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VISIONS
OF DIVINITY |
| By Amrita Pritam Jnanpith Award-winning poet and writer, Amrita Pritam has always lived her life with intensity. But in the past few years this intensity has taken a new turn. Her recent books such as Kaal Chetna (Time Consciousness) and Agyat Ka Nimantran (Call of the Unknown) are a testimony to that. Interestingly, she calls dreams a "contact with realities in another dimension" We present here some of the dreams the has had and the poems they inspired: It was becoming night when in a lonely place, suddenly, someone came to me and said: "Sai Baba is calling you." I looked toward him in surprise, not recognizing him when he came and asked: "Which Sai? Shirdi Sai? He doesn't know me, so has he himself called and asked for me?" He nodded "yes" and a mad feeling ran through my whole body. The stranger indicated a direction and I ran that way quickly. There was a rather dark place where Sai was seated on the ground. I greeted him silently. When I came nearer, he raised his head and looked at me, and asked: "Why are you so sad?" I stood absolutely still in front of him, and answered: "Sai, what can I do? There are lies all around me everywhere I turn." This was the only question and the only answer. Then the dream was over. This happened in 1999, in the early hours of March 14. When I woke, I was astonished, but happy. And for almost a year, I was under the spell of this question—that Sai had been concerned with my well-being. Almost a year passed and much later,one day, I was lighting some incense in front of Sai Baba when I sensed that I was not the one holding the stick of incense, but had myself become the incense, the incense that wanted to burn at the shrine of Sai. And this whole experience came to life, word by word, and set itself down on paper. Sai, please give me a little bit of fire from your chillum... |
| I am your incense and for a little while will burn at your shrine. I have kneaded your passion into my own clay. When this body smolders, smoke will rise. This body's smoke will flicker and will say only this much- Whatever breezes pass through' these touch your breath, I want to become one with those breezes. Sai, please give me a little bit of fire from your chillum..... I am your incense and for a little while will burn at your shrine. No, I won't say anything. When the incense burns a delicate fragrance will say something in a whisper and then my body, turning to ashes, will touch your feet. It must become one with the earth of your shrine. Sai, Please give me a little bit of fire from your chillum.... I am your incense and for a little while will burn at your shrine. |
| In 1994, in the month of July, there was a night when an ashram appeared before my eyes in a dream. At an earlier time, I had seen some ashrams, but this time I knew that this ashram belonged to Sai. And I realized also I was staying there. I saw some other people there but was unable to recognize them. When I woke, my senses told me that in this birth Sai had no ashram. He had sat under a tree for years. Then, he stayed in the ruins of a masjid (mosque). What I'd seen must have been from an earlier life. Some days passed till the night of July 30, when Sai appeared in a dream and said: "Yes, there was an ashram. Its name was Savit Ketu. That was 256 years ago." This was the dream in which I could glimpse that ashram even while awake. Where was it? I couldn't find out but I could see it. This obsession flowed in my veins. This state of madness was burning in my veins, and then this sensation of burning found itself in my words. |
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Sai, I don't know in which cycle of time this happened |
| In
a state of madness, I didn't know if Sai's ashram was within me
or I in his ashram. In my memory, every twig around Sai's shrine was blooming and I could see the mountain stream where I used to go to get water for the shrine. There was some light from within, so that I could see a cave. Earlier, I had caught glimpses of the cave many times, but not like this. Now, the cave wanted to enfold me in its arms. |
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God only knows! at which instant
If the limbs of the body are the flowers of worship then I can tell you— that the cave was filled with the fragrance of flowers. I still can't remember when I got back... And now— I am standing again, at a distance from several deaths... But this much I know— that the thread of my awareness passed through many deaths and entangles my being. And even today a part of this being burns like the diya flame of the shrine. |
Life Positive, April 1996 |
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