Word and Vāk

---

Word and Vāk

Poem

I once stumbled on a brood of words
Alive and musing unlike the common herds
That lurk upon pages of a book almost dead
Reflecting the spirit of its author’s head.

Those words beckoned in signs to me,
‘Come hither, be freed from thy curiosity’.
I reached out and partook of their draught,
Oh such sweetness and wonder were poured

In me as if a potent ambrosia of some God
Were in celestial argument carelessly spilled!
Oh the joys of this printed inked oasis 
Borne in thought and hand, a boon of the muses!

Now a rampant revelry is on all my hours,
Hear chattering of heaven and its occupations.
Some words like sirens on rocks luring
My wondering heart with a will deceiving.

They knew not the One sat in the chamber
Of my heart, with a nod warning me of danger.
Am not bound to mast like that fabled hero,
Am immune to their design and their sorrow.

Now the cherished guests arrive from climes
Far away, from lost cultures and distant times.
Many new worlds of dreams and ideals high
Now open to the vision of my occult eye.

The splendid scintillating words of heaven
Irradiate mind and vital and my physical even.
Who says these are symbols, a mere corpse
Devoid of living meaning or a shining force.

These words that amble into my territory
Are gods weaving my new being as a tapestry.
Only are dead words issuing from the mint
Of counterfeit minds and their scientific lament.

Now I learn a new alchemy of words,
I weigh and study these jewels of force.
As to a lad his lass are the Muse’s favours
Each glance and caress are priceless treasures.

The yonder yellow sun a tad duller now shines
In comparison to these living illuminations.
O Word, O Muse, to the Vāk* thou must me lead,
That Highest-Word’s shining milk to me must feed.

*Vāk- The inspired utterance of the poet at the lower levels, the words of illumination/revelation of the Seer at the highest levels and at an absolute transcendence is that Word and Power by which all the hierarchies of the existent are fashioned.