Michael Mathias: (6) Ramana Seeks out the Mountain of Arunachala (from The Cosmic Soul and the World Tree)

1
First as a little boy I grew up under the Tree
And now the mountain of Aurunachala calls.
My heart longs to belong to its flame.
In perusha, the aum sound vibrates loudly in me
Closing my lids to the eyeless world.
What matters this tiny ball beating in my chest?
It is merely the ghost of right-heart-heat.
Silence it, charioteer! close my lids !
See, my friends grieve for me, Already they bury me,
I who have become a living corpse."

So Ramana cried out to Brahma,
"The mountain of Arunchala calls to me!
O hear the chorus of aums of a thousand sages
Translate themselves into fire there!
They beckon to me to climb to the peaks
Where like peacocks of prayer,
They break the cycles of samsara.

2
Purusha had signalled him.
Ramana, in silence, rose to the crest
Then he suddenly broke
Becoming one with the sea.

"Now I discard my corpse laughing!
I create death out of life and life out of death.
O mountain, you are beyond life, beyond death.
Take me beyond these cycles of breath!

But Ramana's mother wept at his instant burial.
"He stilled his heart like a bird that has fled from its cage!"

"Mother, do not grieve.
My body only is cold.
What is my heart but a burning fingernail
of perusha, the ocean of light!"

Take me with you, Ramana,
Lead me to that mountain that calls to you.
I once fed you with milk of my breast,
All that i ask is to become your disciple,
Nourish me,
On the milk of the goddess Shakti.

"I have no disciples, mother,
God is the owner!" he said,

"Come mother, we will ascend the mountain together.
Enter the gate of Brahma,
O mother of a thousand tears.

3
Ramana Keeps Vigil Over His Mother At Death)

O mother,
You gave me your cells
To nourish my earthly body.
But now, I return to you at the moment of death.
Mother,
Feel my warm hand on your forhead
Through your final fevers
Let these hands guide you
Over the fading stairway of heartbeats
To enter the gates of new breath
Enter, mother, the gates of brahma

He stayed at her tomb many days.
This is not the tomb of my mother
For see, Shakti, the goddess of rebirth
Breaks her from cycles of samsara
They dissolve in vapours
Even as i speak.

4
The Dharma Of The Flame

Beyond speech and thought
"for this reason the Buddha declined to make any statement concerning the nature of nirvana."

Mother,
At the moment of death
You gave birth to my other.

O hidden flame, Why was the Buddha silent about you?

Mother your last smile inscribed itself in the air
Circled around the back of my neck and kissed me.
As a candle hissing
Your flame does not die
But transpiring expands as it moves into akasha (space)
Transposes into a delicate transparency

"the fire comes from space
And returns back into it" (from the dharma)
So the soul moves out of its wick
Hovers around its loved ones
Then moves into the imperishable sphere.

Nirvana is neither becoming nor being
Nirvana is neither annihilation nor not-annihilation
The candle flame when it goes out
An event in time and transcending time,
Is always there.

Nirvana is
"beyond speech, beyond thought"

Copyright (C) Michael Mathias, Collected Works, 1993-2005

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

About Michael Mathias

Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

About Michael Mathias

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World