I’ve titled this post with a quote from one of the Devara Dasimayya poems I read towards the end of class. Whether we respond to form or formless, literal or metaphor, silence or the roar, underneath it all is the triadic heart of wisdom, simplicity, and love so clearly articulated in these poetic lines…

Monday Night Class continues our sojourn into the Maha Mrtunjaya mantra. Nowadays we can google a mantra and find pages of commentary and videos. Which can be a decent introduction. However, in my experience, if you want a mantra to come alive inside of you, if you want to receive the power of that mantra, chanting it over and over again is the portal…  Nothing I [or anyone] can say is as important as your own practice.

So during this cycle of classes, I’m keeping my dharma talks rather brief, focusing on the experiential process of chanting the Maha Mrtunjaya mantra:

Here’s an audio clip from the first round of chanting:

Here’s my dharma talk:

Here’s a clip of of second round of Maha Mrtunjaya moving into Om Namah Shivaya:

Here’s a lovely dharana on the Maha Mrtunjaya mantra:

And here are the four Devara Dasimayya poems I read towards the end of class. Text follows this audio clip:

87.
Whatever It was
that made this earth
the base,
the world its life,
the wind its pillar,
arranged the lotus and the moon,
and covered it all with folds
of sky
with Itself inside,
to that Mystery
indifferent to differences,
to It I pray…
 

80.
The earth is your gift,
the growing grain your gift,
the blowing wind your gift.
 
What shall I call these fools
who eat out of your hand
and praise everyone else?
 

98.
To the utterly at-one with Shiva
there’s no dawn,
no new moon,
no noonday,
nor equinoxes,
nor sunsets,
nor full moons;
his front yard
is the true Benares…

144.
Suppose you cut a tall bamboo
in two;
make the bottom piece a woman,
the headpiece a man;
rub them together
till they kindle:
                             tell me now,
the fire that’s born,
is it male or female?

Finally, just to note that this week’s class fell on Guru Purnima, the full moon of July holiday when yogis honor their guru. Tainted though it’s been by scandal and all too human clay feet, the guru principle is profound. The syllable “gu” translates as ignorance and “ru” as that which removes ignorance. So the guru is the wisdom force that obliterates the darkness of ignorance, leaving in its place, the light of the Self.

The great full moon of mid-summer is a potent mirror of that light…  and to that Mystery in all its myriad names, paths, and forms, indifferent to differences, I bow…