The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2/Chapter 27
XXVII
JOY ABOUNDING.
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Readings — Kabir's Poems (Tagore) :LXXXII
Kabir ponders and says: "He who has neither caste nor country, who is formless and without quality, fills all space. "The Creator brought into being the Game of Joy : and from the word Om the Creation sprang.
The earth is His joy ; His joy is the sky ; His joy is the flashing of the sun and the moon ; His joy is the beginning, the middle and the end ; His joy is eyes, darkness and light.
Oceans and waves are His joy : His joy the Saraswati, the Jumna and the Ganges.
The Guru is One : and life and death, union and separation, are all His plays of joy ! His play the land and water, the whole universe ! His play the earth and sky ! In play is the Creation spread out, in play it is established. The whole world, says Kabir, rests in His play, yet still the Player remains unknown.
Such is the experience, the surging, irrepressible, as it were, the self-revealing experience of him who has seen Anandam at the centre, the core, the heart, the fountain-head of the universe. Where is the possibility, the bare conceivability, of the coming into being of any creature unless the all-investing sky and the all-sustaining earth be brimful of joy? Even as the universe is replete,, redolent with joy, aught of existence is possible.
Where there is joy, there must be direct communion. Where there is joy, there must be ceaseless intercourse. Where there is joy, there is a holy love which gives even to the most insignificant and neglected of objects a value which cannot be estimated by any human calculation. Where there is the joyful realisation of God, there all that comes of God, lives in God, moves and has its being in God, is received as joy, welcomed as the offspring of joy, hailed as the evangel of joy, embraced as the incarnation of joy. Thus all, all is joy. The earth beneath is His joy. The sky above is His joy. Oceans and waves are His joy. The myriad objects which make the world beautiful are, again, the bodying forth of His joy. Every flower and every brook is the laughter of His joy. Every sounding grove is the music of His joy. The glowing dawn and the rising morn are the first gleams of His returning joy. The retiring sun with golden sheen in the west is His retreating joy to reappear. Thus day and night are but His alternating joy. Spring and summer, autumn and winter, are His revolving joy. Man is but the little ray that has emerged from the central glow of His joy. The father is the over-looking joy, the mother the embracing joy, brother or sister the twin-born joy, teacher or preceptor the self-reproducing joy, comrade or colleague the self-sharing joy, husband or wife the self-gifting joy, daughter or son the self-perfecting joy. Thus all is Anandam within and without.
This God of Anandam visits us not merely to invite us to Him, not that He might only assure or cheer us, but that he might give and impart Himself unto us. As Maharshi Devendranath Tagore has said, "I am satisfied but He has given so much. But He is not satisfied with having given so little." All give of their possessions, all spare from their portion; but He gives Himself. Let go the world and the world lets you go. Let go God and God pursues you all the keener. Herein lies God's insistent, indefatigable, irrepressible concern for, and interest in, us. Yes! This is the supreme assurance, this the sovereign truth, we proclaim—here and now, truly and verily, God is incarnate. There is no place and no time, no-where and no-when, no object, however small, no concern, however insignificant, but is directly occupied, pervaded, possessed by the spirit of God. Proclaim it, not with the philosophic pride that exalts imperfection into perfection, but with the disciple's humble and grateful heart as the guaranteed hope and preordained destiny of all. Thou, brother, thou, sister, thou and myself the sinner, however fallen now, are the shrine and shekinah of the Spirit of God. God dwelleth, the Supreme God resideth, the Majestic God has His throne, the Righteous God has His shrine, the Loving God has His home, the Wise God has His ashrama in the spirit of each one of us. And it is granted unto each one of us to say, "In me, too, for no merit of mine, the Eternal chooseth to abide, the Infinite chooseth to reside, the All-holy chooseth to be enshrined. M Thus even for me, the vilest sinner, there is hope of redemption and salvation vouch-safed by the All-merciful God as a free gift of His loving grace. He has deigned to choose me, to capture me, to possess me, despite all frailties, ignoring all in- iquities. This is the message of living religion — God the Saviour, man the soul to be saved and sanctified-sure as science, subtle as philosophy, nourishing as faith, illuminating as grace, vivifying as life. This is the message of the Brahma Samaj. Blessed be the God of Anandam!