दुबई - Dubai

दुबई रातको जगमगा उठती है 

सितारों से शायद होड़ करती है 

इसकी चमक को क्या नाम दें

सूरज तो ये नहीं 

फिरभी तारों को छुपा देती है

Dubai shimmers at night 

perhaps, it's competing with the stars. 

What name do we give to its glitter? 

It's not the sun and yet

it hides the stars. 

Pride

The sun doesn’t brag that it’s bright,

a bird is not vane in its flight.

A peacock doesn’t boast of its dance,

a swan has no conceit in romance.

The sky is not proud of its size,

nature doesn’t say it is wise.

What good O’ man is your pride?

Beware! It's taking you for a ride. 

When was the last time?

When was the last time

you felt in your prime,

smelt roses in a garden,

danced in the rain,

saw the freedom in a child’s smile,

spent a moment you wanted again,

told yourself ‘it’s fine’,

felt like you had all the time?

When was the last time

you watched the crimson sunrise,

and the serenity of the sunset,

saw the soul in a dog’s eyes,

made a grand day for someone

through random act of kindness,

felt a moment to die without regret,

felt you’ve realized your purpose?

When was the last time

you felt bliss all around,

you chose to not judge,

from goodness you didn't budge,

danced like no one’s watching,

felt pain without suffering,

believed you were truly rich,

ambled around bare-feet?

When was the last time

you took a deep deep breath,

ran till you almost died,

felt so good you cried,

acted out of your mind,

let out the inner child,

bathed in the sea,

or just somersaulted?

When was the last time

you had goose bumps,

made peace with yourself,

forgave others and thyself,

said hello to your soul,

truly followed your heart,

went beyond me and my,

asked yourself ‘who am I?’

When was the last time

you simply hugged yourself

or hugged a tree,

felt truly free,

drove a bicycle,

rambled without a cellphone,

wallowed in the sand,

or kissed the moon?

When was the last time

you saw a rainbow,

slept on the grass,

rolled over a slope,

jumped many stairs,

chose stairs over escalators,

watched the glory of an eclipse,

guessed the shapes of the stars?

When was the last time

you laughed and cried at the same time,

climbed a mountain,

opened your arms to the breeze,

blessed every moment,

jumped with joy,

heard your echo,

felt good about letting go?

When was the last time

you stuck your neck out a speeding train,

you did not hurry,

nor give in to worry,

sang in the shower,

hugged a stranger,

you loved yourself

and just sat still?

When was the last time

you felt your oneness with all,

you felt truly blessed

and saw a win in your loss,

to no-one in particular

said a heartfelt thank you,

felt there was nothing to do

only to be?

When was the last time

you did something for the first time? 

The fount of true love

When pain ceases to make you suffer.

When solitude over shallow company you prefer.

When body and mind are not

your highest sources of pleasure.

When you drink from the nectar of divinity

and bathe in joyous stream eternally.

When the other is not your only friend.

When being alone is not being lonely.

When closing your eyes takes you to a trance,

when going within is a mirthful romance,

when peace performs a perennial dance,

when compassion to flow spares not a chance.

When a caged bird is not your beloved

but the one flying freely in the sky.

When you need not possess to feel loved,

her absence won't make you feel unloved.

When the world loses its power to ruffle you,

when the events around can’t so much as touch you.

When you’re solid like a rock and yet gentle like a dove,

then you know you’ve found the fount of true love.  

कविता तो मैं करता नहीं

कविता तो मैं करता नहीं 

ये तो मुझसे होके गुज़रती है. 

ये तो सर्वत्र सरल तरंगें हैं जो 

मेरे खुले मन को छू जाती हैं. 

ये तो नग्न भावनाएँ हैं ज़िन्दगी की जो 

मुझसे शब्दों के आवरण पहन जाती हैं.

Translation 

I don’t write poetry;

it passes through me.

These are omnipresent vibrations

that touch my open heart.

These are naked feelings of life

that I clothe with words. 

Are we truly free?

Cold makes us shiver,
heat makes us sweat,
pain makes us cringe
and rain makes us wet.

At night we sleep
and wake in the day.
Every few hours,
we need to eat our hay.

Trample a dog’s tail
and it bites.
Brush a man the wrong way
and he spites.

We dance to the tune of money
and relish the taste of fame.
We rejoice the smell of power
but lose ourselves in that game.

So bound are we to these instincts
and so enslaved by this law,
that to call ourselves free
is but a major flaw.

Far away, there is a place,
so true and so free,
that it needs no law
save the one that lets you be.

That is a place of knowing,
where man his true self knows,
where love is all there is
and freedom truly flows.

Tears roll a lot nowadays

I know not how to share the love that swells within me,
or to express the gratitude that often overwhelms me.
I fail to contain the bliss that breaks the dam inside.
I can't have enough of what the present brings for me.

The freedom of my unencumbered spirit breaks the chains,
the vastness of the universe gushes within the bodily remains.
The eternity of now implodes and explodes in turns,
as I wallow in the divine gurgle of many a streams.

I don't know how to let this moment pass
without electrifying my being's existence.
I can't help getting burnt in this blaze,
so blissful tears roll a lot nowadays.

खुदको रोक न पाए हम

ज़िन्दगी की बड़ी आरज़ू थी कभी 
पर मौत को देख खुदको रोक न पाए हम 


तुझसे मोहब्बत की बड़ी तमन्ना थी कभी 
पर खुदको देख खुदको रोक न पाए हम 

Transliteration: 

Zindagi ki badi aarzoo thi kabhi 
par maut ko dekh khudko rok na paye hum 


tujhse mohabbat ki badi tamanna thi kabhi 
par khudko dekh khudko rok na paye hum 

Translation: 

There was a time when I yearned for life 
But when I saw death, I couldn't stop myself. 


There was a time when I yearned for you 
But when I saw myself, I couldn't stop myself.

Life in a moment

I gazed at the crimson sky.
The sky kissed the sea at the horizon.
The sea carried a ship in the distance.
The ship blew smoke in the air.
The air cushioned birds’ flight.
The birds chirped out of their nests.
The nests were perched on the branches.
The branches had swings fastened on them.
The swings entertained the kids.
The kids made sand castles.
Sand was dug by turtles.
Turtles were fed by people.
People were watched over by coastguards.
The coastguards observed the vista.
The vista had the morning sun.
The sun made the sky crimson.
The sky filled me with its vastness.
I saw the mosaic of life
unfold in a moment.

Divine plan unfolds

Silence or no silence, 
mind or no mind, 
ego or no ego, 
acceptance or resistance,
the divine plan unfolds 
through all.

Do our eyes see the truth?

One fine evening, I lied on the grass and gazed blankly at the sky. The birds had long stopped chirping and were blissfully asleep. The moon’s crescent was the biggest source of light in the sky which was bedecked with numerous twinkling stars. I spent a few childish moments guessing the shapes of the constellation. Suddenly, a question struck me. Are the stars truly there or these are just the illusion of my eye? Science answered this question for me.

A basic principle of optical physics is that we see things when light originating from the object enters our eyes. We also know that light, traveling at a speed of 300,000 kms/sec, takes about 8 minutes to reach earth from the sun. This means that the sun we see from earth is how it was eight minutes before. If the sun gets extinguished due to any reason, we will continue to see it for 8 more minutes. Similarly, light from the stars take many (tens, hundreds or millions) light years to reach the earth. Considering this, we may actually be seeing the stars that don’t even exist. In any case, the stars that we see are what existed many many years ago. So our physical sense of vision is focused on the past, on what has happened. We can't even see the present. So do our eyes really see the truth?

To our eyes, a leaf appears green because it reflects green colour. So the leaf is green from the perspective of our eyes. But the truth is that the leaf has discarded the green and absorbed everything else. So what is the true colour of the leaf – the colour our eyes see or that which it absorbs?

Going by this simple logic, it is easy to extrapolate that the people who we call white or fair are the ones who reflect maximum light and absorb little. The people who we call black or dark absorb maximum light and reflect little. So who is more of a being of light and who is truly dark from within? 

Do our eyes see the truth? Hmn ... time to reflect.

Desert Monologues - A brush with theater

Some shades of emotion before the performance:

420 - How God communicates with me

Trust comes easily to me. I’m naturally inclined to err on the side of compassion and trust over apathy and doubt. As with everything else, this choice too comes with its own pros and cons.

I have learnt that life brings us more and more incidents that seem to reinforce the energy that we emanate. So I keep getting a lot of opportunities to be compassionate with and help people around me in whatever way I can. But this signal from me also draws a lot of unscrupulous characters ready to take advantage of this trait of mine.

Without getting into the details, let me just say that my predisposition to trust has proven costly in many ways. Help given with the highest of intentions was misused in many cases. It pained me a lot although there was no feeling of revenge or retribution.

I still sought a power of discrimination to separate the wheat from the chaff. I also realized that my mind always seemed to have limited data and drew me towards not helping. One undesirable outcome was good enough for the mind to close the doors of compassion. However, every time I allowed my mind to takeover, a part of me died. What if the person really needed it? The confusion pained even more than the pain of being cheated. I accepted my inability to find out and hence surrendered my feelings to God to help me with this dilemma. I want to help genuine people, I prayed. Please show me the way, I beseeched. With that, I just left it to the higher intelligence to take care.

During one such dilemma, I left home one afternoon for some work. I stopped my car at a traffic signal. As I waited for the lights to turn green, I noticed an advertisement hoarding by the roadside showing a phone no. 5642067. Then I happened to look at the number plate of the car in front of me: 54205. Then my eyes fell on the car clock on the dashboard. It was 4: 20 pm. I chuckled as I said, ‘Char so bees’ (four twenty, the number 420 for Indians means a cheat or a crook.)  Just as I said that, something snapped in me. I looked at the car number plate again: 54205. I was zapped. I looked up at the hoarding and skipped a beat: 5642067. The number 420 being all around me was not a tremendous coincidence. The divine intelligence was telling me that the dilemma I was grappling with then was a case of a crook. So refrain from believing the person who is seeking help.

I was drawn in silence at that moment, unable to believe what I saw and the inference that I deduced from it. Can I believe it? What if this is just a coincidence? My mind, beset in logic, wanted to create all sorts of doubts. My heart wanted to believe this as a message. Eventually, I stayed with the message and did not help the person financially. Very soon, the choice was proven right.

Since then, every time I face this dilemma, I toss it up for the universe to give me a signal. The number 420 has occurred to me in the most unusual of circumstances since then: newspapers, magazines, books, TV, ID cards numbers, radio, two people exchanging phone numbers and many more. If I don’t see 420 within 24 hours after tossing this question, I believe that the person is genuine and I give more than I have been asked for. If I don’t have the luxury of time, then I go by my gut feeling. One of the more surprising thing is that when I’m trying to do something against my heart, the number pops up from somewhere. It tells me I’m cheating myself. I instantly hold off doing whatever I’m doing and bask in this wisdom from above.  

I strongly believe that when we accept our limitations and surrender our will to higher intelligence, it takes care of us. Such messages are relayed to all of us in various ways. Higher intelligence has as many ways of reaching out as there are people. 

God talks to everyone. The issue is not who God talks to, but who listens. Do we really have our eyes, ears, minds and hearts open to receive what is coming? 

Hide and Seek

I play hide and seek with him.
My friend, or so I thought.
He hides me from myself
while I seek me through him.

He distracts me often
from the task at hand,
creates dreams and wonders,
builds castles from sand.

He often succeeds at beating me,
and I let him beat me too.
He makes me run after the mirage.
But now, I’m tired of running.

I ran so far in this chase,
I came so deep in this game,
that I forgot I’m just playing
and mistook this game for my life.

But just as I remember
that I’m only playing a game,
I can see through him
and find me peeking at myself.

True love has nothing to do with the other person

Yes. You read it right. True love has nothing to do with the other person, only yourself. I know I have jarred you to the edge of the seat in shocked disbelief with a statement that every cell of your body knows is as incorrect as ‘The sun rises from the west.’ 

Let us start with our conventional idea of love. People fancy true love as that exalted feeling of happiness when you are with that special someone and that sadness in the absence of that someone, not to mention a constant worry for their safety and wellbeing. This concept of love is only about the other. Where are you in this whole thing? The proponents of this belief may argue that love is only about the other person. After all, so many romantic best-sellers and movies cannot be wrong. If it is about you then it is not love, it is selfishness they would say. 

Let us take a leaf out of nature. A leaf of a tree is a grand and complete expression of itself. It just is. It is not there for somebody else. The fact that somebody else may use the leaf as food is another matter. A blade of grass is magnificently itself in every moment. It is under no pressure from nature to be someone else. A cow that eats grass is only projecting its nature abundantly. A cow’s existence is not about the grass but herself. It only follows its nature, the instincts it has been endowed with.

We know now that everything in nature expresses itself fully and is not bothered about others. Nothing in nature controls others' behavior. Nature only takes care of itself and its expressions. In the process, every blade of grass fills the landscape with green, every leaf rustles in the wind, every flower enriches the wind with its fragrance and every cow grazes in this abundance. The mosaic of life completes itself through these individual life forms expressing themselves and only themselves. This fullest expression of your ‘self’ is true love. 

Why then did we come up with the other idea of love? It is because we have alienated ourselves from our true nature. We have allowed our minds rather than our hearts to take over us. A human mind, obsessed with size and importance, may question the wisdom of a leaf’s peace with being just a leaf and not wanting to be a tree. If a blade of grass had a human mind, it would dream of becoming the cow and turning the cow into grass. And then it would be sad when it realizes that this is not possible. Mind always wants to be somebody else and wants others to constantly be somebody else. It always wants us to be in the future or the past instead of being at peace with the now. 

Nature does not know time. It only knows the moment, the now. The more you stay with nature, the more you will learn to live in the moment. By being aware of the moment, you give space for the real you, which is the fountainhead of true love and bliss, to express itself more freely. In that space, you experience the joy and love which is unconditional, eternal and free. From that space, you ooze love and happiness irrespective of your partner’s proximity just as the sun emits light for all. Love has nothing to do with the object but everything to do with the subject. 

A flower will shower its fragrance on you irrespective of whether you pluck it, crush it under your feet, squeeze it or just let it be in its grand expression at the edge of a stem. 

True love has the vastness of the sky, the spirit of the sun, the omnipresence of air, the fragrance of flower and the nurturing of nature. 

True love does not filter itself. It just flows from you - eternally, unconditionally and freely. 

True Love

True love has
the vastness of the sky,
the spirit of the sun,
the omnipresence of the air,
the fragrance of the flower,
and the nurturing of nature. 

Oneness

The vastness of the sky consumes me.
The smallness of a speck subsumes in me.

I'm like a globule melting in all.
I'm like a fire melting it all.

Everything around merges in me,
even as I merge in the other me.

Observing

Whenever someone compliments me, I do feel happy. However, I immediately move to witness consciousness and see a part of me feeling happy. I also notice that the part that feels happy wants more of it, the compliments sound like music to that part and it expands. 

Whenever someone criticizes me, I do feel sad. However,I quickly move to witness consciousness and see a part of me feeling sad. I also notice that the part that feels sad wants less of it, the criticism feels like poison to that part and it shrivels. 

And then I ask myself, who am I? The part that expands or contracts depending on the external stimuli or the part that observes myself reacting, feeling. 

The more I stay in this mode, the more I realize that I'm the latter. And it starts to feel good without any external influence. In that moment, I realize that 'I just am' and the moment becomes bliss.

Amen!

And there is nothing else

I'm the flower bearing the fragrance
and the fragrance that graces the air.
I'm the wind that carries it far
and the nose that smells it too.

I'm the eye that sees the stars
and the mind that guesses their shapes.
I'm the stars burning bright far away
and the space that separates them.

I'm the chicken that is hacked
and the butcher that hacks it.
I'm the act of butchering as well
and the one who eats it.

I'm the sound that your ear hears
and the source that creates it.
I'm the touch that the skin feels
and the hand that tingles it.
I'm the taste the tongue gets
and the food that melts with it.

I'm the love that unites all
and the fear that separates.
I'm the God you love to love
and the devil you love to fear.
I'm this and that and
everything in between.

I'm the best virtue
and the worst vice.
I'm the one you laud
and that which you loathe.
I'm the best form you see
and the formless unseen.
I'm bigger than the universe and
smaller than an atom.
I'm what I'm and what I'm not,
I'm it all.
I'm all there is,
and there is nothing else.

मंज़िल

तन्हाई मेरा पेहला प्यार भी है 

और मेरा पेहला डर भी.

तुझसे जुदाई मेरी पेहली तमन्ना भी है 

और आखरी आरज़ू भी. 

तेरे बिना ही सबकुछ हूँ मैं 

पर तेरे बिना कुछ भी नहीं. 

किस सच को चुनना है मुझे 

इस बात से बेख़बर भी नहीं. 

तू मेरी मंज़िल नहीं 

ये पता है मुझे, 

फिर क्यों बार बार 

तू ऐसे सताए मुझे?

मेरी मंज़िल इसी पल में है 

पर मुकाम है मीलों दूर भी.

इस पल में और सब कुछ है 

काश होती थोड़ी ज़िन्दगी भी. 

जीना था मुझे खुलके 

जब तूने जकड़े रखा था,

अब जब कोई पकड़ नहीं 

तो क्यों जी नहीं पा रहा? 

ऐ खुदा मुझे ये बता 

क्यों बनाया मुझे तूने ऐसा? 

जो है उसे छोड़कर क्यों 

जो नहीं उसके पीछे मैं प्यासा?