Images: below, third from bottom, and thumbnail - courtesy, Doulton.
Poetry
Mother & Daughter: Communion
by SANMEET KAUR
With my heart full of relentless hugs from the gentle breeze, I look around me.
The bright, light blue sky, grey jagged peaks melting into soft slopes, vibrant emerald green firs and the crystal clear spring flowing along beside me.
Sitting on a boulder by the spring, I wonder at the mastery of this spectacular scene. Would any artist with simple paints and brushes manage to capture such perfection?
Humility compels me: I bow my head.
When I look up, the spring flows from within me. I have become a one-stringed instrument making music.
My infant daughter refuses to put down my gutka till I promise her I will do paath, "for sure".
She places the gutka on her forehead and puts it on my bed table with the clumsy confidence of a one-year-old. I am amazed. It is another one of those moments I can't figure out - was it a coincidence or does she really understand ... that much?
A bit later, she is in my arms, milk bottle in mouth. I am reciting the Japji Sahib.
She looks up at me, her palm caresses my face, her eyes, O, so gentle, locked into mine.
Humility compels me: I bow my head in immense gratitude.
When I open my eyes, hers are closed. Her peace flows from within me. Once more, I am a one-stringed instrument, playing her soul song.
Mera pyaara preetam, Mera pyaara preetam.
My eyes are closed, I am part asleep, part awake, part lazy. Bhai Sahib's - the bard Vir Singh's - sweet rendering makes me smile.
He completes the line, Mera pyaara preetam, Satgur rakhwaala.
At once, I am all attention.
Your love, my Guru, engulfs me, and spills out of closed eyes. I am taken aback by such love - abundant, unabashed, fulfilling. I melt.
Make me Yours.
My head moves towards my chest. Yet again, I become a one-stringed instrument.
Keep me this way, I pray, forever ...
[May 8, 2008]
Conversation about this article
1: Atika Khurana (Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.), May 10, 2008, 10:38 AM.
What a heightened sense of awareness to be able to experience the formless and all-pervading nature of the Divine and to realize that you are also a part of this amazing creation! Even though there exist individual differences which define our sense of identity, yet we are all interconnected through the divine life force operating within us and all around us. Tune in to this rhythm of life.