Shivaratri (February 15-16)

When your gaze first plumbs 
the sky-blue pool of love, 
this melting diamond of ten thousand galaxies

gazes back with the beauty of a face, 
the face of the Friend, intimate, familiar.

Then must you dare to drown 
in Beauty itself, beyond the countenance, 
beyond the gaze.
This is courage.

First you sip from an image, a likeness,

then you drink a little more

from the mirror of creation

and sip from the imageless,

inebriated with longing,

no longer looking for that Face,

but from that Face.
This the secret, yearning 

is the very wine it thirsts for.

But who is the sommelier?

Jesus? Gurudev? Mahéshvara, 
the Lord of creation?

Dear one, you are the wine 
and you are the cup. 
You are the Alone

and you are the Friend.

You are the beginning and the end

of the pilgrimage.

Between your crown and your chest,

legions of angels ascend and descend

on the stairway of one silver breath.

Tonight there is a wedding, it is yours.

You are the Bridegroom and the Bride.

You are the invitation, you are the candle.

You are the hand-fasting braid.

Your spine is the nave of the cathedral,

the altar your fontanelle

where the Bridegroom awaits.

Who is the Bride, entering the vestibule 
of your heart, adorned yet hidden 
in a veil of playfulness?

She is your next inhalation.

They meet in a song, 
five syllables of fire,

water, soil, wind and space,

pervaded by a bee-wild hum.
Om Namah Shivaya!

You are the garden, the stars 
are guests, the earth 
spread out as a feast before you.

Om Namah Shivaya!

Whirling is stillness by grace. 

Stillness is whirling by grace. 

It is all you, share everything.

Om Namah Shivaya!

The two become one by grace.
By grace the one becomes two, 
Lover and Beloved.

Tonight there is a wedding.

It is yours.

Photo: Bahman Farzad