Tera tujh ko arpan…

-
To thee, what is yours

They said Bhakti is surrender
Advaita is acceptance.

They said ‘Insha’Allah’ and
‘Thy Will Be Done.’

They read out the Commandments
They held out the threats
Of the after-life.

They talked of karmic bank balance
And the rebirth penalty of overdraft.

They debated Atma, Paramatma
Awareness, Consciousness
Noumenon, Phenomenon
Choice, Volition
Free Will, Responsibility.

They raised their voices
They chased their tails
They defended forts
They themselves had claimed a while ago
To be Maya.

Meanwhile
Amidst all the churning
The Heart stood still
Anchored in peace
And the song it hummed was serene:

Hoyee hai woh jo Ram rachi raakha
Ko kar tark bhadawey shaakha?! *

- shunyayogi

* A postscript on the concluding verse:

This is a couplet from the Hindu epic Ramayana by the sage Tulsidas.

The first line is direct, to the point, having the unambiguous authority of an axiom: All that happens is already written.

The second line is a compassionate adjunct.

The thinking mind is akin to a tree: each branch (shakha) branching into branches, each of which branching again into other branches, ad nauseam. Basically, the thinking mind can debate, doubt and question endlessly.

So the second line says: Knowing that all that happens is already written, why do you pointlessly proliferate branches of your thinking mind by your endless debating (tark)?

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