O my Divine Love! People run to the forests and mountain caves for solitude to practice meditation, but You drew me to meditate on You, without effort, everywhere.
People renounce their possessions, mortify their flesh and do hard penance to achieve self-control. But without the least deprivation, denial or suffering, You control me.
People seek a Master and serve him, longing for initiation into the spiritual mystery. But You, my Master-Mistress, seek and serve me in order to reveal Yourself fully to me.
I know not what other people call love. My love is only to serve and suffer and die for You.
I know not what other people term devotion. My devotion is only to bind my eyes to Your blessed feet and follow them always.
I know not what other people name heaven and hell. My heaven is only in Your smile, and my hell is only in Your tear.
I know not what other people call life and death. My life is only in Your presence, and my death is only in Your disappearance.
I know not what other people mean by war and peace. My war is only to fight against the obstacles in my way to You, and my peace is only to reach You and fall at Your Feet in one everlasting prostration.
Indeed, I know nothing. I only know that you are everything to me.
~ G. V. Subbaramayya, The Power of the Presence, Part Three, by David Godman
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2 comments:
He really takes the cake does he not, with those beautiful words.
i remember the piece where he says something like: my entire life is a prostration at Your Feet.
What can surpass this and the posted lines ????
i have read love expressed in (English) poetry, most eloquently, but somehow the way GVS expresses love for Bhagavan (to me) just surpasses all other expressions of love/bhakti that i have read.
thanks for sharing these lines with us.
I am now looking at just the title of the post. It is enough is it not, even by itself. one could hold those lines in one's heart for a long time....
what a heaven it must have been!
the smile of His lips, the smile in His eyes, the smile of the entire form of Bhagavan ....
Yes, the first time I read this, I was amazed that someone had put it so well. When I re-read it this morning, it seemed to me the most perfect expression of how Bhagavan gives everything ... and in doing so simplifies our once-complicated lives right down to "My heaven is only in Your smile." Seeking is over.
Thanks for your nice comment!
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