Rupa Anand
Nationality: India
Email: Chinmaya.Rupa@gmail.com
Nationality: India
Email: Chinmaya.Rupa@gmail.com
Rupa Anand
Rupa Anand started writing poetry in 2008. A resident of New Delhi, India, she is a spiritual seeker under the guidance of Swami Nikhilananda Saraswati, Regional Head, Chinmaya Mission Delhi, a master of Advaita Vedanta. It is to her teacher and the entire spiritual lineage of India that she is indebted, for managing a pretty radical shift in her understanding and perceptions of Existence and the World. Life’s ever-changing situations and constant movement have made her intuitively aware of a deep sense of stillness and silence that underlies and runs through the cacophony and madness of day-to-day living. Her poems are expressions of images, thoughts, ideas, emotions and events that somehow get etched upon her mind or psyche. She has gotten her B.A. (Hons) in English Literature, travelled extensively and lived in many countries. Her passions include gardening, bird watching, photography and animals.
e-mail:Chinmaya.Rupa@gmail.com
Ticketless
Ticketless I arrived
And ticketless I travel
This continuous journey of
Existence –
The conductor waves me on
As if in acknowledgment
Of my ticketless travel!
I traverse the stations
Each interesting and more colorful
Than the previous -
Off loading baggage at each stop -
Unable to resist adding some too!
Each station – a compartment
Of my life with its occupants
Whose faces shine and smile
And beckon –
I try to keep going
Ticketless –
If I am not caught
Till now –
Then it is Infinity
That protects -
And keeps me humble
I try to not to hurry -
Lest I stumble and fall flat
That will be lesson enough
To keep pride at bay and
To understand that this
Ticketless travel is prearranged
A gift voucher of sorts -
I wonder how many more
Trains to catch and
Stations to visit –
When will I dispense
With the entire luggage?
And how much more time
Till the next travel is initiated?
Ticketless, of course!
September 15th 2012
At the feet of the Master
Listen
Listen to birds
Listen to children
Listen to words spoken
Listen to that which is unspoken
Listen to open skies
Listen to clouds
Listen to falling rain
Listen to the rhythm of the universe
Listen to the space inside you
Listen to the space inside others
Listen to that which is unheard
Listen to that which is not thought of
Listen to stillness
Listen to nothing at all
Listen with attention
Listen with sincerity
Listen with love
Listen to silence
For God’s sake
Just Listen
Every one wants to be heard
Let’s live in the silence between words
Let’s abide in the silence of knowing
Let’s be the silence of it all
March 29th 2011
At the feet of the Master by whose Grace we learn to truly listen!
Tell Me How?
Tell me how not to be pliant like a willow
When winds of deceit and subterfuge blow?
To stand correct and straight amidst
Overwhelming corruption and hate?
Tell me how to fight war and strife
With a white glove and no knife?
To cry a little more now and then
On seeing killing, riots and mayhem?
Tell me how to tolerate and bear
The mindless destruction of Life everywhere?
How to feel a wrenching pain
As hunters shoot down for profit and gain?
Tell me how not to turn my face away
From gnawing poverty and hunger every day?
Tell me how to experience the same
Of those tortured and maimed?
Tell me how to be a lotus in the lagoon
Despite muddy waters, in full bloom?
Tell me how to revere and hold sublime
All Life in its variety Divine?
Tell me how, Oh Sage, to pray Bringing Compassion, Awareness and Oneness
Into our lives each day?
February 15th 2011
After the riots and chaos in Egypt (January 2011) and the multitude of
scams in India.
I Wish
I wish I were that mountain, still,
majestic by itself.
I wish I were that cloud, adrift,
in an azure sky.
I wish I were this rosebud, pink,
waiting to be opened.
I wish I were that pine tree, tall,
whistling in the wind.
I wish I were the colour, green,
in a tuft of grass.
I wish I were that fragrance, sweet,
in a frangipani flower.
I wish I were that voice, divine,
in a koel's song.
I wish I were that beaming smile,
upon a friendly face.
Who knows I might have been them all, once upon a time?
Who knows I might be them again, in another time?
February 2009
Poetry to Me
A movement
of images
A dance
of words
A ballet
of feelings
A kaleidoscope
of impressions
A cloudburst
of emotions
My naked
thoughts
in party attire
To Delight
Amuse
Surprise
and render
speechless sometimes
A few words written
without music
Yet in tune
and always
an offering
April 14th 2011
(By the sheer Grace of my Teachers)