] Advaita practice- Taste and Talk!

[Guest guest]

Thank you Dr.Shyam-ji for this timely post - Yes! we will be soon

witnessing the Fasting Month of 'Ramadhan' where devout muslims

observe 'fast' ! Gandhiji had this to say on Fasting " What the eyes

are for the outer world, fasts are for the inner " Many people

undertake 'fasting ' for cosmetic reasons to get slimmer or lose

weight but in my humble opinion, Fasting should be done only

for 'spiritual' reasons ! i rememvber when i was a teenager i used

to use Fasting as a weapon to coerce my parents to buy whatever i

wanted ! Looking back , i wonder how immature and selfish i had

been !

 

Anyway , here is a beautiful poem written by Sufi Poet Jallaluddin

Rumi ....

 

 

There's hidden sweetness in the stomach's emptiness.

We are lutes, no more, no less. If the soundbox

is stuffed full of anything, no music.

If the brain and belly are burning clean

with fasting, every moment a new song comes out of the fire.

The fog clears, and new energy makes you

run up the steps in front of you.

Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry.

Emptier, write secrets with the reed pen.

When you're full of food and drink, Satan sits

where your spirit should, an ugly metal statue

in place of the Kaaba. When you fast,

good habits gather like friends who want to help.

Fasting is Solomon's ring. Don't give it

to some illusion and lose your power,

but even if you have, if you've lost all will and control,

they come back when you fast, like soldiers appearing

out of the ground, pennants flying above them.

A table descends to your tents,

Jesus' table.

Expect to see it, when you fast, this table

spread with other food, better than the broth of cabbages.

 

-- from The Illuminated Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks

 

http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/R/RumiJelaludd/Fasting.htm

 

Shyam-ji, as you know , Gandhiji also used to observe 'mauna -

vrata ' every Friday , i think ! He always said that it was part of

a great spiritual discipline to observe 'silence' now and then to

connect to the Divine!

 

Beloved poet Rumi also says

 

Why are you so afraid of silence,

silence is the root of everything.

If you spiral into its void,

a hundred voices will thunder messages you long to hear.

 

Dr. Shyamji - of all the organs , the Tongue is hardest to control!

in fact , the older you get , other organs grow weaker day by day

but the 'tongue' is always hungry for tastier food and is always

ready to converse with anyone in hearing distance! Have you read

Munshi Premchand's Budhi Kaki ? ( old aunt)

 

thank you , once again

 

love and regards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In advaitin , shyam_md wrote:

>>

> Topic 2 Vak Tapas

> The human tongue has twin traits that can and do frequently trip

up a vedantic student - Taste and Talk