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"There is no virtue higher than forbearance." Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi
Nuruddin Rishi Verses - Part 2 "Solitude"
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"!
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from Lalla to Nuruddin translated from the Kashmiri by Ranjit Hoskote
