company of adherents/enthusiasts of Islamic mysticism.

2) Did impress him so that he felt compeled to meet one who personified divine grace.

Rumi wrote in Persian- I don't know to what extent if any that Rupa goswami would have been influenced by his poetry. My guess would be probably not Rumi specifically.

I would like to learn more about the effects that bhakti movements in India have influenced Sufism, and vice versa. I know there has been considerable mixing. I have done some reading on the subject but not nearly enough. Jagat? Sakhicharan? Anybody have anything prepared?

It's hard to say what went which way. There were Muslim traders in South India who might possibly have brought some of the mood of love mysticism to the Islamic world. Rabi'a, a woman, was I think the first, in Basra in the 8th century. But it's tenuous.

The Song of Songs in the Bible is much older, so that might be the granddaddy. Or it may go back way before that to even older temple traditions.

The basic idea, the allegory of love, is an old one, and may just be hardwired.

==========

If Radha is Love, all love her shadow,
no love can be any other.
So the first great sin against love, my friends,
is not to love the lover.

His love is this: "I can never repay you.
Therefore, be satisfied with love itself."
But mix sugar with your vinegar
And little children will be easily intoxicated.

Speak of love but know
That Love silences songs too.
And tramples on chosen books,
And writes cold poems.

Love, my friend,
No one rules.

No one to consult with.
Imagine, the feeling…

Children at play
Adults at play

Like-minded are those
Who are always a bit
Too far away.

Love not the Divine Yugal?

There is no love in this world or the next
but Theirs. It is only She who loves
and She who pours Her nectar in our hearts,
and thus we love Him, and thus we love Them.
All love is pure, it comes from Her,
The Saaqi of Saaqis.
If it be drunk from the Source
or from a lover's lips
from a mother's breast
from a friend's laughter
It is still Her love.

And thus we love HER
And thus we love THEM.

yes sorry, HER, HIM and THEM

and hopefully someday each other too

Does that mean you don't love me?

Of course I love you! But for some reason I am under the impression that for purely theological reasons, you hate my guts!

Well, sorry about that impression. I guess I am in the category of those who get a little deffensive when preached to.

Dear one, I have no intention of preaching to you or anyone else! Sorry if it appeared that way.

If I ever tried to give you adivce on anything, I'm sorry. I am in no way qualified for that.

I guess I am in the category of those that get a bit defensive when they feel that which they most dear is being ridiculed. But it is my own fault to get in the middle of such discussions. Anyway, rest assured I have no desire whatsoever to change you or anyone else. And if you think my devotion is "half baked," then that is okay. I don't wanna force feed you my cake, dearie, don't worry.

Satyaji, please don't assume my poems are directed to you, that is really not the case (unless it is the case).

I am not acquainted with your devotion, particularly, but there is such thing as half baked devotion, and that is what I was addressing in that poem.

Since you mention about not desiring to change others, I wonder what you find of interest as far as associating with Rupanugas when you think that their response to your devotion ("to me Radharani is just another girl"), is not exactly promotional of yours?

Oh, you know you are probably right, Anand-ji. But devotees who understand the concept of loving Krishna and/or Radha are very VERY hard to find in this world- and here in DvaraKansas City I have not been able to find anyone... I am lonely I guess and looking for vaishnava sanga... if something rubs me the wrong way here, I have no right to argue. I am impulsive and over-emotional. I have offended you in my ignorance and for that I am extremely sorry and ask your forgiveness.

ok, time for apologies (the moderation and others are not very happy with me).

Satya-ji, my dear,
I am sorry that I have been
So insensitive, so brutal,
so mean.

This pearl, your devotion,
Is the loving labor of an ocean
Which incessantly gives
And nothing retrieves
Except for...

Waves of different flavors and colors and shapes -
Shapping the Forms of Love
That will be gently washed
On the next willing shore

Come Satya-ji, friends let us be,
(You can preach to me)
For you are the girl with a pearl earring
In the arms of your Lord,
And very welcome in these shores!

listen... er...
you know I had no right to barge in on your fun here. I am feeling like a big fool. I suppose the more we mature, the more we discover just how ignorant our past actions have been... geez...

And once again, I don't want to preach to anybody. How can an ignorant, arrogant, tamasic girl preach anything? The only thing I can talk about is Krishna's kindness, because the more horrible and wretched one is, the more one gets to see Krishna's compassion in action.

as in Swamy Desika's dayaa satakam:

O Dayaa Devi! O Compassion of Lord Srinivasa! You shower us with grace through Your glance... Without Your grace, even personalities like Brahma and Siva cannot reach the Lord's abode. But, it is only natural that the mother
attends to the deficient child more. Like this, I think you shower your grace more on me.

You know, arguing about God is never something positive. I should not have started something here. Well, I'm so glad you have forgiven me. Thank you!

In the devotional context, aloneness, separation and distance are not material references but qualities of being. Thus the union in sankeertan does not contradict but, indeed, fosters the following spiritual content which elucidates the qualities of separation, distance and aloneness:-

So, by you, the fire of apathy is the same as the fire of sambhoga?
I did not know that apathy was a fervour. I take it that you are saying you avoid your feelings of separation by dropping into apathy? If "separation" is an aspect of spiritual being and you run from it in apathy it is no wonder you cannot comment on spiritual intimacy. Are you the Phoebe of this forum?

no no no, the "real" separation is apathy... the second separation I mentioned is the separation in which there is great longing... nevermind. I suck as a poet.