In the evening before you go to sleep - under the full moon,
fill a glass with pure water and place it outside under
the sweet rays of our magnificent moon.
Sojourner Truth''I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right''
I want to say a few words about this matter. I am a woman's rights. I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I have heard much about the sexes being equal. I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am as strong as any man that is now. As for intellect, all I can say is, if a woman have a pint, and a man a quart -- why can't she have her little pint full? You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, -- for we can't take more than our pint'll hold. The poor men seems to be all in confusion, and don't know what to do. Why children, if you have woman's rights, give it to her and you will feel better. You will have your own rights, and they won't be so much trouble. I can't read, but I can hear. I have heard the bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin. Well, if woman upset the world, do give her a chance to set it right side up again. The Lady has spoken about Jesus, how he never spurned woman from him, and she was right. When Lazarus died, Mary and Martha came to him with faith and love and besought him to raise their brother. And Jesus wept and Lazarus came forth. And how came Jesus into the world? Through God who created him and the woman who bore him. Man, where was your part? But the women are coming up blessed be God and a few of the men are coming up with them. But man is in a tight place, the poor slave is on him, woman is coming on him, he is surely between a hawk and a buzzard.
The wicked see this universe as a hell, and the partially good see it as heaven, while the perfect beings realize it as God Himself. Only when a man sees this universe as God does the veil fall from his eyes; then that man, purified and cleansed, finds his whole vision changed.
- Vivekananda
Parh parh ilm te faazil hoya
Te kaday apnay aap nu parhya ee na
(You read to become
all knowledgeable
But you never read yourself)
You read so many books
to know it all,
yet fail to ever read your
heart at all.
Bhaj bhaj warna ay mandir maseeti
Te kaday mann apnay wich warya ee na
(You run to enter temples and mosques
But you never entered your own heart)
You rush to holy shrines to play a part,
Would you dare enter the shrine of your heart
Larna ay roz shaitaan de naal
Te kadi nafs apnay naal larya ee na
(Everyday you fight Satan
But you never fight your own Ego)
You are quick to attack the evil one,
yet pride is a battle you have not won.
Bulleh Shah asmaani ud-deya pharonda ay
Te jera ghar betha unoon pharya ee na
(Bulleh Shah you try grabbing that which is in the sky
But you never get hold of What sits inside you)
You grab for a star you can control,
yet fail to grasp the light in your soul.
Bas kareen o yaar
(Stop it all my friend)
Let the race end, my friend
Ilm-oun bas kareen o yaar
Ik Alif teray darkaar
(Stop seeking all this knowledge my friend
Only an Alif is what you need)
Stop trying to be the one who knows,
for ‘God is One’ you need to know.
Bas kareen o yaar
(Stop it all my friend)
End the race, my friend
Allah Sayyaan Allah Sayyaan
(God is the Master, God is All)
God is All we need! God is All!
Nee main jaanaa Jogi de naal
(I shall follow the Yogi {ascetic/sufi})
Follow the wandering dervish!
Jo naa jaane, Haqq ki taaqat
Rabb naa devey us ko Himmat
(Those who deny the Strength of Truth
Lord does not give them courage)
If you deny the power of all that’s true,
God will not grant strength to you.
Hum Mann ke darya mein doobey
Kaisi nayya? Kya manjhdhaar?
(We have drowned in the river of Self
the boat and the flowing waters do not matter)
We are lost in this river of self,
no boat or streams are of any help.
Bas kareen o yaar
(Stop it all my friend)
End the race, my friend
Ilm-oun bas kareen o yaar
(Stop seeking all this knowledge my friend)
Stop trying to know it all, my friend.
Allah Sayyaan Allah Sayyaan
(God is the Master, God is All)
God is All we need! God is All!
- English Translation and Lyrics originally in Punjabi | English in bracket is approximate literal translation. A more poetic rendering in bold by Naomi.
The K. C. Waters Show is seen on URTV, Charter Cable channel 20, Asheville, NC, see utrv.org for schedule.http://urtv.org/schedule.html
DVDs of these and other episodes are available for $9.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling. Original artwork by Judson Laird is also for sale.
This is what I say: Your mind is spiritual and so too is the sense-perceived world. The spirit is timeless and it dominates all existence as the great law guiding all beings in their search for truth. It changes crude nature into mind, and there is no being that can't be transformed into a vessel of truth.
-Brahmajala Sutra
Jana or Jani as she called herself, Janabai as she is known more formally, was a 13th C Marathi bhakti (devotional) poet. An orphan of the lowest caste, she went into domestic service with a family of tailors, while still very young. But this was no ordinary family, their son whom Jana helped raise, grew up to be the extraordinarily gifted poet-saint Namdev (1270?-1350?). Jana accepted him as her spiritual mentor and later became a bhakti poet herself, even though like many of her fellow bhakti poets, she never learnt to read or write. Namdev spent much of his life wandering the country as a mendicant-minstrel, but the spiritual bond between the two remained strong. According to legend, Janabai and Namdev died at exactly the same instant, so determined was she to not survive him by even a split second.
You must accept those who surrender to you
"O LORD, YOU BECOME A WOMAN."
by Janabai
(1298 - 1350?) Timeline
English version by
Sarah Sellergren
Original Language
Marathi
Yoga / Hindu : Vaishnava (Krishna/Rama)
14th Century
If the Ganga flows to the ocean
and the ocean turns her away,
tell me, O Vitthal,
who would hear her complaint?
Can the river reject its fish?
Can the mother spurn her child?
Jan says,
Lord,
you must accept those
who surrender to you.
The Grindstone
(Translated by Anjali Yardi)
My lovely grindstone
how sweetly it spins
as I sing your praise.
Come to me, Lord.
Twin poles of World and Spirit
are the smooth wooden handles
my five fingers grasp by turns.
Come to me, Lord.
My twelve or sixteen friends
all domestics like myself
gather in groups to praise you.
Come to me, Lord.
Mother-in-law father-in-law
and brother-in-law all join me
to sing your praise, my husband*.
Come to me, Lord.
The grindstone of life
grinds me down like grain.
I gather and pack the flour.
Come to me, Lord.
Spirit heats the vessel
the scum of sin boils over
the broth of virtue clears.
Come to me, Lord.
As the grindstone stops, says Jana
so will I one day. When I go
my fame I'll leave behind.
Come to me, Lord.
__________
*To address God as "husband" is a common conceit in bhakti poetry, here given a biographical twist in that the "in-laws" referred to are probably Namdev and his parents.
(Translated by Anjali Yardi)
Sojourner Truth''I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right''
Robert F Williams
