प्यारे कान्हा दर्शन दीजो आय

प्यारे दर्शन दीजो आय, तुम बिन रह्ययो न जाय।
जल बिन कमल, चंद बिन रजनी, ऐसे तुम देख्यां बिन सजनी॥
आकुल व्याकुल फिरूं रैन दिन, विरह कलेजा खाय॥
दिवस न भूख नींद नहिं रैना, मुख के कथन न आवे बैनां॥
कहा करूं कुछ कहत न आवै, मिल कर तपत बुझाय॥
क्यों तरसाओ अतंरजामी, आय मिलो किरपा कर स्वामी।
मीरा दासी जनम जनम की, परी तुम्हारे पायं॥
विरह वेदना में तडपती मीरा हरि के दर्शन को उतावली है। बिना हरि दर्शन के वह हमेशा बेचैन रहती है। प्रभु के दर्शन की इच्छा ने उसकी भूख, प्यास और नींद भी छीन ली है। मीरा समझ नहीं रही कि कैसे वह अपनी व्यथा का वर्णन करे। गिरधारी से क्या छिपा है। मीरा याचक बनकर कहती है कि हे प्रभु! मेरे दुख और संताप को देखकर अब तो चले आओ।

The Honeymoon that Never Ends

by Osho

LOVE IS NOT A RELATIONSHIP. Love relates, but it is not a relationship. A relationship is something finished. A relationship is a noun; the full stop has come, the honeymoon is over. Now there is no joy, no enthusiasm, now all is finished. You can carry it on, just to keep your promises. You can carry it on because it is comfortable, convenient, cozy. You can carry it on because there is nothing else to do. You can carry it on because if you disrupt it, it is going to create much trouble for you… Relationship means something complete, finished, closed.

Love is never a relationship; love is relating. It is always a river, flowing, unending. Love knows no full stop; the honeymoon begins but never ends. It is not like a novel that starts at a certain point and ends at a certain point. It is an ongoing phenomenon. Lovers end, love continues– it is a continuum. It is a verb, not a noun.

And why do we reduce the beauty of relating to relationship? Why are we in such a hurry? Because to relate is insecure, and relationship is a security. Relationship has a certainty; relating is just a meeting of two strangers, maybe just an overnight stay and in the morning we say goodbye. Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow? And we are so afraid that we want to make it certain, we want to make it predictable. We would like tomorrow to be according to our ideas; we don't allow it freedom to have its own say. So we immediately reduce every verb to a noun.

You are in love with a woman or a man and immediately you start thinking of getting married. Make it a legal contract. Why? How does the law come into love? The law comes into love because love is not there. It is only a fantasy, and you know the fantasy will disappear. Before it disappears settle down, before it disappears do something so it becomes impossible to separate.

In a better world, with more meditative people, with a little more enlightenment spread over the earth, people will love, love immensely, but their love will remain a relating not a relationship. And I am not saying that their love will be only momentary. There is every possibility their love may go deeper than your love, may have a higher quality of intimacy, may have something more of poetry and more of godliness in it. And there is every possibility their love may last longer than your so-called relationship ever lasts. But it will not be guaranteed by the law, by the court, by the policeman. The guarantee will be inner. It will be a commitment from the heart, it will be a silent communion.

If you enjoy being with somebody, you would like to enjoy it more and more. If you enjoy the intimacy, you would like to explore the intimacy more and more. And there are a few flowers of love which bloom only after long intimacies. There are seasonal flowers too; within six weeks they are there, in the sun, but within six weeks again they are gone forever. There are flowers that take years to come, and there are flowers that take many years to come. The longer it takes, the deeper it goes. But it has to be a commitment from one heart to another heart. It has not even to be verbalized, because to verbalize it is to profane it. It has to be a silent commitment; eye to eye, heart to heart, being to being. It has to be understood, not said.

Forget relationships and learn how to relate.

Once you are in a relationship you start taking each other for granted– that's what destroys all love affairs. The woman thinks she knows the man, the man thinks he knows the woman. Nobody knows either! It is impossible to know the other, the other remains a mystery. And to take the other for granted is insulting, disrespectful.

To think that you know your wife is very, very ungrateful. How can you know the woman? How can you know the man? They are processes, they are not things. The woman that you knew yesterday is not there today. So much water has gone down the Ganges; she is somebody else, totally different. Relate again, start again, don't take it for granted.

And the man that you slept with last night, look at his face again in the morning. He is no more the same person, so much has changed. So much, incalculably much has changed. That is the difference between a thing and a person. The furniture in the room is the same, but the man and the woman, they are no more the same. Explore again, start again. That's what I mean by relating.

Relating means you are always starting, you are continuously trying to become acquainted. Again and again, you are introducing yourself to each other. You are trying to see the many facets of the other's personality. You are trying to penetrate deeper and deeper into his realm of inner feelings, into the deep recesses of his being. You are trying to unravel a mystery which cannot be unraveled. That is the joy of love: the exploration of consciousness.

And if you relate, and don't reduce it to a relationship, then the other will become a mirror to you. Exploring him, unawares you will be exploring yourself too. Getting deeper into the other, knowing his feelings, his thoughts, his deeper stirrings, you will be knowing your own deeper stirrings too. Lovers become mirrors to each other, and then love becomes a meditation. Relationship is ugly, relating is beautiful.

Hence I say relate. By saying relate, I mean remain continuously on a honeymoon. Go on searching and seeking each other, finding new ways of loving each other, finding new ways of being with each other. And each person is such an infinite mystery, inexhaustible, unfathomable, that it is not possible that you can ever say, "I have known her," or, "I have known him." At the most you can say, "I have tried my best, but the mystery remains a mystery."

In fact the more you know, the more mysterious the other becomes. Then love is a constant adventure.

[content and pictures courtesy google]

Anger the stagnant water

Anger is like flowing water; there's nothing wrong with it as long as you let it flow. Hate is like stagnant water; anger that you denied yourself the freedom to feel, the freedom to flow; water that you gathered in one place and left to forget. Stagnant water becomes dirty, stinky, disease-ridden, poisonous, deadly; that is your hate. On flowing water travels little paper boats; paper boats of forgiveness. Allow yourself to feel anger, allow your waters to flow, along with all the paper boats of forgiveness. Be human.
[C. JoyBell C.]

Papajee shares....

Every night when you sleep you experience leaving everything behind - your relations and friends, your house, your country, the mountains, and rivers. You don't see anything when you are asleep and you have no trouble; you are happy. This is a very short experience which we have every night due to the compassion of your own Self; giving you a hint to discover Eternal Bliss. This is for a very short time. When you go to sleep you are at peace. The only troublesome states are waking and dreaming. Who wakes up and gets into trouble? Who dreams? The dreamer gets into trouble, but no one knows who they are and where they have to return to. This is so simple that every reasonable person can solve it, here and now.

We speak every day about this which has been lost. You turn outside to a guide who is deceiving you and you trust that guide. Who is that guide? It is your own mind. Although he has always deceived you, you return to the same guide because you are used to him. He has been your guide since the beginning, but he has always deceived you. Now ask yourself the question, “Who am I?” for the first time. This question has never been asked. You have simply trusted the mind to tell you what to do and you have obeyed. This is the time for all of us here to ask this question. Do away with this guide and you will return to your Eternal Home, to Existence, to Consciousness, to Bliss.

Is there any time when you are not in the mind, when you stop your race after pleasures of the senses, when you simply see? Keep still and this guide disappears, simply with the question, “Who are you?” Then you will know what the mind is, and it disappears. This question has never been asked. This guide has never been challenged before. Wherever you have gone until now you have allowed it to deceive you. It has told you this or that is good, and you accepted it - that this is a world of pleasure, and you accepted it - that these gods will give you pleasures in heavens, and you accepted it. When you challenge the mind it disappears instantly. This is why every day we emphasize the question, “Who are you?”

~ Papaji

ॐ Andal Devi ॐ

Andal devi one who belonged to the Lord and the lord who was hers only , one who would marry none but the Lord
SRI BHUDEVI (ANDAL)

samudravasane devI parvatastanmanDale |
viShNupatnI namastubhyam pAdasparsh kShamasvame ||

Salutations to You, consort of Lord Vishnu, Who dwells in the oceans,And is adorned prettily by the mountains, Pardon me Mother, for setting my foot on You. This prayer is typically chanted after kara-darshanam and before one places his feet on Mother Earth for the first time at dawn. Placing one's feet is considered as an act of disrespect. In seeking forgiveness from the Goddess, one acknowledges the divinity of Mother Earth.
Andal is revered one in the Sri Sampradaya (one of the 4 Vaishnava Sampradaya's which was led by Sri Ramanuja Acharya) as an incarnation of Bhumi Devi, the consort of Lord Narayana. Andal Devi took birth on this earth to exhibit loving exchanges with Lord Rangannath in the form of his pure devotee.
Andal is one of the most extraordinary personalities in religious history. She is known in her native tongue of Tamil as an Alvar, one who is "immersed" in the depths of enjoyment of God, the omnipresent mysterious One. Tradition reckons 12 Alvars, of which Andal is the only female. Between the fifth and ninth centuries, in the Tamil-speaking region of South India, these saints revitalized the Indian religious milieu, sparking a renewal of devotional worship throughout the subcontinent. Traveling from place to place, from temple to temple, from holy site to holy site, they composed exceedingly beautiful poetry to their Divine Beloved, Vishnu
Alvar means one who is "immersed" in the experience of God, the omnipresent mysterious One.
The story of Andal goes that she appeared as a baby girl under a tulsi plant, in the garden of the Vatapatrasayi temple in Srivilliputtur, southwest of Madurai. A great devotee of Krishna named Vishnuchittar (Periyazhwar/Peri Alwar) found her, named her Kodhai/Goda and raised her as his daughter.She sang 30 sweet songs during this month of Dhanurmaas or Maargazhi which contain the principles and ideals of the Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya. Though born in Southern India, she assumes the guise of the Gopis and reflects their feeling of seperation from Krishna. She years for everlasting happiness and eternal service of the Lord.
Finally, at her request to marry Lord Ranganatha, and as suggested by Lord Ranganatha himself in the dream of Vishnuchittar, her father took her to the Sri Ranganatha temple in Sri Rangam where she climbed into the sanctum and married Lord Ranganath.Since time and memorial, Sri Vaishnavites all around the world sing these songs knows as the Thirrupavai every day to glorify the Lord and it gets a special flavour during the month of Maargazhi. Its interesting to note that each day of the month gets its name from each of the songs known as Pasurams. In her songs, Andal invites all her friends to join her by waking up early in the month before the Bramha Muhurta and singing the glories of the Lord and then preparing delicious Pongal which is a preparation made with Rice and Dahl .Andal prays to be granted the service of the Lord for all eternity and symbolizes the soul's inner craving to serve the Lord.
Her message is so beautiful and powerful that Sri Parasara Bhattar said that "Just as the mother cow gives milk even in the presence of its dead and stuffed calf, so also the Lord will bless us even though we are absolutely devoid of the supreme devotion of Andal, merely because we are repeating her words."
All Glories to Sri Sri Andal Devi !! May we all be blessed!!

Ecstatic Premabhakthi

~●~Do Not Leave Me~●~
Do Not Leave Me
Do not leave me alone, a helpless woman.
My strength, my crown,
I am empty of virtues,
You, the ocean of them.
My hearts music, you help me
in my world-crossing.
You protected the king of the elephants.
You dissolve the fear of the terrified.
Where can I go?  Save my honour
for I have dedicated myself to you
and now there is no one else for me.
~●~I Am Mad With Love~●~
I am mad with love
and no one understands my plight.
Only the wounded
understand the agonies of the wounded,
when the fire rages in the heart.
Only the jeweler knows the value of the jewel,
not the one who lets it go.
In pain I wander from door to door,
but could not find a doctor.
Says Mira: Harken, my Master,
Mira’s pain will subside
when Shyam comes as the doctor.

~●~Don't Go, Don't Go ~●~

I touch your soles. I'm sold to you.
No one knows where to find the bhakti path,
show me where to go.
I would like my own body to turn into a heap
of incense and sandalwood and you set a torch to it.
When I've fallen down to gray ashes, smear me on
your shoulders and chest.
Mira says: You who lift the mountains,
I have some light, I want to mingle it with yours

   ~●~Mira the Lotus ~●~

My Lord, the love that binds us cannot be broken.
It is hard as the diamond that shatters the hammer
that strikes it.
As polish goes into the gold, my heart has gone
into you.
As a lotus lives in its water, I am rooted in you.
Like the bird that gazes all night
at the passing moon,
I have blinded myself in giving my eyes
to your beauty.
She who offers herself completely asks only this:
That her Lord love Mira as fully as he is loved.

♥~●~Mirabai ~●~♥

(Mirabai, Ecstatic Poems,
version by Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield)

Thought-provoking Selfie Questions

Answer these ordinary but thought provoking questions to yourself....You might get to know a £ot about your innerbeing....Just be honest... there's nobody you have to share the answers with :)
If you were at heaven’s gates, and God asked “you why should I let you in?”, what would you say?
Who or what do you think of when you think of the word £ove???
When you close your eyes what or whom do you see???
Why must you love someone enough to let them go???
How would you describe yourself in one short sentence???
Who are the Two people you would like to forgive???
If saving the human race required the sacrifice of yourself and everyone you love, who would you choose to save – you and your loved ones or humanity at large??
What is a belief that you hold very strongly with which many people disagree???
Would your life be better or worse if you knew the day, time, and place that you were going to die???
What would people say about you at your funeral?
What do you believe stands between you and your complete happiness?
What is the difference between living and being alive?
Is a “wrong” act okay if nobody ever knows about it?
What is infinity and where does the universe end?
Why do we fear losing things that we do not even have yet?
What is the difference between falling in love and being in love?What does Gravity mean to you ?
What is £ove and why do we £ove anything or anyone ?
If you could go back in time and give three pieces of advice to a younger version of yourself what would you say?
What insight did you have that changed you and your perspective towards £ife ??
What does a £ie and a white £ie mean to you which one would you use and why and what makes it okay to choose one over the other??
What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?
What can you do today that you were not capable of a year ago?
If you could choose one book as a mandatory read for all high school students, which book would you choose????
If you had the power and you could instill one piece of advice in a newborn baby’s mind, what advice would you give????
Is it more important to love or be loved?
If it all came back around to you, would it help you or hurt you????
If you had the chance to go back in time and change one thing would you do it and what would it be?????
Where do you find your inspiration?
Can you describe your life in a six word sentence??????
If you looked into the heart of your worst enemy, what do you think you would find that is different from what is in your own heart????
What do you love the most about yourself???
Where would you most like to go and visit and why would you want to????
Is it more important to do what you love or to love what you are doing?
If we learn from our mistakes, why are we always so afraid to make a mistake?
What can you do today that you were not capable of a year ago?

How do you deal with isolation and loneliness????
What do you know well enough to teach to others????
What’s a quick decision you once made that changed your life ,did it prove to be a wise one or you regret it????
What have you lost interest in recently ???