Another Poem About The Hamsa Swan


Surely, you've been told,

a Goddess flows

through your darkness,

thirsting for love.

Don't seek, be drawn.

Wander and be found.

Learn to age the wine

of your longing

in an empty sepulcher.

Pour yourself wordlessly

into the cup of desolation.

A blossom doesn't open itself.

Something warm and soft falls

into it's ovule

from another world.

You have two centers:

one here, one there.

A single inhalation pierces them both.

Honor this piercing as a gift

and you will be the very garden

where thorns become blossoms,

every cell of your flesh

a grail of nectar.

The Hamsa swan

descends from ravenous stars

to settle on still waters 

at dawn, and drink 

from the ocean in your chest.

She sings, "I am."

You sing, "Thee."

This is the Mystery

of the Bridal Chamber.

Her wings are your  

inbreath and outbreath.

This is why you have a body.

_________________

NOTE: Ham'sa is the natural mantra of the breath, as expounded in the Upanishads and the exquisite Yoga text, Vijnana Bhairava. 'Hamsa' also means 'swan' in Sanskrit. Aham-Sa: I Am She, I Am One With God. This is the natural inner sound of what Kabir called 'the breath inside the breath.' Vijnana Bhairava states:

श्रीभैरव उवाच
ऊर्ध्वे प्राणो ह्यधो जीवो विसर्गात्मा परोच्चरेत् ।
उत्पत्तिद्वितयस्थाने भरणाद्भरिता स्थितिः ॥२४॥
'
The supreme Goddess, or highest Śakti, who is the essence of creation, goes on expressing herself upward and downward in the form of exhalation and inhalation. When the mind rests in the point between breathing out and breath in, one perceives the source of all worlds.'

सकारेण बहिर्याति हकारेण विशेत् पुनः।
हंसहंसेत्यमुं मंत्रं जीवो जपति नित्यशः ॥१५५॥

'The breath is exhaled with the sound sa and inhaled with the sound ha. Thus, the human body perpetually recites this mantra, haṁsaḥ.'



Image from 'Heart of Conscious Living'

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