BT Song 1570

BT Song 1570

When I read the following Rumi’s song, I thought how such adversaries also are God sent angels to bring some blessings in our lives.  As I often say, God in order to teach a lesson to us, might use someone very close to us to bring trials in our lives.  As He knows well how weak and fragile we are, instead of directly teaching that lesson, makes another person to pay the cost for that.  In one way our adversaries pay the cost for us to learn that valuable lesson in life rather than paying it.  God knowing our poverty in several such areas [spiritual, moral, emotional and mental] makes someone rich and strong to pay that cost for us. So going beyond our present trials and seeing our adversaries as our enemies, if we can see the ultimate PURPOSE of God for everyone, we will even for our adversaries and pray for them to gain more strength and receive grace to go through this ordeal in their lives. 

As Ten Boom [in her book: Not Good if Detached] rightly said, ‘Our critics are the unpaid guardians of our soul’.

Checkmate:

…  … …

A certain preacher always prays long and with enthusiasm

For thieves and muggers that attack people

On the street. “Let your mercy, O Lord,

cover their insolence.”

He doesn’t pray for the good,

but only for the blatantly cruel.

Why is this? his congregation asks.

“Because they have done me such generous favors.

Every time I turn back toward the things they want.

I ran into them, they beat me, and leave me nearly dead

in the road, and I understand, again, that what they want

is not what I want. They keep me on the spiritual path.

That’s why I honor them and pray for them.”

Those that make you return, for whatever reason,

to God’s solitude, be grateful to them.

Worry about the others, who give you

delicious comforts that keep you from prayer.

Friends are enemies sometimes,

and enemies friends.

There is an animal called an ushghur, a porcupine.

If you hit it with a stick, it extends its quills

and gets bigger. The soul is a porcupine,

made strong by stick-beating.

So a prophet’s soul is especially afflicted,

because it has to become so powerful.

A hide is soaked in tanning liquor and becomes leather.

If the tanner did not rub in the acid,

the hide would get foul-smelling and rotten.

The soul is a newly skinned hide, bloody and gross.

Work on it with manual discipline,

and the bitter tanning acid of grief,

and you’ll become lovely, and very strong. (174)

If you can’t do this work yourself, don’t worry.

You don’t even have to make a decision,

one way or another. The Friend, who knows

 a lot more than you do, will bring difficulties,

and grief, and sickness,

as medicine, as happiness,

as the essence of the moment when you’re beaten,

when you hear Checkmate, and can finally say,

with Hallaj’s voice,

I trust you to kill me. (p. 175)

Rumi, Checkmate, Coleman Barks,  The Essential RUMI,  Introduction to the New Expanded Edition, New York,  HarperCollins, 2004, pp. 174-75

BT Song 1570 ஆத்ம நண்பர்

இறைவனை நோக்கி

ஓடச் செய்யும்

மனிதர்க்கு நீயும்

நன்றி சொல்வாய்

அவனை விட்டு

நீங்க வைக்கும்

அனைத்து மனிதரை

சற்று ஒதுக்குவாய்

எவ்விதத் துயரும்

வாழ்வில் வரினும்

யார் யார் அதற்குக்

காரணம் ஆயினும்

அவரே நமது

ஆத்ம நண்பர்

என்பதை உணர்ந்து

நன்றியும் சொல்லு

அனைத்து சுகமும்

தொடர்ந்து கிடைத்தால்

இறைவனை ஒரு நொடி

எண்ண மறுப்போம்

ஒரு சிறு துயரம்

வந்த உடனே

அவனை நோக்கி

ஓடிச் செல்வோம்

ஆகவே யார் யார்

இறைவனை நோக்கி

அடிக்கடி நாமும்

பார்த்திட வைத்தார்

என்பதை எண்ணி

நன்றி கூறி

அவரும் வாழ

வேண்டுதல் செய்து

நம்மை அவனும்

தன்னிடம் இழுக்க

அவன் கைக் கருவி

ஆனார் என்று

உணர்ந்து வாழ

பகையும் மறையும்

அத்துடன் வந்த

துயரும் மறையும்

அவரைத் தேடி

நாமும் போக

அவசியம் ஏதும்

நமக்கு இல்லை

அந்த செயலை

இறைவனே செய்து

அதன்வழி நம்மை

வந்து ஆள்வான்

குருகுலம், 2-2-24, இரவு,11.00 pm.

BT Song 1570 Friends of our atman

You better give

Thanks to those

Who drives us

Towards God

Better avoid those

Who try to persuade you

To Keep away

From Him

Whichever troubles

Might come in life

And whoever might be

Reason for that

They alone are

Friends to our soul

Realizing this

Give them thanks

If we receive only

So many blessings in life

We might not even

Remember God for a second

Even if a small trouble

Comes in our lives

Immediately we will

Rush towards Him

Therefore, whoever it might be

Who forced us to

Look unto to

The face of God

Thinking about them

Giving thanks to them

Continue to pray for them

To live properly

As they have became

Merely an instrument

In the hands of God

To draw us towards Him

And if we live

Realizing this truth

Along with enmity

Our troubles will disappear

There is no need

For us to seek

our adversaries

to bring trouble to us

Even God doing

That part also

Will come and Overlord us

Through them

Gurukulam, 2-2-24,11.00 pm.