Four Fires

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Four Fires

A Poem

Four were the fires that burned in me
Since birth, by culture in varying intensity.
Knowledge dim and valour lacking 
Sketchy server and the desiring king.

This within and more Thou hast seen
Though hidden to me as behind a screen.
At each age Thy will didst patiently take
Each flickering fire to a higher form remake.

Mind’s knowledge I gained only to see
It was of little use in my approach to Thee.
By ambition and conquest I did strive
Yet found no path to Thee it did pave.

Third the king ephemeral, of desiring self
Was no more help than a mischievous elf.
The fourth lay crippled by the ego’s foot
Found every excuse to slink and shoot.

I had borne the first three for years
They did nothing to assuage my fears.
Will I see Thee, wouldst Thou conquer
The self of me and this deviant monster?

Then by Thy word I gained the clue
The serving fire was key for all to improve.
I grew meek, in all I saw Thy shadow
I served and ached, every claim did forego.

In time, by a happy fate and Thy grace
In all my dealings was Thy outlined face.
Am uniformed by Thy name and method
My serving fire is now to Thee betrothed.

Knowledge, Force and Enjoyer fire
Are only captains with shining attire.
The Serving fire meek earns the sanctum
And gains Thy boons beyond quantum.

Note: The poem alludes to the Four Varnas, as four modes of functioning of the evolving human consciousness. Each is a propensity whose eventual balance in mixture prepares our being for the Divine. It is the author’s experience of how the Shudra element within ended up being key for the decisive progress in Yoga. Sri Aurobindo, in his Record of Yoga, captures this is in infinitely more detail.