Words Relating To God Alone Constitute True Poetry

May 1974, Summer Course 1974 - Bharath, Brindavan

Published English.

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There is no death for the two great qualities and , Truth and Righteousness. Do not think that people who are teaching and propagating and are dead and gone. Do not also think that people who have faith in the are not available on this earth.

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It is the seeds which they have sown earlier that sprout and give rise to great men in this world. Truth is Eternal; or righteousness will always be victorious.

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In the old days, even worldly weapons used to be closely linked with Vedic . There is a nice example for this. The weapons used by in tackling the magical demon or have been explained to us in terms of the words of the . Those weapons have been described by a Sanskrit word . If such weapons are not used with a sense of discriminate discipline, self-control and with right attitude or position, they become powerless and useless.

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In the old days, the power of the weapons depended on the . It was necessary for the person who wanted to use them to follow certain spiritual rules and Vedic injunctions.

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In this context there is another aspect which we must recognise and appreciate. We have already learnt that the life principle in a person is called in the early years and in the intermediate stages, it is referred to as and in the later stage the same has been referred to it as . In this context, we have to examine what exactly is meant by early years. It is appropriate to call the first twenty-four years of one’s life as the first period. The next forty-four years of one’s life will be referred to as . The remaining years or the third period of his existence will be referred to as the last or third period. It is in this context that the has stated that the total life-span for a man is one hundred and sixteen years. Thus the three periods - , and - put together, account for the one hundred and sixteen years of a man’s life. This period if spent according to the Vedic injunctions can be referred to as a life of happiness.

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Since life-span of a man is taken to be one hundred and sixteen years, it is necessary to recognise all the aspects that contribute to this life-span. This is what the has laid down. Since the first twenty-four years relate to , the commandments laid down by form part and parcel of one’s discipline and one has to necessarily obey the commandments.

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In the next stage of if we look at the origin of this word, we realise that it is a deity who is associated with sorrow. This is how the word or its equivalent (wailing loudly) signifies that all life forces function on account of divine strength. For instance, as soon as a child is born we expect the child to cry loudly. In fact, if it does not cry loudly it implies that all the life forces are still silent. It is only when the new born child is able to cry loudly and freely that we come to the conclusion that all the life forces in the child are functioning normally. We think that there is going to be some disaster for the child if it is not crying properly. This has to be interpreted as saying that the newly born child is proclaimed to the world with or a loud cry. This is the power of . The meaning of this is that God is present in that child in the form of and by uttering a loud cry God is handing in the or the life force to all the organs in the form of . There is an alternative name for this situation. Since God takes the task of giving the life principle to all the organs in this case He is called .

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The child that is born proclaims itself its arrival in the world with a loud cry and the same child will end its life also with the same cry. This individual who is born questions himself with a loud cry, “Who am I?” “Who am I?” When the same person ends his life, he ends it by crying, “, ”. The individual who begins his life by asking the question, “” or “Who am I?” ends his life by finding the answer to the question saying, “” or “I am He”, this process of realising one’s true nature is called or one who knows the . It is in this context that divinity makes one utter a loud cry and is in this aspect called .

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In common parlance we understand as something connected with sorrow or pain. This, however, is not the correct understanding. Here, we must understand that divinity is being expressed by one’s breath - by inhaling and exhaling. God is expressing himself by means of the loud cry and that is why he has the name which has its origin in . In calling this sound which comes with a view to protect one’s own body by the name , there is an inner meaning.

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We generally associate the word with something which causes pain or suffering to the body. That is not the correct meaning here. This period of has been mentioned as the intermediate period and we have to understand this word to mean that in this period divine energy is being handed down to you.

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In the third stage of one’s life named , just as the sun takes away all the essence out of water in the form of vapour, so also extracts the life force out of all the organs in the human body in this period and therefore this is called . Here we have to understand the significance very carefully. When the rays of the sun fall on the salty ocean or impure water, the sun leaves the residue or the impurity behind and only takes out pure water in the form of vapour. On the same analogy, when we say that is taking away the life force from our organs, he is leaving behind all the bad thoughts, bad qualities and bad work and taking away only your good qualities and good ideas in the form of essence. The inner meaning here is that the good and noble ideas that you have are going to be imprinted on the heart of the or the sun of your life. We should understand here that the impure thought in you is not going with the Lord in this period. Therefore individuals who want to reach God and become one with Him or merge in Him should see good and do good in their lives. It is only the impure portions of you that are left behind and are stuck in the world. The teaches us that impure thoughts are not taken by . It is only the sacred ideas that are taken by him. The preaches such noble and sacred thoughts and ideas.

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Since has emanated from the Himself, it was considered as a poetical text. The work of a poet takes the form of poetry and this is the meaning in calling the a poetic text. This poetic text of was composed by Himself as the author and therefore the divinity of as well as poetic beauty are both to be found in the text of . The has declared that since the had emanated from the Lord, the poetic texts are regarded as the outcome of the Lord and God is here regarded as a Poet par excellence who composed the .

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In this context, we should analyse what is it that characterises a poet. Here, a poet stands for one who is able to visualise in one moment the past, present and future. The poet is one who has this capacity. It is in this context that the has extolled the Lord as a (poet), as a and as an or one who lays down the metre. During the past one month, those of you who have been reciting must have learnt that the word can be applied only to .

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In addressing as a poet, the implication here is that he has handed down to the world some selfless and spiritual texts which are full of noble ideas. That is why he has been called the poet. That which is intended to look after man’s welfare and contains the noblest of ideas and that which contains the aspect of the alone can be called true poetry. It is only in the context of the divine poetry contained in the , that the word becomes significant. However, today even those who write a few meaningless words and produce a few useless sentences are also called poets. Everyone is not eligible to be called a poet. It is only he who is well versed in the and has the capacity to visualise God in his mind can be called a . Whatever words or writing which come from an individual if they come in the form of from the depths of his heart having a divine aspect, can really be called poetry.

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It is in this context that the text of , which describes the divine of God, has been acclaimed as one of the greatest texts. , the author of that , himself declared “the words that emerge from my mouth describe the divine of the Lord; the Lord who is making me utter these sacred words is none other than ; why should I speak anything other than the Lord’s story? I will narrate only His story since it liberates the mankind from the cycle of birth and death”. That is why the has become a masterpiece of dine poetry.

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The students possibly know that ’s picture in our mind is one in which she is wearing clean, white and pure clothes which is a symbol of purity. It is in this context that we say etc. is the goddess of speech and her name is synonymous with . This is the reason why it is said that if one’s words come from the depth of his heart and are selfless, then it can be concluded that these words are coming from the goddess of speech and constitute true poetry.

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One may ask why we have brought in here in the saying, . The concept of here is not the traditional description of with the conch, wheel and mace. The word here signifies the aspect of omnipresence. There is another word coming here and that is and this stands for the colour of . Traditionally symbolises divinity. This fact is obvious from the various ways in which is described. One of the descriptions of is that his entire body is smeared with . The colour of that is greyish white (). This simply means that amongst the several strengths which possesses is the strength of .

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There is yet another significant meaning for this. What remains of the human body when it is burnt away is a small quantity of ash. The human body consisting of different organs––the senses of action and the senses of perception, undertaking ever-so-many activities while it is alive, is burnt away after death like a piece of firewood and is reduced to a small quantity of ash. You can purify or transform any matter with or fire and all matter is reduced to ash ultimately. The is a sacred substance and its colour or form does not change further. If you burn iron, it reduces to ash; if you burn wood, it reduces to ash; if you burn the human body, it reduces to ash; if you burn anything, it reduces to ash. Thus, ash is the ultimate substance which does not change its form. When it is burnt, it still remains as ash. The one thing that remains permanent and which does not change is the ash.

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This is the lesson one has to learn and constantly remember. It is in this context that several take this ash in the name of the five different elements and bear it in the centre of their eyebrows. The meaning of this is that all the elements in the world are identical with ash. What remains ultimately as an unchanging substance is the ash and this is the reason why himself wears ash all over His body.

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Ash is the only substance which is symbolic and equivalent to God and that is the reason why I create and give to the devotees who come to me. This is to convey to them that ash is permanent and even liked by . Since the aspect of , and are all present in this ash, it is neither pure white nor dark but is a combination of both these colours and is described as .

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You are all familiar with the word . In one hand, He holds the wheel of time, and in another, He holds the conch, a symbol of sound, and in the third, He holds a mace, a symbol of physical strength and in the fourth, He is holding the lotus, a symbol of the heart. This is the meaning of the four divine hands holding time, sound, strength and heart and this is why He is called . In the insignia that are given to the Lord, the represents the wheel of time, the conch represents the aspect of sound, while the or mace represents the physical strength and the lotus represents the heart.

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We have understood easily the meaning of the word , and the next name is and this signifies the aspect of the ever-smiling face of the Lord.

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While true poets thus describe the Lord with devotion and purity in their hearts, there are others nowadays who give perverted meanings for the same description of the Lord. They also call themselves poets. According to such people, means one who carries clean white clothes (washed and dried clothes) and stands for omnipresent or that which can be seen everywhere and is taken to mean one with four legs and is interpreted as expressionless and resigned countenance. They have concluded that that which has an unchanging and expressionless face, that which moves about everywhere aimlessly, that which has four legs, and that which carries white clean clothes is the donkey. Thus, they equate Lord with a donkey. People who give such twisted meanings to sacred poetic expressions are the real donkeys.

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When we talk of poetry, it should describe sacred things and should give us noble ideas and an elevating experience. Only such can be called poetry. Everything that is written cannot be called poetry. But today it is unfortunate that individuals who give such twisted and incorrect meaning to various sacred words, and who defile sacred and duty have become several in number and because of this all faith is disappearing and disbelief and lack of faith is taking its place.

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! students,

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It is absolutely necessary that you should fill your heart with ideas which are divine. You must think that the words are coming from the seat of in your body. You should also think that any work that you undertake is arising from the seat of or within yourself. Our whole life is intertwined with the aspect of , and . It is necessary that you should use your physical body for fulfilling the purpose of your life which is to remember the commandments of and the words of . Also, remember that the words that you utter come from and are thus sacred. Remember also that you should undertake sacred work that will take you close to the aspect of .

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What you have heard in the past one month has two important aspects that is and . Constantly contemplate on them and recapitulate again and again. Remember the inner meaning of these words and put into practice. It is only when you put them into practice that you will be able to propagate these ideas to others with whom you come into contact. If you only hear what is told to you and do not put it into practice you will only be hearing all your life and you will not be putting anything into practice. Put into practice what you have listened to and prepare yourself to listen to more good things. These two words and are not limited to a particular time or country or a community. They are not limited to any one sex or religion. They are very much wider in application. They do not relate themselves to either the or the or to the or . They refer to the totality of life. They do not refer to one individual or one country. They refer to the whole of mankind. They are broad ideas and refer to all countries and to all times.

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You should get rid of all the narrow ideas that you might have had in your mind earlier. All these days I have been talking to you about things which are essential for you to lead your normal daily life in this temporal world. I have also stressed certain aspects of the spiritual world. Thus I have spoken about the material as well as the spiritual world. In the few days that are left, I will join you wholeheartedly and sing with you, play with you and talk with you and in this way I will be able to communicate to you what is here at and why you have spent all your time at . You should also know who is in and what is the aspect of the person that is heading this . I hope that in the next two days, I will communicate to you the answer to the question - Who is ? - by being one with you, by mixing with you and by talking to you. In this manner I expect to give you immense happiness and send you back with pleasure to your places.