Puja In Bharat...

[Guest guest]

The shennai calls our hearts and minds

to stillness and repose.

We sit in colourful array

in long and segregated rows.

 

Beneath a canopy of cloth

to shield us from the noonday sun

We wait and watch, expectantly;

Each in a world his own....

the eastern shadow marches on,

as time ticks slowly by.

The stillness flawed by cawing crows,

braying their bajans to the sky,

This is a timelessness, so dear

to both the spirit and the soul....

the wondrous balm of Nirmala

descends and makes us whole.

 

And then when we at last have reached

that place of deep and lasting peace,

She comes - our mother of the universe.

We rise with open hearts - our thoughts have ceased!

There is a special magic to the scene,

an expectation of we know not what.

It is the essence of this holy land -

exposed by puja in Bharat.

 

Sometimes we hear her words,

Like temple bells within our head:

Sometimes we're startled and amazed

that all is done and time, our enemy, has fled.

Sometimes - those special times -

we feel our hearts and minds expand:

As if our Mother Nirmala has called

us forth to take us by the hand.

 

There are no words the human tongue

can hopefully explain

those heart fulfilling moments

when we sing her love's refrain.

Oh Nirmala - Shri Nirmala,

a boon I pray, t'is that....

I never lose the memory of puja in Bharat.

 

(Australian Sahaja Newsletter - 28 January, 1994)