The Divine Presence We have travelled far together, you and I, The boundless sunlit caverns of the sky, Explored the living seed, unleashed its power And learned in tragedy's fierce and fatal hour To love, to live, centred in gratitude, Forego the past with silent rectitude, Desires that filled the moment and the day, Linking hands to offer and to pray For stillness in the troubled fields of mind And in the anguished cells a peace to find That heals the tortured burden of the years, Relieves from us the birthright of our fears, Seeking together the fount of ineffable bliss, The moment live for God's awakening kiss That burns

Darshan eve, the 40th anniversary of my arrival at the Ashram At His Lotus Feet He bids me enter deeper, deeper still, Into the cave behind the heart-beats' wall And search the darkness leaning on His will Of such compassion I know I shall not fall. A mystic tunnel looms before my eyes And voices of the higher worlds entreat But something in the consciousness denies The full and final offering, the sweet And pure surrender at His lotus feet: For round me hangs the residue of Night And slow am I the sun of truth to greet While visionless eyes await the inner sight. Yet love shall fuel the engines of my prayer To dwell again

The Golden Road August 20, 2012   Deep sorrows I have known and held so dear And clinging habits I must still unseat, Yet I walk assured, unmoved by death or fear On the golden road that leads me to Her feet.

Seeking March 23, 2012   We seek for safety nets yet search in vain For certainty in an uncertain world, From sorrow's grip released return again To aching memories of grief's recalled. Yet something there is in us that strives to find Meaning in the emptiness of days, Escape from television's hypnotic eye And puerile ads that batter beleaguered mind Promising fulfilment of desire, Or music that invites the vital rise And overwhelms the spirit with its claims. Satiety would prod us for still more And yearns for danger and the passing thrill. We are as islands in unchartered seas Oases in the desert of the mind, Eyes of

Ved Prakash June 2012 Now you are gone from the place that called your soul But I shall never forget when first we met Your beacon of light brightening my days. Recalling your indomitable will The inner support that lifted the choir’s voice And though your body weakened by life’s blows You sang the OM in those great choral eves When all who came felt descending peace Enter in the space behind the heart. I saw your hands of strength gripping the rails As you dragged your wounded legs up the stairs To enter the room where we for an hour sang Calling down a music from above. You were a bulwark for us all, of faith, And in your eyes the flame of love was bri

The Serpent March 12, 2012 A shiver perhaps but absent fear Or fear controlled, for what we learned In childhood of the serpent’s bite In memory’s banks quiescent lurks, But if we knew the power and force To move without appendages Lightning fast and tightly coiled Another vision would we hold No longer to be crushed as foe, Respected now and oft revered A symbol seeking through the world His place among eternal things.

Awake and See August 28, 2012 How sad the world must seem to those who see Beyond the bright horizons of the mind, Who came, those godly messengers to teach The laws of love, compassionate and wise, Who stayed awhile for all who gathered round The luminescent aura of their souls. Too soon they left, their words lost in the stream Of world preoccupations and the need Desire-filled to mark our human stay, And the unrelenting karmic ties that bind All beings to a measured march through time, The quest once known, the gold

Awake to Dawn September 14, 2012   Fall is gold and burning red And yet no dying and no dead, A sleep but then a waking too To live again the dream of you. You are the compass of our thought The inner battles we have fought The reason we have suffered birth Upon this blue enormous earth. The stars are beacons of your love, The moon majestic glides above Our anguish, torment and our fears The sacrifice of failing years, That one day soon we may unite, Awake to da

Birthday July 29, 2012 I slept in the fragrance of jasmine And woke on the wings of the morn, Intoxicant of beauty In all the bodies I’ve worn Through centuries of seeking, Triumphs and defeat. Soon age may overtake me But this sacred life is sweet. Before me stands the Guide, Breaking the barrier-way All my love now offered As I kneel to pray To one long known and worshipped, What more is there to say

Looking Within March 12, 2012 Could the doors of the soul once opened close again Or is this darkness but the working out Of a conscious force behind its protecting veil? As I look into the mirror of my soul Behind the dust of centuries I see A brilliant glass reflecting the truth of me And the future that was promised and shall be. Long though the purifying years, I wait Patiently the hour of release From all that inhibited my growth, the pain Of separation and of separateness. Now the word from unseen heights descends Into the waiting heart, the seeking mind, "Love all, no exceptions", and the strength To realize and hold th