Pilgrim on the Way of Love

PROLOGUE

A child is born with the birthright to be loved. It is foremost in his consciousness and he knows no other. He also gets love as a matter of right especially from parents. I was no exception.

As he grows up in years, this consciousness starts fading away. The issues of the world confront the youth. As Wordsworth tells us:

“The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.”

He is now ready for life’s lessons and the exercise of free will. Yet another birthright. Again, I was no exception.

Now, the journey begins. What was so easily ours at birth and what we unknowingly left behind in growing up has to be reclaimed. Many do not even come to the realization that this needs to be reclaimed. That this is our only true nature, that even the Universe is contained in this. It was here that I became an exception.

In youth and afterwards the complications are multifarious. The love that is available to us is no longer in its unalloyed form. It is invariably love for a person, a better expression being romantic love. It gets further complicated when we see love for a cause, love for work and above all else love for country, a phenomenon much witnessed in the world as we knew in the twentieth century. This kind of love comes with its own polarity. There comes conflict, there come sacrifice and hurt, martyrdom, tragedy and disillusionment all caught in an eternal play of conflicting forces and their possible solutions. All in all a quagmire of complex emotions and situations, and yet pregnant with a secret possibility. The possibility of a conscious rebirth whilst still living the life stream. A conscious self birthing into love.

This is what is captured in these verses. The writings spanning for 22 years from age 21 to age 43 with an eight year hiatus in between. Yes, they are intensely personal as they have originated from personal experience. However, the journey unwittingly crafted by these writings in the chronology that we are used to call time, is universal. I have held on to these writings but now release them on the joyful wings of surrender onto the Universe and the love that holds it together, thus:

I came to this earth
For a reason
And had no idea what it was
Lived for two decades and
Life gave me a clue
With deep felt experience
Enriched emotionally and spiritually
An unknowing process began
Of slowly segregating me from
‘the run of the mill’
Yet I did not know why I came
Did not occur that
I needed to know.

Two more decades cascaded
Attraction for things subtle grew
The grossness around became a bother
The initiations began
Earth life began to make sense
The pleasures, the trials, the challenges,
The rewards, the skills;
And then the series of gifts
From higher realms
Filled me with intense activity
Hidden behind a seemingly laid back physical existence
Of professional success
Creative material ventures
Lovely luxuries, peoples and places
All to be worn lightly
And enjoyed!
Soul savouring the earthy goodness
Through the incarnated bodies.

The physical life has now come to the crossroads
Beginning to talk to the inner life
Unseen to the human eye
Establishing an infinite certitude
In the twilight of
Synchronicities.

The purpose of earth life
Coming above the surface
To reveal itself
Physical and inner lives
Merging within the DNA
The quantum soup of the soul
26 feet on either side
Begin to connect all the dots to
What I AM…

“A pilgrim on the way of love”

Pilgrim on the way of Love can be read in a single quiet sitting. The recommended mode of reading is read each verse, see the contextual comment at the bottom and then read the same verse again. Allow some reflection time and then move on to the next at your own pace.

Some of the verses in the first two sections are in Bengali. I have attempted translating them but that did not work. They are thus presented not in font but in the original hand. Those not familiar with Bengali please do read the comment below them and view the writing as a visual picture. They would emanate their energy and message, nevertheless. A couple of verses in English are also presented in handwriting as practice cases for visual reading.

The eight year hiatus in writing production was from age 31 to age 39. This is when Wordsworth’s youth travelled farthest from the east. During this time worldly experience grounded firmly. Towards the end of this phase, ‘Nature’s Priest’ reaffirmed himself from being latent to coming steadily forward to take centre stage. I am grateful for all the blessings that brought this about. The octave of this life stream changed, and changed for ever.

Welcome fellow pilgrim, the way of love is yours to traverse.

Ananjan
December 2012