Brij Mohan Sharma Let me, at the outset, confess that my innerman has somehow prevailed upon me to preface this article with one of the rarest verses of the renowned Indian Poet-Philosopher Allama Iqbal who, notwithstanding his political commitments, dedicated most of his life in exploring the secrets of the Self. The verse is both delightful and inspirational spiritually. It should not, therefore, be read as a commonly written verse on wine festivity. Iqbal not being well content with the intoxication (state of ecstasy) complains to God : “Tere shishe main mai baqi nahin hai; Bata, Kya tu mera saqi nahin hai; Samundar se mille pyase ko shabnam; Bakheeli hai ye Razzaqi nahin hai.” As per my humble vocabulary, the spiritual sense of the verse, in English, could be like this: Is there no drink (love) left in your Ocean of Ecstasy? Just tell me, are you not my Merciful Thirst Quenching Lord? Just tell me, are you not my Merciful Thirst Quenching Lord? Why is it then that a thirsty lover of yours, as I am, is being cheered by just a dew-drop from your Ocean? It is certainly miserliness ! Generosity it is not ! The frankness, sincerity and purity with which the verse has been composed are really admirable and unique. This couplet and many other such verses of Iqbal, in the opinion of many scholars, manifest the unflinching fervour and ecstasy of Soofi in him. Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), the principal character of this write up, was also a staunch lover of God. He has attained Self-Realization, and was one of the widely revered saints of the world. His romance with the Almighty stirred the slumbering poet in him, and he composed many songs, chants and hymns as also translated many well-known bhajans and songs of other languages in English. According to him, “Asong born out of the depths of true devotion to God and continuously chanted, audibly or mentally, until response is consciously received from Him in the form of boundless joy, is a spiritualized song.” In one of his chants he prays : “So do Thou my Lord : Thou and I never apart; Wave of the sea, dissolve in the sea; I am the bubble make me the sea; Make me the sea,O, make me the sea; I am the bubble make me the sea’. If you go deep into this chant you will realize that he, too, was not satisfied for being just a bubble in the Ocean of Love Divine and, as such, prays to God to make him the wave, so that he could completely dissolve himself in the vast Ocean of His love. Similarly, in another chant, he prays to get intoxicated with the Name of God and sings: “I will sing Thy Name, I will drink Thy Name, and get all drunk, oh, with Thy Name”. When a man drinks God, says Paramahansa Ji, “intoxication fills him ! “For this, however, you have to “sing the God’s Name with all your heart. No more call your Beloved with dry voice and absentminded prayer.” In Gitanjali, Rabindernath Tagore says : “Words coming from the depth of truth alone can go into man’s heart, other words pass off.” Similarly, one of the Commandments in the Bible stresses: “Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Paramahansa Yogananda’s life was a continual romance with the Divine and this romance was so intense that many a time while he was lecturing, his consciousness would be so uplifted that he would momentarily forget the audience and converse direct with God; his whole being would overflow with divine joy and intoxicating love. The fire of love that emanated from his being kindled many a heart with divine affection. So perfect and ever-lasting his romance with God was. Paramahansaji’s main desire was to help others experience God as a conscious reality in their lives. Often he wept tears of compassion for all of God’s children, and prayed to God to make him worthy of infusing His love in all hearts. The ideal of love for God and service to humanity found full expression in his life. In the present day world, when very few people know what ‘true love’ is, how to develop it and how to purify it and expand it into Divine love, Paramahansaji’s spiritual teachings and scientific techniques of meditation, the prime one being Kriya Yoga, can go a long way in re-awakening in man the spark of Divine love, which would definitely enable him to commune consciously with God and achieve that lasting happiness and peace for which the whole world is thirsting.If you could feel even a particle of divine love, so great would be your joy-so everlasting-you could not contain it. Writing in one of his articles regarding his own struggle and experience in the search of Love Divine, he says :”I sought love in many lives. I shed tears of separation and repentence to know what love is. I sacrificed everything, all attachment and delusion to learn at last that I am in love with love- With God-alone. Then I drank love through all true hearts. I saw that He is the One Cosmic Lover, the Fragrance that permeates all the variegated blossoms of love in the garden of life.” During his spiritual work of over thirty years in America he also brought home to the people the underlying unity and love preached by scriptures of East and West. He was a reverential student of Gita and Bible, and knew both these scriptures from cover to cover. He was equally at home with the scriptures of other religions, and was therefore considered a repository of spiritual knowledge. Paramahansaji was in greatest romance with the Infinite, and usually told his students: “You have no idea how beautiful life can be, when you suddenly find God everywhere, when He comes and talks to you and guides you, the romance of divine love has begun.” It goes without saying that Love Divine is the only power that can permanently remove the ache of emptiness from every heart, and banish the nonunderstanding that has plundered the peace and unity of this beautiful world created by God. May the flame of that divine love awaken the love of God in every heart it touches. Writing about his spiritual chants, Paramahansaji says, “He who chants these songs with great devotion, in solitude or in group chanting, will later discover that the chants are repeating themselves in the sub-conscious background of his mind, bringing an ineffable joy even while he is in the thick of the daily battle of activity.” It is interesting to know that Paramahansaji brought Inda’s art of devotional chanting to the West, introducing thousands to the experience of chanting together in devotion to their beloved. The romance with God does not fade with time, old age or death. The romance between the soul and the Spirit is the perfect love, the love you are all seeking. I leave the readers with the following hymn, which they may like to sing, audibly or mentally, but repeatedly, and feel the joy of romance ineffable : Thou art my life, Thou art my love Thou art the sweetness, which I do seek In the thought by my love brought, I taste Thy Name, so sweet, so sweet, Devotee knows how sweet You are. He knows, whom you let know. Thou art my life…. (The author is former Addl. Secy. to Govt)
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