-59_Old Bengali Mystic Poems

      4. Jewel Centre – the highest centre at the top of the head re­presenting the highest seat of mind beyond which is the Vast and Infinite Consciousness.

5. Mother-in-law – ordinary consciousness.

6. Sun and Moon – day and night, the cycle of ordinary con­sciousness.

7. Purusha and Prakriti in right relation means the victory of the Supreme Consciousness

V

VI

2. He gives up the joys of ordinary life. 

– it must not be allowed to return. With this pure Consciousness firm in you, let yourself go ahead. Do not turn to the right, nor to the left – go forward keeping a watchful eye all around. >

The solid stake of Dual Consciousness Purusha and Prakriti

is broken, .

Broken all the bondages that encircle:

Kanhu revels drunk with the sweetest wine,

He enters Self-born's lotus-grove and attains the calmness;

Even like the elephant in rut for his mate

He rains Truth's own realities.

All the sixfold movements in his nature are purified:

Whether in the Presence or in the Absence even

            the hair's end does not stir. ­

From the ten sides the ten delightful treasures

            have been gathered, .

To capture the Consciousness, as one does an elephant

            with ease.

NOTES

All the ties of the world are broken. Kanhu is free, he is free in the Supreme Ecstasy.

X

Your hut stands outside the city,

my untouchable maid;

The bald Brahmin passes sneaking close by.

O my maid, I would make of you my companion.

Kanhu is a Kapali, a Yogi, he has no disgust

and he has no robe on.

There is one lotus and it has sixty-four petals:

Upon that the maid will climb with this poor self

and dance.

a my Beauty, I ask you frankly:

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XII

2. Adversary – Maya.

3. heavens – the mind – churning in order to go through.

4. Bhutas; elements or indriyas (senses).

5. Sun of the Truth-Consciousness.

6. Ganga = Supreme Delight.

XVII

XIX

NOTES

This poem or song is an outright cryptogram. It speaks of mysterious things in an even more mysterious way. First of all, we must note that the poet is a woman. She calls herself kukkuri. But why of all names a "bitch"? Well, she is in good company. One remembers the Vedic Sarama or Sarameya. The West too has its Hound of Heaven. Only the term here has been put in its vernacular form. Anyhow it is a yogini who embodies or represents the divine Being, nairatma devi, as the Buddhist commentator says.

The opening lines have a clear Vedic ring, they take us back to the famous Devi Sukta where the poetess – there too it is a Rishika, Vak or Vagambhrini – feels herself one with the Supreme Shakti and declares her mightinesses.

Here also the woman-singer, filled with the divine afflatus, intones her inexpressible experiences. Her individual consciousness is identi­fied with the universal Mother consciousness. And as such while she casts her glance into herself, into the depth of her womb, she finds the entire universe there and it comes out in a burst. But she notes that the first creation is only a world of the mere senses, the world of desires and it was not what she wanted. Therefore she severed the life-line that held it – as though the umbilical cord – by a stroke of the concentrated luminous energy that her consciousness was. So the wrong manifestation, the false world (of Maya and Mara) dissolved. and disappeared. And in its stead the true, the world of truth – that is the void – was firmly established, never to move or change. The process is a difficult path and only a heroic soul can go through it.

XXI

The night is dark, the mouse stirring:

Immortality is his food and he takes it.

Slay the mouse, O Yogi, the mouse that is like the wind.

So may he stop his coming and going.

The mouse pierces into the earth, he digs a hole.

Restless is the black mouse, be firm and kill it.

Black is the mouse; it is not visible for its colour.

When it ascends to the sky, then it enters into

a mindless meditation. 

The mouse is restless; it is at rest when it has the

consciousness of the Great Master.

When its wandering ceases, then only,

Bhushuka says, all its bond ages break away.

NOTES

This poem presents a simpler allegory and expresses a more familiar experience of the spiritual life.

The mouse is the ignorant being, the small being of ignorance­ – the restless desire – soul full of hunger and hankerings – moved by the untamed vital urge ('the wind'). It is difficult to spot it, because it is a black thing moving in blackness – ignorance enveloped in ignorance. Tamo asit tamasa gudham. It burrows a hole in the earth consciousness, enters into the basic inconscience, steals all the light and happiness from above and hides them in the underground darkness. No spiritual realisation can come and stay unless this nibbling enemy is tracked and brought to light. The Veda gives a similar image. The panis, the dark Asuras seize even the sun and store it away in their secret caverns. Indra, the lord of the Divine Mind, has to come and with his fulgurating thunderbolt pierce the hills – the earth-built consciousnes and rescue and release the Light. Even so, here the poet says, the mouse, the ignorant consciousness, must rise into the sky of the luminous mindlessness, attain a steadfast concentration, then it will lose its normal restlessness; when it is filled with the consciousness of the true Guru, the divine Master, then it becomes stable and tran­quillised – it is no more fidgety bound in its inferior consciousness – its bondages snap, it is free. The little ignorant being of small mind is freed into the luminous vastness of the Buddha-consciousness. Then only can he taste of the nectar of immortality for which he yearned even in his ignorant states.

XXII

You build up yourself your birth and death.

You create yourself your illusory bondage.

We know not what is beyond thought, we know not

how birth and death and rebirth occur:

As is the birth, even so is death, there is no difference

between the dead and the living.

One who is afraid here of birth and death,

One who hankers for the alchemy of delight,

One who wanders about in the three worlds­ –

Such people can never be deathless and ageless.

Does action come from birth or does the birth

come from action?

Saraha says, that law is beyond the reach of thought.

XXIII

Bhusuk, if you go ahunting, do not fail

to kill the five creatures.¹

Be single-minded as you enter the lotus grove. ²

Like one not alive, for whom death has come,³

Bhusuk also has lost his flesh, he enters the lotus grove.

So have you spread your illusive net and caught the

deer that is Illusion.

It is with the consciousness of the Guru that you have

understood whose is the story and what it is!

NOTES

1. Five creatures – the five senses.

2. Lotus grove – the divine Consciousness.

3. When one enters the divine Consciousness one becomes dead to the world, to the life of flesh.

4. Illusion – the life of the flesh.

5. Story – the Story of the Soul, the soul's union with the Divine.

XXIV

[The original text of these two pieces is missing. The text is available only in its Tibetan translation, which was translated again into Bengali. The Bengali version is translated here into English in its turn]. 

The moon rises, so shines the soul in its kingship:

The dark ignorance is dispelled by the Guru's words,

            and all the senses dissolve in the Sky.

Heaven's seed goes back into the heavens

            and sprouts, and spreads its shadow over the three worlds.

The Sun rising, the night ends and all the earth's

            delusion dissolves.

The Swan-King takes in only the pure water,

            so here too is taken in, Kanhu says, earth's pure rasa.

XXV

How does the Great Law arise? How is it established?

            The Lightning-centre¹ alone can tell.

Five are the epochs² of Time, the robe is woven into

            its warp and woof.

I am the weaver,³ the threads are of me

            yet I know not the kind and quality.

The carpet spread is three cubit and a half long:

            it extends into the three worlds:

The whole sky is woven out into the robe.

NOTES

1. The Lightning-centre: the Divine in the heart.

2. Five epochs: the five senses out of which is made the world of experiences that the soul puts on as its garb.

3. The weaver: the soul or self. It weaves the world upon its sense­ experiences, it weaves out also the infinite space of Shunya or Nirvana.

4. The human body is the robe and it extends infinitely (that is to say, in its consciousness) and melts into the Void.

XXVI

The cotton is beaten and beaten into fleecy shreds;

            The shreds are beaten into nothingness:

Even then the source is not reached,

            says Shanti, however much one may think of it. ¹ 

The cotton is beaten into shreds

and the shreds are collected into nothingness.

Moving into nothingness I abolished myself.

The path is muddy, neither side is visible:²

Shanti says, there is no passage even for a hair to enter.³

It is neither the cause nor the effect­ –

such is the argument,

Shanti declares from his own experience. 

NOTES

1. In spite of our efforts to think to the contrary.

2. Narrow is the passage to Truth.

3. Normally one argues from cause to effect, or goes back from effect to cause. Here neither is there.           

XXVII

The whole midnight the lotus blooms:¹

Thirty-two sisters (yoginis) are there,

their limbs rejoice. ²

The moon follows the path of the Mother:

She indeed speaks to the One for the riches of delight:

The moon moves on and enters into Nirvana, ³

The Goddess of the lotus bears the lotus on the lotus ten:

Th delight of cessation carries no sign, it is all pure.

He who understands this is the wise one here.

Bhusuku says, "I have understood through union,

Through the play of the Great Delight, the Supreme

Beatitude.

NOTES

1. Midnight: the absence of the ordinary daylight consciousness, entry into inner consciousness.

     Lotus:      the inner consciousness and being.

2. Sisters:     the powers that control the ādhāra: 32, perhaps body, life, mind, and each containing

                      five jñānendriyas and five karmendriyas plus the one above and the one 

below (Purusha and Prakriti); the Vedas also speak of ten sisters.

3. Moon:     the being of delight. 

XXVIII

Tier upon tier the hills arise,

            there dwells the forest girl;

She wears the peacock feather in her hair,

            and around her neck the garland of gunja flowers.

The forest-man is mad, he is wild:

Oh, do not worry, I implore you:

Your own house-wife is there, her name, beauty pure and simple.

Varied trees are in flower, their branches reach out to the skies.

The lone forest-woman wanders in this woodland;

            her ear-rings dangle, her arms carry the thunder-bolt:

The cot of triple substance is put in place

            and the forest-man spreads his bed in great joy.

The forest-man, a hooded passion, and the luminous Nought

            a harlot pass the Night in love's revel.

In his heart he tasted of betel and camphor in glee;

the lovely lady, the Void Selflessness –

her arms round his neck he passed the whole night in revel!

The Master's word is the bow,

            hit the mark with the arrow of your mind:

Aim with the one single arrow­ –

and hit, oh hit, the supreme Void.

The forest-man is wild with passion;

The forest-man has entered into the cleft

            on the top of the hill – how to find him out?

XXIX

It does not become existence,

            nor does it become non-existence. 

Who would believe in such an experience?

Luy says: my boy, true knowledge is hard to glimpse:

It flashes in the triple substance and one does not know it.

It is a thing with no colour or sign or feature that is known.

How can one explain it through scriptures and holy books?

To whom and in what way should I speak of the riddle?

It is like the moon in the water, neither true nor false!

Lui says, what am I to think of it?

The thing I live with has neither a purpose

nor a roadway.

XXX

It was a ceaseless cloud-burst of Grace,

Abolished all conflict between 'is' and 'is-not';

Lo, in the mid-heaven rises a marvel:

Bhusuku, look at your old intimate being,

The very awareness of which tears up the net of senses,

And your mind, of its own accord, brings forth

the supreme ecstasy from behind.

The sense-objects are purified and so I know

what joy is:

Even as the heavens brighten with the moon-light:

This is the true essence of all the three worlds,

This is how Bhusuku, the yogi, has sundered the darkness.

XXXI

When the mind and the sense-winds die away,

I know not where my self enters and disappears.

The drum of the Grace beats wonderous,

And Ajdeb dwells aloof and lonesome;

Even as the moonbeams are reflections upon the moon,

The mind's reflexes lapse and enter into itself.

I have cast away fear and disgust and rules and customs,

I gaze and gaze upon the Void without a ripple:

Ajdeb has routed everything,

He has driven fear and disgust far away. 

XXXII

Nor sound nor its fount

nor sun nor moon is there.

The consciousness, a king, is free by nature.

Leaving the straightness of the straight

do not take to the crooked;

The Light is near, do not go far away.

The bangles are on your wrist,

do not take up a mirror.

Understand by yourself your own mind –

Thus can one go to the other shore.

But with the wrong man you go downward.

To the right and to the left lie bogs and marshes–

Sarahu says, my boy, the straight road is the best.

NOTES

The supreme Reality is beyond any form or formulation. The consciousness there is straight, simple, free. You need not go to a foreign land to find it, it is close by, within you. You can know it by yourself, you need no extraneous help. If you seek others' help you are likely to be wrongly guided and lose yourself in bogs and marshes. Go simply and straight. For only that way lies the consciousness that is absolute freedom.

XXXIII

My house is on the top of the mound

            and I have no neighbour.

I have no food in my bowl

and everyday there comes a lover.

The worldly life grows on apace:

But does the milk that is drawn go back to the udder?

A barren cow has given birth to a bullock:

Pailful of milk has been milked these three evenings.

One who understands this has a sharp understanding;

It is the thief who is the guard.

Always there is a fight – an equal fight –

between the lion and the jackal.

The song of Dhendhanpa is comprehensible to a few. 

NOTES

The poem expresses the relation of the ascetic to the world. He lives aloof and alone, and without any ration. Yet the hungers from the world below mount up and try to tempt him. That is the way of the world. But one above the world cannot retrace his steps backward, even as the milk once out cannot go back to the udder. If at all it is another cow, another milk-yielder, another milk. It is not ignorant Nature's phenomenon; it is the consciousness of super-Nature pouring out the great delight. Nirvana is the barren cow, the bullock is its energy or tapas and the milk is the supreme Joy. The three evenings must be the close or end or setting of the three domains of worldly existence – body, life and mind. The thief is the higher consciousness guarding at the top and he has stolen away the world and the worldly objects. Similarly the lion is the Power of the Higher Consciousness and the jackal the prowling creature of the dark world. But the fight between the two is hard and equal, neither wanting to give up.

XXXIV

Through The single action of the Void and its grace

in his Body and speech and mind;

Darika rejoices on the other shore of the Heavens.

His consciousness seizing on the Unseizable in utter delight.

Darika rejoices on the other shore of the Heaven.

What is the use of the holy word, what is the use of the holy rite,

            what is the use of meditation and dissertation?

If you are not merged firmly in the supreme Happiness,

            then the Final Consummation remains out of sight.

The wiseman enjoys through the senses, equating pleasure and

                                                                                                pain

He makes no difference between himself and others,

Darika cognises only the One Supreme.

A king, a king, a king, you say? But he is bound by Ignorance!

Through the grace of Luipada, Darika has gained all the

   twelve worlds. 

XXXV

So long I lay in perfect ignorance.

Now I have come to understand

through the guidance of a true Guru.

Now the reign of my consciousness is ended:

It has tilted and is sunk in the seas of Heaven.

Now I find all the ten directions are empty;

Even the consciousness is empty, neither sin nor

virtue is there.

Bajula has told me of the mystery of Ignorance:

And I drank of the waters of Heaven;

Bhade says: "It is my misfortune,

But I have eaten up the dominion of my consciousness!"

NOTES

The poet, that is to say,the Siddhacharya, speaks of his experience or realisation of the annihilation of the ego-consciousness resulting in his attainment of the supreme Delight in the Heaven of Nirvana. He says graphically that he has eaten up the entire heap of egoism and adds with a sly witticism that it is a misfortune, for the egoism, but it brings him enjoyment to satiation.

XXXVI

The Void is my home,

            and Truth my striking sword:

I seized the whole treasure of illusion

and swallowed it.

He sleeps unaware of the rift between mine and others,

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XXXVII

I myself am no more,–

whom should I fear?

My desire even for the supreme act has vanished.

O Yogi, forget not the simple perception;

Stand free, stand free full square:

As you have been, so be for ever.

O Yogi, make no mistake about the simple path.

When you swim then only you know the burdens you carry

But how to explain what is beyond the way of words

Taraka declares there is no passage to enter into it.

If you say you understand you are hanged.

XXXVIII

The body is the boat, the mind the oar

And the word of the Guru the helm upon the seas;

Calm your mind and hold to the wheel:

There is no other way to cross over to the other shore.

The boatman tugs the boat by the rope:

Even so you must move on and merge into the goal:

go not elsewhere.

There is fear on the way, the brigand is strong;

In the high flood of the world all is lost.

Follow the coast-line, up the rushing current;

Saraha says, "Thus you will enter the heaven." 

XXXIX

Even in dream, O my mind, you roam and revel in your ignorance;

                        it is your own error.

How can you then take delight in your voyage

 through the words of the Master?

Strange, this heaven is born out of a mystic roar!

And as your wife in Bengal¹ is taken away,

   your consciousness broke up.

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O strange is this world illusion

            that marks out oneself and others.

This world is but an image upon water­ –

            empty yourself in the mystic consciousness.

The nectar is there and yet you swallow poison;

your own mind is a slave to others.

When I came to understand what is here at home and what is

                        there abroad,

            then I eat up all my wicked kins.

Saraha says: Better an empty stable

            than one full of wicked bullocks.

All alone I have annihilated the world and now I wander free.

XL

What the mind perceives is the maze of illusion­ –

Scriptures and books, beads and rosaries,­

Tell me, how can the simple truth be uttered?

The body, the word, the consciousness cannot enter into it.

In vain does the Guru teach the disciple.

That which is beyond the way of speech,

how can it be expressed?

The more you speak, the farther you go astray;

The Master is dumb, the disciple deaf­   

How is the victor delight like? – Kanhu says­ –

It is as though the dumb were to explain to the deaf.

XLI

This world was never born and, had no beginning,

            through illusion it appears to exist.

When you mistake a rope for a snake

and get frightened,

You are not then actually bitten even by a harmless snake!

It is all a wonder! O Yogi, do not wash your hands with salty

                                                                             water.¹

If you understand the world in its very nature,

            then all your bonds will snap.

                                    ¹ I.e., not pure clean. 

Page – 282

Even like the desert mirage or the airy city

or the image in the mirror

Or like the water's spout that stands solid as a stone-pillar

It is like the child of a barren woman playing odd plays:

It is like oil out of sand, like the horn of a rabbit,

            like a flower blooming in the sky.

Raoutu says: Indeed, and Bhusuku says also, such

            is the nature of things:

If you are in ignorance, go and ask of a true Guru.

XLII

The consciousness when normal is a total zero.

Do not be sorry when deprived of your limbs.

But how do you say Kanhu is not?

He is vibrant, constantly entering into the three worlds.

The ignorant are afflicted when they do not see the seen.

But when the waves break does the ocean dry up?

The ignorant do not see the worlds that yet exist.

They do not see the cream within the milk.

In this world none goes out, none comes in:

This is the consciousness in which yogi Kanhu revels. 

XLIII

The Simple,¹ even like a mighty tree has spread itself in all the

three worlds;

In a state of perfect delight who is bound, who is free?

Water poured into water shows no difference:

Even so the jewelled mind melts and enters into the one and

equal taste of the spaces.

Where there is no oneself, the other does not exist.

That which is uncreated has neither birth nor death.

Bhusuku says, even Raoutu says: such is the nature of things;

Here nothing goes, nothing comes, there is

neither presence nor absence.

XLIV

Where the void unites with the void,

There arises the All-Law.¹

But I am four square with the perfect consciousness:

In between all else is shut out and there is the

unsurpassing knowledge

The creative Sound did not enter into my heart:

I looked to one side and the other vanished:

You must know wherefore you have come here:

Hold yourself midwise and from there deal with things.

Loudly declares Kankanapada: the roar of the Truth disinter-

­grates the universe.

Page – 287