Bees in the Garden: Poems by the Masala Mystic
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
BEES IN THE GARDEN POEMS BY THE MASALA MYSTIC Edited by Henry Rasof Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 1 BEES IN THE GARDEN POEMS BY THE MASALA MYSTIC View of Varanasi (at one time called Benares or Banaras), the holiest Indian city, from the Ganges, the holiest Indian river. The cloudy air probably includes smoke from the many cremations that take place along the banks of the river. I say "probably," because it also is possible that the hazy air is a kind of physical metaphor for maya, the veil of illusion that the Masala Mystic writes about in many of his poems. If you are cremated in Varanasi, it is said that you will not be reincarnated on Earth. Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 2 BEES IN THE GARDEN POEMS BY THE MASALA MYSTIC I give my poetry away, and give myself along with it But first I look for people who can value what I give. —Mirza Ghalib Mirza Ghalib Edited by Henry Rasof TEMESCAL CANYON PRESS Louisville, CO 2019 Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 3 Books of Original Poetry by the Editor Souls in the Garden: Poems About Jewish Spain (2019) Here I Seek You: Jewish Poems for Shabbat, Holy Days, and Everydays (2016) Chance Music: Prose Poems 1974 to 1982 (2012) The House (2009) Web Sites by the Editor henryrasof.com www.medievalhebrewpoetry.org copyright © 2019 by Henry Rasof All rights reserved. No photograph, regardless of the source, may be reproduced, copied, transmitted, or linked to in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage or retrieval system. Except for brief excerpts used in reviews, no text in this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the editor or his representative. To obtain such permission, please write or email: Henry Rasof Temescal Canyon Press 116 Monarch Street Louisville, CO USA 80027 [email protected] Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 4 Dedicated to seekers, mystics, and poets of all faiths and of no faiths; men, women, and children; young and old; of all gender and sexual orientations; in all places and worlds; of all nationalities or no nationality; dead or alive; in the past, present, and future Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 5 Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 6 CONTENTS Who Was, Is, or Will Be the Masala Mystic?..........9 Beyond the Unknown..........13 A Gathering of Bees..........16 What Is Maya?..........17 Questions for the Road..........20 The Doors of Perception..........21 Hungry, Noisy Birds Revisit the Big Questions..........24 Maya and Morning Glory..........28 Praying for Rain..........32 Jagadanandakaraka 1..........33 Jagadanandakaraka 2..........37 Mari Mari Ninne Moralida Nee..........39 Three Nirguni Bhajans..........41 The Salt Doll of Sri Ramakrishna..........46 The Death of Swami Vivekananda..........47 Notes..........50 Sources of Quotations..........52 Sources of Photographs..........54 Names and Terms..........57 Poets and Spiritual Teachers..........57 Names of God, Gods, Goddesses, and Legendary Figures..........57 Terms..........58 Further Reading..........60 About the Editor..........63 Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 7 Eventually one realizes that one cannot depend on anyone. One has to "go it alone." . One sees that one has to make the journey of understanding by oneself. ." —Jiddu Krishnamurti Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 8 WHO WAS, IS, OR WILL BE THE MASALA MYSTIC? The poet calling himself the Masala Mystic is somewhat of an enigma. From his preoccupations with the kinds of concepts associated with Hinduism—like maya—and with Indian philosophers and mystics, one would assume that he himself was or is Indian, specifically a Hindu. However, the impressive breadth of his vocabulary and knowledge of different religious traditions leads one to wonder if indeed this is the case. The references to Taoism, Buddhism, and Islam; to Greek, Egyptian, and other ancient gods and goddesses; to Jesus; and to medieval Jewish philosophers may seem out of place in the work of a poet focused mainly on Indian ideas. However, Jews have lived in India since at least about the sixth century B.C.E., Buddhism originated in India in the fifth or sixth century B.C.E., Christians may have lived in India for about two thousand years, Zoroastrians and Muslims have lived there since the seventh century, commerce existed between India and other countries, the British landed in India in the seventeenth century India and ruled much of it until the mid-twentieth century, and ideas have no geographic boundaries. That said, the Mystic seems closely related in worldview to spiritual teachers like Sri Ramakrishna, an Indian Hindu whose teachings have a universalist ring to them. When did the Masala Mystic himself live, or is he still living? Although he is mentioned in The Persian Letters, another work compiled by this editor and dated to the eleventh century, the many references in his poems to nineteenth- and twentieth-century spiritual teachers suggest he lived no farther back than the nineteenth century. Nothing eliminates the possibility that he is still alive in 2019, when this book was edited. His age, gender, birth name, religion, caste (if he was or is Hindu and alive before the caste system was banned in 1950), and any other personal information are unknown. Of course, the Mystic may have lived much longer ago and his original poems rewritten or embellished by other people along the way. The Mystic could be one man, or even many poets adopting his name. He even may be of the future. Since there's no way to support any of these notions, the editor has decided to assume that one man wrote the poems. As a contemporary poet writes, about a magical house: No one knows how old the house is, when it was built, or where. The house is like a house without a history; when you are in it the past doesn't exist. But the house has a history; it is just not in the books. But the house is real. The house exists-- wherever you are, whoever you are, have been, or want to be. The house, which is always on tour and has been everywhere, which never really goes anywhere, exists in every place on earth, in every time in history. This could apply to the Masala Mystic. The editor came across a large collection of the Mystic's unpublished poems in a library in Chennai, India, during one of the editor's three trips to India in search of poetry, music, spirituality, and, curiously, masala dosas, the heavenly Indian crepes. The original poems are in Tamil and in English. The editor organized and edited fourteen of the English poems for this volume. He added the epigraphs and other quotations, based on references in the poems. May your own spiritual path be enriched by these poems! Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 9 (above) Famous music hall in Chennai, in South India, called the Carnegie Hall of South Indian (Carnatic) music. (below) Masala dosa referred to in text. Yum! Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 10 The best of all true things is a true heart. —Kabir Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 11 BEES IN THE GARDEN POEMS BY THE MASALA MYSTIC . sometimes truth flashes out to us so that we think that it is day, and then matter and habit in their various forms conceal it so that we find ourselves again in an obscure night, almost as we were at first. We are like someone in a very dark night over whom lightning flashes time and time again. —Rabbi Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed Statue of Rabbi Moses Maimonides in Córdoba, Spain. Poems by the Masala Mystic © 2019 by Henry Rasof 12 Beyond the Unknown is there a God and if so does this God have form and what is its nature and if not what else is there? some say that God exists and has both form and no form or even that God sometimes has form and sometimes does not these questions are of interest and the questioners as well but what if anything does any of this mean and does anyone care even if God does exist which i think is the case? does any of it matter when the music is strong when the music is beautiful when the music is ecstatic and ethereal? walter pater said that all art aspires to the condition of music, namely, pure form yet compared with the music itself, so what? i have seen this God on a jeweled throne in a hypnagogic vision but does this compare with a Bach suite? people make statues of gods and Buddhas and these are often extraordinarily beautiful but can anyone say as beautiful as the buzzing of a beehive? in Japan a temple hall with 1001 statues of the goddess of mercy concentrates their compassion in a way that cannot be described yet compared with a Bach violin sonata . the jade Buddha in Bangkok spoke to me and I didn't even have to give an offering but the formlessness of a musical composition speaks even more mysteriously and what about the little black statue of the goddess Kali that almost comes alive in the Ramakrishna temple at Dakhineswar, India, where Sri Ramakrishna and his wife Sarada Devi lived yet Dr Balamuralikrishna singing the Jagadanandakaraka krithi of Saint Thyagaraja* makes this saint come alive and takes us higher still beyond the unknown __________ Two versions of this composition can be found on pages 33 to 35 and on pages 37 to 38 of this book.