Rebel’s Exile Simple — I

It began early but in those days bleak

College, late teen, taught stupidity

That vocation they wished for me

Ere I found ways an’ chose to keep

So I trained for that I wished no part

At noons droning, sultry and hot

Meanings empty, drummed tall

Hopes detailed in abuzz halls

Logic, sciences, cures supposed

Lures promised of career before…

Then it was I’d let all pass

Sensing apart, nebulous

Through the pain plain

And crassery obvious.

…

It resolved next over long years

Under several keen-eyed Masters

Watching, prompting, allaying fears

In texts I read, the words they spoke

The women I kissed and drinks I stole

And in the temples I sat with weed

A pregnant heart and smoking need

Poised, unclear, primed high, slow

Amidst sights that hid the core

With life curating in my thrall

Sans money, its raised walls

Secreted egos it bade on call

Definitions heaped on a newborn

Unaware, dreaming murmurs soft :

On rainbow drift of yet one love

Hours, days and years passed

Freedom clenched of love fast

While I lived and earned just

A bit more, with a tiny plus

Content to walk in own spirit

Hands linked in troubled company

But in step and concurring

Trusting, beautiful, unworldly

With the unreal and its reality

Peace in disquiet, witnessing

Same being one and its fields :

Matter, mind and I within

Nature, powers fomenting

Hunger, laws, and drives cyclic

Then sleep empty, blissful clean

And dreams spun out of within

And the waking … happy or mean

Chuckling life’s huhs, sighing entirety :

Vanity fairs, deserted galleries

Burning days, moonlit oasis…

₹ $ & @

— to be continued —

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Journal : Legend And Conjuration

ALTAI-HIMALAYA

A Travel Diary

By Nicholas Roerich

[ Published by Claude Bragdon ]

Part VIII : INDIA (1924)

Are the inhabitants of Sikhim poor ?

Where there are no riches there is no poverty. The people are living simply.

Upon the hills, amidst blossoming trees, stand the quiet little houses. Through the colored branches shine the bright stars and glimmer the snow-covered peaks. Here are people carrying their vege­tables; here, they pasture their cattle and smile kindly. Here, with fairylike music they walk along the steep paths in wedding processions. Knowing of reincarnation they quietly cremate the bodies. And they are singing. Mark, they are often singing.

Verily, one can sing under a canopy of various flowers and plants. Orchids, like colorful eyes, cling to the trunks of the giant trees. Pink, purple and yellow bouquets are strewn along the way like bright sparks. And these are not simply plants; many have their ancient powers of healing.

Nature awaits here full of gifts. Come hither and be cured. Charura, Parura, Orrura are the three important curative fruits against cough, cold and fever. Charura is like a yellow cherry; Parura like a green chestnut and Orrura like a yellowish-green crab-apple. All three are sharp to the taste and full of tannin. Here is the red bark of Aku Ombo, to cure wounds. Salve against fever is Sergi Phurba, like a dry giant bean. Chuta, the dry bitter root, will cure swelling and heal the throat. Bassack is a brown powder for colds. The red-stemmed Tze produces magenta; bitter Purma is for incenses. A broth from the roots of Berekuro is effective for women’s ailments. The flowers of Dangero heal the stomach, much like the flower of the red rhodo­dendron; while the leaf of Dysro is a disinfectant for wounds. Memshing Pati is a sacred plant in Nepal, where it is used for head ornaments at festivals. Endless are the useful plants…

The leaves of the herb Ava Duti are said “to soften” stones, just as do the “snow-frogs” * in the Himalayas. Therefore, if upon a stone you see the print of an elk’s foot or the paw of an animal, it seems they have eaten or touched this wondrous herb. Turning again to legends : near Phalut, on the road to Kanchenjunga, grows a precious plant, the black aconite. Its flower lights up at night, and by its glow one locates this rare plant. Here again is the trace of the legend of the Russian fire flower, that enchanted blossom which fulfills all wishes— and which leads us not to superstition but to that same source wherein so much still lies concealed.

* Snow-frogs”—a legend which attributes to snow-frogs the ability to soften stones.

Before our gates was found a strange gift. The branches of a fir tree, rhododendron and some other plants were there, with their leaves pointing to our house, and covered with a flat stone. This is a conjuration (Sunnium) and the man who raises this offering receives upon himself all which is sworn upon it, whether of good or evil, sickness or sorrow, or joy. For many days it lay there and even horses shied at it. The same conjuration we observed in the suburb of Jaipur; there in the middle of a street, in a flat basket, lay a lamb’s liver, flowers and three silver rupees. None touched them. These conjurations are of very ancient origin.

Everywhere are legends of the accidental discoveries of sacred spots, the revelation of which was followed by dumbness and even death. Thus it is told that one Shikari (a hunter) in Assam, accidentally wandered into a sacred place and beheld its mys­teries, and when he attempted to reveal them he was stricken dumb.

On the shore of the sea is moving a stick. It moves on alone and near the top of it is tied a lighted tinder. Thus do the conjurers of the coast of Malabar invoke their conjurations to burn the house of an enemy. Doctor Jones of Calcutta tried to overtake such a stick but it “walked away” beyond his own pace.

A legend from around Mongolia : “A venerated mother died and her son was desirous that a high lama possessed of exalted powers should perform the services over her. But such a lama could not be found. The son at the moment of death deposited the spirit of the departing one into a sandalwood casket, strongly sealed this sanctuary and himself invited the best lamas from Tibet. The lamas concentrated upon the casket; one of them be­gan to change in countenance, first becoming red, then blue from exertion. Then suddenly the casket burst into splinters before the eyes of all. This lama was able to free the spirit and thus could perform the service.”

The people here know everything; they have heard everything. One can remember and disclose all things in the twilight : of “Nam-Yg” (heavenly letters)—the letters and sacred books which are falling from heaven; of rings of silver or turquoise which change their color as a sign of foreboding and warning; of Si, the stone bead, sent from heaven to guard the health; of the finding of objects which disappear afterward. All this is known.

A woman was very pious and dreamt that she might receive the image of Buddha. Working in the morning amid her flowers she discovered an image and brought it into her shrine. But soon she forgot it and Buddha disappeared from the shrine. Next time the woman found in her garden a whirling sparkling stone and put it into a coffer and forgot it. Then the stone disappeared. Neglect always results in the disappearance of the bestowed happiness.

Do not record the things which can be read in books but those which are related to you in person; for those thoughts are the living ones. Not by the book but by the thought shall you judge life.

Understand the sparks of the primordial bliss.

When All Seems Lost …

My friend Paresh Borkar wrote on Facebook :

THE PREGNANT DEER … SCENARIO
In a forest, a pregnant deer is about to give birth to a baby.

It finds a remote grass field nearby a river and slowly goes there thinking it would be safe, even as  labor pains start.

At the same moment, dark clouds gather above and lightning starts a forest fire.

Turning left, she sees a hunter at a distance, aiming an arrow at her.

She turns to the right and spots a hungry lion moving towards her.

STOCHASTIC PROBABILITY THEORY

What can the pregnant deer do, already under labor pains ?
What will happen ? Will the deer survive?
Will it give birth to a fawn ? Will the fawn survive ?

OR

Will everything be burnt by the forest fire ?
There’s the hunter to the left, the hungry lion on her right.
Up ahead, the forest is on fire. Nor can she rush back the way she came : a raging river is in the way.

 

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED …

The deer did nothing. She just sat down, focused on giving birth to a new Life.

In just that fraction of a second, events converged …

Lightning struck and BLINDED THE HUNTER, even as he released the arrow.

The ARROW MISSED THE DEER, zipped past her

and STRUCK THE LION, injuring it badly.

And it rained torrentially, to PUT OUT THE FIRE !

THE DEER GAVE BIRTH TO A HEALTHY FAWN ! !

In our life too, there are MOMENTS of CHOICE

whence we all have to deal with negative thoughts from all sides.

Some thoughts are so powerful that they overpower us, and leave us clueless.

Anything can happen in a MOMENT in life.

We may call it divine intervention, faith, luck, serendipity, coincidence, karma,

or a simple ‘I just don’t know’.

The priority of the deer, in that given moment, was simply to give birth to life.

She chose Life and Life chose her.

Let us keep positive insights in focus.

Let us be oblivious of all imaginary, negative probabilities.

The Creatrix

Aawww … the world she will spawn !
So much happiness, so much strength …
So much more life.