Men and The Goddess

I’ve been in a soft place lately pondering my resistance to a chant that Deva Premal and Miten offer frequently during their Gayatri Sangha gatherings on Saturdays. The chant is one Miten wrote: “Into your hands I lay my spirit, Into your hands I lay my life…” When Miten wrote this years ago he did not realize these were basically the final words attributed to Jesus as he was dying on the cross.

So, my resistance is partly a result of my Christian background and my own negative reactions to the conditioning I am working through and beyond. And a piece (peace) of the “beyond” is to soften if not release the resistance.

As I contemplated this yesterday the Sufi chant, the Zikr (Remembrance) came to mind; I learned this during my seminary days and have often embraced it as a comforting prayer: “La Ilaha Illa Allah.” And then it finally hit me: if there is no reality but God, then anything I chant or recite is part of that godliness!

Here’s a poem to explore this:

Remembrance

I feel a distance that is not there,
separating, carving an empty gulf
that’s not real, only imagined in a
foolish mind.

As the distance narrows, disappears,
I sense resistance pressing hard to
release the powerful pull of a
longing heart.

As the resistance softens, collapses,
remembrance grabs my wandering
soul. The Sufi Zikr lights the way
showing all I need to know.

Mergence is that simple way, no distance,
no resistance, only remembering:
There’s no reality but God;
There is only God.

©2023 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.