The Irony.

 Yep, irony indeed. Sorry, inside joke. Considering today's date. 

This morning one of my favorite quotes came up:

“Look into your own heart, discover what it is that gives you pain and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else.”

-Karen Armstrong

Then one thing led to another and I thought I'd read up a few of my favorite lines again, just for the experience of gladness to my heart, and to bring a smile to my face. 

The first one I thought of was Sara Teasdale's "The Look." If anything can make you smile, that will. 

The second honor went to Nikita Gill's "93 Percent." What's not to love about that observation? 

The next poem actually was an accidental discovery, and sharply moving nonetheless. It resonated with me deeply and aroused latent emotions, that had been stuck inside my throat. It inspired me to acknowledge and vent those thoughts. That poem is "Bluebird" by Charles Bukowski. 

The last lines for the day have stayed with me for a very long time. It is actually a stanza from Lord Alfred Tennyson's "In Memoriam," an elegy he wrote for his very young friend Arthur Henry Hallam.

Those lines are:

"We have but faith: we cannot know;

For knowledge is of things we see

And yet we trust it comes from thee,

A beam in darkness: let it grow."

They gripped me and diffused through me, as I remembered these lines again today. These words were introduced to me when recited by my Grandfather, for his 20 year old granddaughter, who had just suffered her first nervous breakdown. 

I still remember his grey eyes as he spoke to her, tinged with sadness, and tightly withholding the salt stinging his eyes, and which dared not take liquid form, lest it betray the injury to his heart. The recollection of these lines evokes the memories of those days; long walks, with his arm on her shoulder, walking the same course they walked in happier times. The same eyes that sparkled with radiance and crinkled with joy, when he would read out parts of a story he was telling us, his grandchildren, or when he recited something which he felt compelled to share. 

These lines have stayed with me for a very long time. They also took me a  long time to truly understand, as I do now. I gradually became aware of the simple but profound truth in these four lines. It was a wonderful way of comforting and invoking Faith in his grandchild. This, from a man who never went to a temple or gurdwara, but whose religion was his Karma, which was demonstrated daily in his way of life, of non-judgmental love, and charity towards the needy. 

The next stanza elaborates further:

"Let knowledge grow from more to more

But more of reverence in us dwell;

That mind and soul, according well,

May make one music as before,"

Clearly we have the knowledge and humans are always striving to seek more and more wisdom, which they think is a product of knowledge. However, the poet makes a case for Reverence, of which we need more and more. A nod to God in all his ways, for all our days. 

In reverence is where we need to "dwell,' so that our mind and soul can surrender to what is inherent in us, "We have but FAITH," which is constant in our consciousness, just not prevalent as "knowledge (which) is of things we see." That "Faith (is) a beam in (the) darkness" that has overtaken our life, and we should "let it (the beam) grow" wider. We are being guided to surrender to that Faith. 

In the next stanza, Tennyson brings up reverence, which cannot be, in my mind- something without humility. Reverence and surrender bring equanimity to "mind and soul" so our being "May make music as one (in unison, as) before."

"As before," as we were before we were thrust into the "darkness" and the peril, aggrieved by circumstances, when mind and soul are dispirited and shaken. Separated. We now are invoking our inner strengths of Faith and Reverence, for Solace, which cannot come from Knowledge. Because "knowledge is of things we see," and not of the unforeseen and unexpected. To that, only petition speaks, as prayer- to that which dwells in us as Faith. The focus should be on that "beam" of light, of hope, and that is the way forward through that which is not, can never be, plain knowledge alone. 

In other words, my grandfather was telling his granddaughter, that someday all will be well, that this too shall pass, and that she just needs to keep the Faith. 

I think she gets it.

Veenu Banga

12/10-11/2024

12:05 am