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Nuruddin Rishi Verses - Part 2 "Love"
from Lalla to Nuruddin
translated from the Kashmiri by Ranjit Hoskote
One moment I inhaled
and another moment I exhaled. (1)
My attachment disappeared instantly.
In a moment one step became a mile.
my [ego]-tiger became weak instantly.
I meditated, I remembered,
I searched, and I reflected.
I sacrificed the poison of my animal nature.
With conscious effort, I restrained my ego.
I renounced my home and
remembered God.
God is within -
the devotion is mine.
Little by little I have withered away. (2)
Now I will not let go of your devotion until
the door is unbolted.
I recited the sacred formula
day and night -
I became absorbed in it.
My stone-heart I soaked in it
day and night -
From ashes, I became gold.
(1) The reference here is to breathing exercises to focus the mind and achieve an inward-directed state to open oneself to the higher Self.
(2) In chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord says: "O Arjuna, know Yoga to be that which they call renunciation; no one verily becomes a Yogi who has not renounced thoughts!" In verse 25, the means to achieve this is given: "Little by little let him attain to quietude by the intellect held firmly; having made the mind establish itself in the Self, let him not think of anything." To reinforce this truth, the Buddha declared the highest virtue to be "Patient Perseverance"!
"Perform good deeds and observe spiritual discipline. Fool, listen with gratitude.
Lovers fasten your sandals. The fool's youth slipped away unnoticed."