Thursday, April 12, 2012

Tweets and Rumi, Gibran

Hearing the plaintive notes from a piano tiptoe into the stillness of the night,which until then was just interrupted by the slight ruffle of a turning page or the occasional footfall, I happened to be reading some tweets by Mr Bacchan who chose to tweet lines of Kahlil Gibran. Somehow the mix of notes that seemed to float about and the profundity of the words of Gibran had an interesting effect on me. One, the urge to blog, the tax of typing from a relatively cramped interface of a smartphone notwithstanding.
A lot of times mom has said one neednt wear saffron robes to chose the path of spirituality. Meditation can happen while walking, eating, talking and to the evolved soul, even while one is asleep. There is no start and end to the meditative state.

I copy-paste some of Mr Bacchan's tweets today here:
T 710 - " It is hard indeed for anything to be easy Even humans have yet to attain humanity "~ Ghalib
T 710 - " Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven ? "~KG
T 710 - " And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives ?"~KG

While we, in and inspite of everything do worry at least a little about everything that concerns us and the earth and universe as a whole, th latter especially on days a natural calamity threatening to wreak havoc just passed kindly through our lives (a lot more worry about our future than that of the earth, I am sure, for if we all really did worry and take action, we'd be doing a lot more to conserve the water on our earth).

But coming back to Gibran, I loved the lines on the cup and the lute.
How many cups did burn before they could become vessels of wisdom. How many shafts of bamboo have actually withstood the hollowing before it could probably find its own destiny in the hands of a musician.

A little earlier this evening I read Rahman sir tweet Rumi - 'If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?'

And here is when I wondered if one should look at such a 'rub' as a bruise, a laceration and weep over it as a child whose soft skin suffers the abrasion, or think of oneself as the diamond and believe that it is destiny when every hard knock lands on us, until we have realized our true brilliance.

And after reading but a few lines of Gibran and Rumi and the depth or perhaps the infiniteness of their wisdom .... Ah well.

5 comments:

shrinidhi said...

Yes, very wise words indeed!
My favorite quote is
Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
Khalil Gibran
:)
You write very well(yet again!:D)

Senthamizh Selvan said...

yes...occasionally we do come across people like Gibran and the Sufi poets who look at life as it is than what we expect it to be...

Vaidy said...

Nice quotes.. OSHO has spoken in length about all these people i.e. Rumi, KG, J Krishnamurti, several sufis, nanak and so on... If you are interested you can read some of his work from www.oshoteachings.com (This site is really well organized...)

Vaidy said...

What your mom says about meditation and spirituality is precise... But, you need to strive towards it... Meditation will not happen unless you have the necessary awareness... One simple way to do this is to remain in the present (free from the clutches of the mind)... This is easier said than done... The main problem with us is that we are strongly identified with our body and mind - this is the root cause for all our suffering... The problem with most people is that the moment we say anything against the mind/ego - they either resist it or run away from it.. Hence, not identifying oneself with their body and mind seems almost impossible for most people... So, Spirituality is mostly a good entertainment for most people; they speak all sorts of philosophy which has no consequence whatsover in their transformation... So, I don't know how serious are you towards spirituality... But, I have been a seeker for the past 5 years and I just wanted to share my experience/insight into spirituality/meditation...

Anonymous said...

Here is one from Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyyat

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit,
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

And you can see this beautifully used in the song 'Aayiram malargale malarungal' in Bharathiraja's Niram Maraatha Pookkal, where the line flows 'yezhuthich chellum vithiyin kaigal maarumo'.