3/19/09

A Cushion for Your Head

Just sit there right now
Don't do a thing
Just rest.

For your separation from God,
From love,

Is the hardest work
In this
World.

Let me bring you trays of food
And something
That you like to
Drink.

You can use my soft words
As a cushion
For your
Head.

the beauty of hafiz's words is unparalleled, don't you think? as i read these words, i wondered - what is then 'laziness' and what is 'work'. are we sure we have them down right? if our dharma, our inherent nature leads us one way and our material existence pushes us another, which is the more natural progression? is treading the spiritual path really hard work then? is being greedy, dishonest, 'lazy' really laziness? what a beautiful thought - to think of spiritual progress as the way on which we are most naturally led. straying from this path definitely seems like a lot of unnecessary work then. thank you, hafiz!

6 comments:

Bright Butterfly said...

This one I have seen before and its one of my favorites.
Yet you ask a question here I'd never stopped to ask and explain beautifully what I always took for granted in reading this poem, that spiritual progress is "the way on which we are most naturally led".

Adu said...

nice. i just got it. initially i thought, does he mean that we should be working hard to separate ourselves from god? then i thought, mebbe he means that the fact that we are separated from god causes us hardship, and so we should rest. and then....

i realized that he means that our day-to-day existence ("work") as a consequence of our material aspirations causes us to be separated from god, from love. and thus is the hardest work of all.

Bright Butterfly said...

Nicely articulated Adu!

8&20 said...

it's one of those things, right - if you read a poem slowly enough, you will realize that the interpreted meaning at the beginning of the read is starkly different from the interpretation in the end. you seem to have gone through that process, yes?

Amrithaa said...

you know! this poem served helped me internalize so well some of the quotes we discussed in the ruhi sections tonight! :) thank you n, for these inspired coincidences! :)

8&20 said...

i suppose you thank both n's for coming together to provide a coincidence :). you are welcome.

my mind is reeling from all these coincidences. i had better get to bed :).