NOURISH LEARNING
Nourish learning,
Cherish unlearning.
Lo, your perfection-cry
And your satisfaction-smile
Are flourishing. (1555)
Because the poet himself is commanded from within to speak out, his words borrow something of that same urgent, imperial tone. It is not the poet’s own voice but the voice of an inner wisdom that is made articulate in this way. Indeed, at times the reader may not even recognise that this voice issues from a context outside his own person, for it seems to be the voice of the inner man.
Even when the poet’s commandments appear most final, they still contain elements of sublimest poetry:
GOD IS WATTING FOR YOU
God is waiting for you. You will arrive Home. Just keep your eyes
On the beautiful
And soulful flames
Ahead. (753)
It is at once poetry of momentous statement and poetry of brilliant expression. The imagination is encouraged to stretch itself freely. The poem above, for example, is left open-ended, enticing us to draw nearer to the flames with an inner movement of our understanding. Other mystic poets, such as St. John of the Cross, have represented God as a Fire which consumes the seeker. Here the same image is given an exquisite delicacy.
Similarly, in the following poem, the truth-vision of the poet discovers its own loveliness without losing any of its mantric compression and power:
YOU CAN BE TRULY HAPPY
You can be truly happy
Only when your life-tree Touches the vaulted skies
While standing deeply rooted Inside the heart
Of the lowly earth. (1443)
This is an especially precise evocation of man’s dual nature. He belongs to both heaven and earth and each is needed to fulfil the other. A wealth of meaning is condensed into the two images of “the vaulted skies” and “the lowly earth.” The concept of the dome of heaven stirs memories within us of the two-dimensional religious paintings of the European Renaissance. Against this background of gold man stands in all his spiritual dignity and nobility. His humility ties him to earth while his aspiration makes him a dweller of the heavenly spheres.
It is not possible to study these mantras with the intellect alone for their priceless treasure must be seized intuitively. We cannot separate the poet’s spiritual and aesthetic perceptions, nor can we abstract the content of the poem from its form. The poems strike us with a single effect which is irreducible. The poet wields his lightening vision and men retires, leaving us with raw energy barely sheathed in words:
MY SUPREME MOMENT
This is my day;
I love it.
This is my morning God-Hour,
I need it.
This is my supreme moment;
And I am it.
(4401)
This is an outburst of sheer delight, an affirmation of life, a celebration of the Self and the eternal Now in which it lives. The thrill that we experience from reading it comes from our contact with this heightened energy of being. It is the first moment of Self-Realisation when the portals of the soul are flung wide and a burst of inner sunlight floods man’s entire nature.
In another mantra the poet amplifies this theme using words of subtle, dignified generality:
EVERY DAY IS THE RIGHT DAY
Every day is the right day
For the right person,
And that person
Is the unconditional God-lover.
(4102)