A book of paintings by Niranjan accompanied with poems
Painting
THEME/S
When the inner gates are open
The world becomes a figure and mould of the living Spirit,
A home of delight, symbol-image of an impenetrable Mystery.
All the bodies and forms reveal the divine Resident,
The inconceivable Splendor, the Eternal multiple Being.
Wherever we turn our gaze we meet only an ineffable Wonder.
This world of double opposite terms, good and bad, sorrow and happiness,
Life and death, day and night, God and demon, friend and foe
Disappears in a glorious epiphany of supernal harmony.
48
Each face recalls a picture-gallery of a thousand souvenirs,
Some snapshot images remain forever engraved in the memory,
Fluid expressions, passing waves of some fascinating Beauty,
An unending vast and complex drama staged by a supreme Genius,
A passionate dance of some conscious Power in perpetual motion,
In an unbroken procession the sacred pilgrims nourished
By the bliss of the Brahman, travel through time frozen in Eternity.
An expert Jeweler-Sculptor in a delirium of ecstasy
With unbridled fancy is the creator of this Divine Reverie
Forever moving, shifting, unsteady, fugitive, unsubstantial,
Chimeric, disorderly, incoherent, confusing
Yet a constant undeviating serial development, pursuit
Of the single theme - God, the marvelous Mystery.
A many-voiced fervent anthem played on a praying Organ
By a God-possessed Musician in rapture draws the souls nearer
And nearer to the Mother of incredible Love and Sweetness.
Yet the joy unshared is an incomplete joy for a noble soul,
Like a violin concerto without an orchestra to accompany its exultation.
Radha feels shy to have Krishna all for her own.
She persuades her companions to fall in love with her beloved Lord.
A great soul does not enjoy his solitary liberation,
Cannot remain unconcerned with the world in distress.
Like a giant tree struck with lightning,
As he bums, he ignites the obscure forest around him,
Makes it glow with the yearning for an irrevocable metamorphosis.
49
A priceless luminous indestructible Diamond,
No, Someone, Some Beauty, Some death defying Felicity,
Meditating in a hidden mystic crypt down below.
Above, an ocean in turmoil, furious with discontent
In search of a fire to appease its huge hunger,
Looks up fuming, foaming to the immobile Moon in the sky.
A rain of pale blue shimmering sweetness,
Soft, velvety, innumerable gentle streams of tenderness
Caress the inconsolable agonizing violence,
The self-destroying uncontrollable stupid arrogance
Of a stubborn ocean slowly subsiding into a swoon
Of rapture, an ease, a tranquil detente,
A transmuting, regenerating Peace brought to a standstill
All the devastating rage, volcanic surge in its depths,
An undulating green blue carpet, spread to the horizons
Happily received the tread of the fascinating Divinity,
Who risen from the inaccessible abyss of Mysteries
Now inundated the praying expanses with Her purifying Sweetness,
A fragrant symphony of divine Harmony climbed to the Moon.
50 - 51
A swirl of billion and billion stars,
A galactic merry-go-round for God's pleasure
Rotating around an invisible Centre, irresistible Power,
Moved by His passion and Fire and all-realizing Will
Through eternal time undergoing an inevitable metamorphosis,
Slowly wake inwardly to their primordial Divinity,
Each star an unforeseen Godhead, a new face of the One
Forever the mysterious All, infinite, inexhaustible Source
Hiding His face behind a glow of Light, His eyes looking into mine.
A mirage, a dream, a hallucination, an unbearable Wonder,
A Supreme Reality containing, swallowing,
Immeasurably surpassing all existence
Yet peers at me from the tiniest grain of a star,
Enfolding me with Its Ocean of Sweetness
Blotting out my littleness,
Releases me into a boundless delightful lawless freedom
Of Love Divine
52- 53
A perennial fountain fills up with nectar all the yearning jars.
One wide breath animates the tiny cells and the stupendous galaxies.
One crimson Love flows through all the hearts petal-soft or hard as steel.
One sacred Fire ignites all the flares in the sky at night.
One orange passion hides behind its myriad shades and variations.
On a single point converge all the diverging roads.
One compassionate Seer looks through the million differing eyes.
One eternal purpose drives the countless forces at constant discord.
A single Ecstasy heightens the tension of the wise and the wild.
A single vibration keeps the immeasurable clockwork in motion.
A single ravishing note sustains the prolonged
Frenzy of all the heartstrings.
One Supreme exploded beyond recognition
In scattered fragments,
Holds all creation together
Whirling around its Mystic Presence.
54 - 55
When You are with me,
Thy felicity slips into the ill-lit corners of my being
Dissolving the massive darkness perpetuated by hunger and pride,
Bridging the gulf between soul and soul with understanding,
Transforming existence into a river of serene delight.
Words seem inadequate to express the essential unity.
When Thou art with me,
Evil and suffering lose their terrible meaning,
Each happening becomes a ritual, an act of benediction,
The dire misfortune brings a rare opportunity
To step over an impossible barrier with a smile.
Misunderstanding opens a door of deeper and lasting concord,
Rejection seems an unexpected favor, gesture of an indulgent Grace,
Death, a joyous entry into a life more intense and luminous and divine.
The One stands revealed everywhere, in all creatures and beings endlessly,
Eternal changeless Being containing all, contained equally in all,
Above all and no one, yet dwelling in the heart of everyone,
Carrying the destiny of one and all, safe and assured forever.
Thou shinest in a broken piece of porcelain, a rose bud fallen in the mud,
In the golden bust of an ancient Egyptian Goddess
Recovered from the night of a subterranean grave in the desert.
Life is then a mirrored surface of a tranquil lake
Reflecting the sacred procession of ineffable wonders,
Cloud-messengers hiding in their bosom flame-contents of the Infinity.
Profiles and contours, inscrutable symbols,
Sculptured images of the Unknown
Drive our souls to a constant discovery of a newer and newer Ecstasy.
56 - 57
When the rains come the red barren hills
In no time become emerald green
Covered with grass, weeds, plants, flowers and trees.
Ants, bees, butterflies and a thousand other insects
Crawl, hop and fly attracting birds and animals
From near and far creating a stir of noisy life.
When the wind of Grace passes over a burning planet,
Little by little the fire goes out, water appears
Announcing the million guests of life.
As from a seed grows the tree, so too the earth
Reveals all the hidden treasures she holds in her bosom.
Each star, each planet, each atom of this universe
Is made of an extraordinary, fertile spirit-substance,
Contains in essence worlds of inconceivable Wonder and Beauty.
Each handful of earth pulsates with the heartbeat of the Lord.
When the hot wind blows the gardens dry up, crumble into sand.
With the coming of the rains blooms appear from nowhere.
The earth-drama is a perpetual repetition, delightful replay
Of God's unfolding glory with constant variations.
In distant corners of this immeasurable universe
Other earths are waking, flourishing and falling into sleep.
The seed develops into a tree, the tree retires when tired into seed.
God recovers His memory and then after ages of enjoyment
Plunges into oblivion into His unfathomable trance.
Red barren hills or emerald green hills or silence of the void
Are God's whims, His musings, fanciful dreams and reveries,
His manifestation or sleep in His own being beyond creation.
The seed becomes a tree; man shall be immortal and divine.
The human soul climbs a step daily to God's summit.
When the Mother Divine opens our inner eye by Her magic touch,
Then and then only we see God's million bodies and faces everywhere.
58 - 59
All the bodies are bodies of God,
His mutable forms filled with His immutable Presence.
He is the conscious enjoyer of all forms of existence.
When man was absent on earth, God was fully present
In all hundred million bodies of dinosaurs and dragons.
Nothing can ever live without His breath,
The boundless fathomless bliss which sustains all existence.
The forms are made of His immortal substance,
This stupendous universe in His body,
The cobweb of His imagination.
Space and Time are elements of His Consciousness
To spin His yarn unfolding in the nothingness of Eternity.
All is His play with Himself split, sectioned, fractioned
In incalculable fragments, yet each particle
Contains some magnificence of the whole Divine.
No form however perfect can ever manifest the entire Reality.
Yet some incarnations reflect the supernal Glory
As the dark blue ocean seized and ravished by the resplendent moon.
All creatures are habitations of the Lord,
At His pleasure He changes His domicile.
The supreme Artist and Architect of the Creation,
He designs and executes the plans of His vision.
He is the unsleeping wakeful dreamer
Enjoying a peaceful long night of rest
In His innumerable ever-changing mansions,
Seemingly durable yet having a programmed span of reliability
To avoid the monotony of a landscape frozen in immobility.
Who art Thou, 0 Wonderful Master of the house of my life?
Am I a fiction, a figment of Thy imagination!
Who cares! Thou, O wonderful Lord art only real,
I am an ephemeral spark thrown out by an Effulgent Sun.
This marvelous split-second of my life is filled with Thy Glory.
60 - 61
Mother Divine,
My heart in gratitude bows down at Thy feet.
Against the pink-rose background of Thy Eternity
Each moment is a revelation, each shadow an apocalypse of Thy glory,
A diamond-constellation which shall never appear
In the canopy of heaven till the end of time,
The dream-washed faces we shall never see, the same yet so charmingly different,
The hands we shall never clasp to convey the message of our hearts.
Life is so fascinating, so beautiful and so mysterious,
Half in jest, half in seriousness all is play of Thy boundless Love.
62
Who is good or who is wicked? None can be neglected.
Behind the veil of our forgetfulness shines the omnipotent Divine in all.
Even the flicker of the eye is a chosen rhythm of His marvelous design.
Children from the infinitudes of His indivisible existence,
We enjoy harmony and strife on this tiny uncharted island of beatitude.
Pageantry of magnificent souls gladly robed with titanic difficulties,
Reverent procession of seers and mystics in the guise of an average humanity,
Nascent pilgrim sparks, moths in love with night attracted by a hidden Light,
Gods and goddesses and Lords of the Earth whom man venerates through the ages
Move silently with folded hands in front of the Dais of the Two-in-One.
Offering their lives in homage, they stay on or pass through the Shrine.
All are blessed for eternities to come in this benign Hour of Grace.
Who can ever reach Thee, Mother Divine?
Active, puissant and immobile, Thou art all around us, within and above.
Pursued Thou disappearest in the far and the wide.
Who can ever contain Thee, Mother Divine?
Like water through the mesh, Thou escapest from the strongest wit,
Yet choosest to abide in the heart of Thy children.
Who can ever know Thee when Thou seekest Thy own self ceaselessly?
Mother Divine, Thou only art, Thou only hast been,
And Thou only shalt be, Origin self-born, Supreme.
In Thee we move and live and have the bliss of our being.
63
Your boundless love for the Divine
Is the most intense, fiery ardor
And vehement Ecstasy.
Your intolerant violence of passion
For the Divine knows no control,
No rule, no barrier, no frontier.
Always at a crescendo
Like the drunken ocean
Seized by the mightiest winds,
You bring all the measureless splendor
Of your invincible power to protect
The worshipper of the Divine.
Be with us, O Victorious Kali,
Liberate us in the love of the Eternal Mother,
May we love Her with your mad
Passionate rapture.
May Her face remain clear and shining
Day and Night in a Vision which
Sees the One in all things and beings.
May we love Her with all our being
And consciousness
In every cell and fiber of our body
At each instant.
She is so good, so marvelous, so simple,
So near, so fully concerned with our
True progress and happiness
Always ready with Her help.
She is humble as no one else
Can ever be.
She is utterly simple
She is Love and Love and Love.
To live and vibrate in Her sweet
Presence is the most profound Bliss.
Give us the Power to love the Mother
In a simple and beautiful way.
64 - 65
The eternal Shakti hides behind the veil of a fragile mortal body
As the sun, which remains invisible in a gray thick fog.
Her easy words communicated brilliantly the difficult ultimate Truth.
As a refreshing source, tenderness flowed from Her
And simply removed pain and the thorns piercing the flesh.
As a light bulb which enlightens a dark chamber
Her presence, simply, illumined the thick consciousness.
Never in a hurry, She had all the eternity in front of Her.
Her smile received the debates, the conflicts and the corrosive doubts
And dissipated them immediately in a soothing harmony.
66
The Supreme Mother inaccessible even to the Gods, so great and so distant,
Unthinkable divine Reality made Herself small, insignificant, passed unnoticed.
We ignored Her very often in our blind impertinence.
When we were in front of Her, the window of our soul open
Even for some seconds we could perceive in Her
The Divine Mother, the wordless magnificence, the Eternal in a body
For ever so close, so intimate, mother, friend, confidante,
Master, professor, infallible guide, adorable sister.
Day and night She was ready to listen our complaints,
Never a word of criticism, never the least reprimand,
She led us towards the sublime aim by an infinite sweetness.
All, which emanated from Her, every word, every gesture
And Her silence was only a blessing, which hastened spiritual progress.
She took care of our souls as a wild sentinel,
Fought for us against merciless powers Of terror and darkness who hate the Divine
And protected us from the worst in spite of our decay.
The violent passions, rotten pieces, mud which we threw on Her,
Smiling, She collected them in Her scarf as flowers.
Her thousand children who evolved around Her in an ecstatic saraband,
Cherished, warmed, inundated by Her transforming waves
Forgetting cruelty, violence, torments of human agony,
Lived on an island fortress in the middle of a sea in fury.
It was the paradise so dreamed, so prophesized, the impossible realized.
67
Mother Divine, in a kingdom of dreams on the border of life,
The fettered creepers virile and thirsting for the sunlight,
Burst the chains that held them anchored so long
To become snakes gliding over fields and lakes.
A luminous green ardor still flows in their veins.
Camellias, petunias, orchids, roses and lilies,
Flyaway in a tumult of exciting colors
Changed into dragonflies, gorgeous moths and butterflies.
Forerunners of the splendid tribe of peacocks and swans,
They draw their strength from the liberty of the blue sky.
The patient majestic tree brooding for centuries,
Imploring the Gods above with a thousand hands,
Detached from its earthly moorings
Becomes the restless and daring spirit of Man
Besieging the mute heavens with his thousand queries.
Aspiring men and women, young and old seeking their souls,
Burning day and night in an inner fire, life after life,
In this miraculous Hour of Grace, leave their humanity behind,
And lightened for ever from the burden of the tormenting night
Invade the Earth with a supernal delight and a God-vision deep and wide.
Mother Divine, hidden Will in the atom and the protoplasm,
Thou aspirest in the flowers and the creepers,
Extendest Thy arms of prayer in the tree,
Thou keepest vigil on the altar of the soul of man.
Mother Divine, Thine is the inspired vision, the struggle and the battle,
Thine too the Victory, the laurel and the crown,
The Realisation, the glory of the marvelous New Creation.
68 - 69
O Mother, who shall ever sound the mystery of Your fathomless Love?
If only the blind and the lame and the mutilated and the profane
Knew the omnipotence they harbor in their breast, all would change.
The hungry dog whining in the rain is made from a deathless substance.
The furious bull straddling across the path is the Lord Himself.
The nubile princess luxuriating in the revelry of senses
70
Crystallizes for an opulent instant the potency of Your transcendence.
Death, too, is the soul's cozy tavern for the night
In its long strenuous walk towards an immortal life.
Seen under a serene light, each face is a sculptured poise of the Formless.
On the bosom of rocks a fiery joy is engraved, compassion animates cruel Fate.
A handful of earth becomes the palpitating heart of the All Beautiful,
A glass bead, an orange peel reveals That which has no name.
Transparent eyes recount epic tales of heroic conquests with God as the only witness.
Unknown to the beings, the spirit in them yearns and communes with the Reality.
The humblest soul sojourns nightly to its home
Beyond the mystic shores sealed off by a deep sleep.
The muffled ecstasy of life in the porphyry, the gamut of passion in the mimosa,
Ease of movement and careless exuberance in a fawn, the majesty of a swan,
A rapture and a harmony that elevate man on sudden occasions,
Mark the early trajectory of Your assault on the yet unconquered peaks.
Now soft and sweet and tender, now adamantine, relentless and tyrannical,
You change the technique according to the nature of Your subject.
The sails resistant to the strong winds of Your grace
Take the vessel to its destination through a contrary process.
Baptism of fire purifies the ore, transmutes the sordid into sublime.
Weak with the weakling, subtle with the cunning, comedian with the fool,
Lover with the beloved, Master with the servant, Teacher with the disciple,
Kali to the strong, Krishna to Your comrades, Mother to Your children,
You draw each one to Your breast through roads that seem to deviate.
If a lotus could appear in a corner of this lifeless Universe,
Wonder not, O soul, should a new race possess the Earth with the Mother as Leader.
The impossible becomes inevitable through the miracle of a boundless Love.
71
Fortunate voyagers on the galleon of the King, rejoice, O happy pilgrims,
Long harassed by storms, hunger and privation, waves of passion,
Hunted by marauding pirates through the ages,
Held up by long doldrums of despair and slack sails of emptiness,
Ensnared by the crystalline bays within coral reefs
Which tear open bare keels with the ease of a razor blade.
Forget, O soldiers, now that the land is in sight
The giant whirlpools, irresistible downward pull drowning all yearning,
72
Forget the fog, the rain, the sleet, the icebergs and the biting bleak winds,
The dreadful sleepless vigils in face of starvation and certain death,
Efface the memory of the hard sacrifices made to appease an implacable Fate,
Forget the harsh words, secret plots of rebellion against your Pilot Queen.
Celebrate, 0 chosen delegates, your long ordeals are over.
Land-birds sing an anthem of welcome to our new home.
Dancing bits of green wood, fresh-water weeds and plants
Eagerly kiss the advancing prow of our galleon.
The laughing winds bring an incense offering from the excited virgin fields.
The Dawn writes her message of greeting with the contour of the Eastern hills.
Remember the friendly stars on the way and the trade winds of constant Grace,
The smile of the Sun and the Moon signaling through the crevices in the sky,
The dolphins and the seagulls by daylight and the honk of the geese at night
And your anxious brothers and sisters who wait with trust in your mission,
Remember the mighty ocean that carried you so long on its bosom
And above all the sovereign vision and determination of your Captain.
O happy pilgrims, bridle your impatience, stand a while in silence.
Then lower the plank, move aside, give the Queen the right of the way.
She has steered the galleon of the King safely to the other hemisphere.
Watch Her plant on the untrodden soil the blue and gold banner of New Creation.
Stay and pray with Her in this mystic hour of hope and triumph.
Beyond the fringe of the sand lies the un sullied land of Love's adventure.
73
Step for a moment in a magic circle of dream and unreality
Where all is Joy, Peace, Harmony and
An unbroken Song of Eternity.
Behind the mask and beyond the mind,
That is the Reality.
An endless procession of symbol-dream figures on the canvas of eternity,
Infinity of space, shadows, glimpses, suggestions,
Hints and images of a vast fathomless mystery ... the One.
Faces, smiles, arms, lips and eyes of someone utterly simple,
Humble and loving. All yet none, Unknown forever
Yet sweet, close, intimate, real, incredibly near, inside, outside,
All around, 0 Thou, Thou alone art true and worthwhile.
74 - 75
"O Pioneers of the Gnostic evolution,
Prophetic dreams, hopes and promises fulfill.
Herald God's reign. Millenniums await Thy advent.
Carry out My Will; cleave new broadways to divine Ecstasy
Through ravines, fields and mountains, shape Paradise on Nature's soil.
Die, O Seeker bound to ego, enamored of vanity, thy star has set.
Forget the charming frailties, bum in the blaze of the New Sun rising,
And be the twice born, awake to the Reality, the knower of the Brahman,
76
Assert thy birthright, accomplish thy mission.
Live for Me, by Me and in Me from now on.
Open wide thy spirit to the incoming Light.
Be My instrument, bright and transparent, moved by the
Truth above, beyond the dubious circle of reasoning.
I shall embrace the world with thy eyes, Pour My love on it through thy heart divinized,
And from the capital of thy soul convince it
Of lasting peace and harmony, sheer joy of living in the Spirit.
O Mortal, welcome the Eternal in thy frame of body, life and mind.
The Lord has set His saving seal on thy Destiny.
Arise, demand and receive in this supreme Hour of Grace."
77
The Heaven has sent us to distribute this invaluable Nectar to the souls
Who are thirsty for the love of God and for the new divine life on earth.
We come from a very distant, very ancient country. We bring a very special honey,
Which cannot be found somewhere else. Honeys, which can cure all the wounds,
Relieve all the troubles, calm ardent pain, ease the most murderous violence.
We come from a very distant country, sent with the Supreme, this honey which
Stayed in the forgotten cellars, concealed since ages. We bring you this miraculous honey,
This immortal nectar, which illuminates all the darkness, erases all the sorrows,
Helps forget all the sufferings, lights in the heart a new hope,
78
Releases a fountain of joy in the secret soul,
Transforms slowly this human being into a divinity of tomorrow.
We are carriers of honey sent by the sky coming from a distant country.
We are not salesmen of honey, but we distribute it freely to all the anguished,
The deprived souls, the broken lives, to the blind and the mutes.
Our honey has no price; the smile of the patients is our reward.
Come, O frightened souls, stressed to the breaking point
Who cry hopeless in the night.
Come, the honey, the immortal nectar waits for you.
Come our brothers and sisters,
The Divine Mother puts all Her sweetness in our honey, in this nectar.
All the walls, artificial, false, murderous will fall
As soon as you will have swallowed some drops of this sublime honey.
Man is a divinity in creation disguised in ridiculous suit on the scene of life.
This honey will bring down the disguises
And will reveal a sweet and magnificent Divinity in your soul.
We are carriers of a very ancient, very special honey,
The recipe of which was kept secret during millenniums!
Now the cellars are opened and the key has been given to us.
This honey is for whoever looks for the Divine.
Knock at the door, taste some drops of the honey,
Then depart enlightened, cured,
Singing the glory of the Divine Mother, the Mother of the whole Universe.
Come, you children of immortality, the honey waits for you.
Come, take your part, be happy, luminous
As the blue full moon playing with the waves of the Ocean.
79
We have only heard the pretty legend of Bhagirath
Who brought down on the Earth opulent Ganga,
Holy benevolent Deity from the peaks of the hidden paradise
To resurrect the unwise tribe of his sixty thousand brothers
Burnt to ashes in the fire of their own dire folly.
But we have seen with our own eyes Sri Aurobindo
Who persuaded our beloved Mother Divine,
Eternal River of boundless Grace, Source of all love delight,
Peace Over the World
To descend from the impossible silent heights
Here below to awaken the somnolent soul of the
Mankind and rekindle hope.
Sacred Mother, perennial River transmuting the Earth-life,
Pierce the mountains, inundate the lifeless plains,
Wash away in Thy majestic elan
The massive barriers restraining our Godward yearning,
Spread wide Thy purifying waters on our smoldering lives.
80 - 81
I feel closer to the Mother
When I play music.
She is my listener.
Music is my communion.
I feel Her Grace flowing through
Me in the form of music.
It is an ardent prayer rising to the
Supreme Mother and at the same time
Her sweet powerful response,
Her Love and Blessings.
This prayer is most often for the
Manifestation of the new world of
Peace, unity, beauty and harmony for the
Descent of the Mother Divine
In hundreds and thousands of souls.
It is a prayer of the man of the earth to the
Divine Mother bringing Her healing touch.
The Spirit of Music
82 - 83
On the swift wings of
Imagination my
Dream bird forever explores
The summits and the
Abyss of the creation.
There is no rest but
Constant
Excitement,
Surprise
And
Ravishment.
84 - 85
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