FREEDOM

My humble tribute to revered Swami Vivekananda ji on his Mahasamadhi Day, 4th of July.

Freedom ... a feeling so full and yet so light

It soars ever and ever high in divine delight

For, it never is the flight of the fright

It is eternal Peace, ever and for ever itself

Its effulgence clear, pure and so bright

Lighting all, while shining of its own light.

Only have to stop and hear the clarion call in heart

Peruse and persevere, contemplate and meditate

No walls to fall, for there, there are no walls

Yes, there are chains to break, chains to shatter

Joy there is inconceivable, its expanse immeasurable

Infinite joy, without a beginning, now and never ending.

All the forms left formless, as if they never were

Their names , adjectives and adjuncts just disappear

Once there, there are no choices to choose

Neither diffidence, nor despondency to delude

Yet the path is hard like walking on nails, and all alone,

With uncompromising discrimination, the only provision.

There, it is all still, no sound, no music, not a stir

Yet the breeze, the birds and the trees in unison

Appear as if they were in some symphonic communion

There, where all speech is lost and all the words frozen

High in the mountains, deep in caves, the silence speaks

One and the only expression divine ... Hari Om, Tat, Sat ...

There, where there is no eternal cry of the I

and yet   one "I"  is all there is, all-pervading

Far and beyond this ever changing body-mind complex

Fullness in nothingness, and nothingness is all there is

There in freedom to laugh, and in freedom to cry , sing

In divine ecstasy, my heart, ever sing, Hari Om Tat Sat.

                          -------------

-- Vijay Nikore

(original and unpublished)