An infant in my arms
The tide of my love
has risen so high let me flood
over
You.
Close your eyes for a moment
And may be all your
Fears and fantasies
Will end.
God would become an infant in your
Arms
And then you
Would have to nurse all
Creation
~ Hafiz
Shri Prashant (Smiles): You already know what this is, right? You just want to live in the joy of listening more about it. It’s beautiful.
(Reading again) The tide of my love has risen so high, let me flood over You. Close your eyes for a moment and may be all your fears and fantasies will end. If that happened, God would become an infant in your arms and you would have to nurse all Creation.
It is only when God calls that you realize what a trouble the world is. Till the time you are not sensitive to the call; till the time you do not acknowledge that He is calling, the world appears pleasurable. When He calls then you realize that you cannot go to Him because you are so shackled to the world.
What is the world?
That which you see with your eyes open. Hafiz is saying, ‘The world itself is your problem. Not that the world has “some” problems. The world itself is the problem’. Kindly do not search for solutions in the world. The world does not have problems and solutions. The world has only problems and problems; the world is the problem. And if you want an end to the problem, then the entire world will have to go; your eyes will have to totally close.
Your eyes close if fears and fantasies go. Your fears and fantasies have gone only when the world has gone. The world is fears; the world is fantasies. No fantasies; no world. No fear; no world.
What is it that you remember?
The world.
Think of everything that you continuously remember. Think of everything that finds a place in the memory. It finds a place in the memory only because it is important to the ego. It either promises something or threatens to take away something. That is why you remember it, and what you remember is your world. Fears and fantasies is what you remember.
Hafiz is saying, “Let not the world be too important for you. Close your eyes to the world. Do not take the world too seriously.”
The moment you stop giving importance to the world, you have also stopped giving importance to the fear that comes from the world. Look at all your fears, do any of them come from any other place other than the world? When you talk of fear, your fear always has an object and that object is worldly. World is gone. The world is no more important. Fears are no more important. No mental activity is important. None of that which you have so far taken as important is important.
And now, when this great universe has perished. Now, when this total infinity is gone, then you also lose respect for bigness and greatness. Now words like large, immense, infinite are not very significant for you. Have you ever wondered why we call God as big; bigger; biggest? It is because the universe that we perceive is big and so we have come to have a respect for the word “big”.
When we say, when we use big as a respectable word, we are actually respecting the universe, because the universe is the biggest fact that we know. That is the difference between the ordinary one and the devotee. The ordinary one would conceptualize God as a large-ness, as a beyond-ness, as something transcendental. Something so huge that it cannot even be imagined. I repeat, what else is so huge that you cannot even imagine it? The universe.
It is because we have so much respect for the universe – which actually is fear – it is because we are so afraid of the universe that we conceptualize God as the big one. When the universe is not very important for you, then it is no more needed to think of God as the big one; then God can be your size; then God can be even smaller than you; then God is approachable. You can hold God in your arms. Then the relationship with God is not that of fear or greed. Then you do not say that a religious man is God fearing. Then the relationship between you and God is that of Love. Now, God is as lovable as an infant. You can hold God in your arms. Would you say that you are infant fearing? Then why do you say you are God fearing? Why does that word even exist in the dictionary?
For the devotee, God can be a small kid. You are holding the kid in your arms. And somebody like Hafiz is not going to stop at that. He is not just saying that you are holding God in your arms. He is saying, ‘You are actually nursing the kid’. And it’s so wonderful that in nursing the kid, you are nursing the entire creation.
Bliss! Marvelous!
One can only settle in Silence.
Nursing God; nursing God as an infant.
Not God – the father;
not God – the immense;
not God – the Protector;
not God – the Savior;
God- the little one.
You can kiss him, cuddle him, and his skin is so soft.
And his face is so small.
And his nose!
That is only for lovers of God. Not for those who fear God. Not for those who think that God does justice; God keeps a record of your good and bad actions. Not for those who come up with theories and stories like God created the universe, God may dissolve the Universe.
The Real lover has nothing to do with the past – he doesn’t worry whether God created the universe and when and how. The Real lover has nothing to do with future– He is not bothered whether and when and how the universe will be dissolved by God.
He just Loves.
And love is not a thought, love is not a hope.
Love is a reality.
He loves God right now.
An infant is so lovable.
God is as lovable as an infant.
Have you seen those little ones of any species, so lovable? Little cats, little pigs, little dogs, little snakes, little tigers – all so lovable; unconditionally lovable; doesn’t depend on the specie.
Not only do you depend on God for your existence, your survival, your peace. God also depends on you. Just as you are in search of God, God too is in search of you. In fact, God is searching more intensely for you than you are searching for God.
God is knocking at your door all the time. God too needs something from you. Without you, even God is not complete. God is forever waiting and waiting for your “Yes”; just as the infant is dependent for something very important on the mother; similarly, God is dependent for something very important upon you. The infant looks at the mother’s face, for nourishment, for intimacy. God too looks at your face- for consent, for intimacy.
God is waiting.
God is waiting, can we say “Yes”?
Everything that you see around you is his invitation. What do you think? You would actually be in some room and there would literally be a door knock?
This night is the call of God.
This river; those lights, the sky; the darkness; these words- how else would you hear God speak?
He is knocking all the time.
The infant is calling you.
You are the mother, nurse him.
Have you seen how intimately, how passionately, how desperately the infant clutches at the mother’s breast? Have you seen the face of an infant when he is
Have you seen the face of an infant when he is sucking?
Watch his face.
The face of contentment is the face of God.
The subject tonight is love and for tomorrow night as well.
As a matter of fact, I know of no better topic for us to discuss, until we all die.
(Hafiz)
Acharya Prashant: Rumi, Hafiz, Meera, Bulle Shah, they sing of love, and in their poetry the lover often appears…
All the false notions of myself
That once caused fear, pain,
Have turned to ash
I want both of usTo start talking about this Great LoveAs if You, I and the Sun were all marriedAnd living in a tiny room.Helping each other to cook,Do the wash,Weave and sewCare for our beautifulAnimals.We all leave each morningTo…
Love is
The funeral pyre
Where the heart must lay its
Body.
~ Hafiz
Acharya Prashant: Let’s just remember that all which we have talked of, is the body. The body…
