MAN & WOMEN (Prof. Puran Singh).

MAN AND WOMAN thro' the eyes of the woman I love it is that I see; I am a shipwrecked mariner, and they are my boats to ferry me across the sea of loneliness. * * * The coming of woman brings with it the perfume of the presence of God. * * * As a sword meets its scabbard, my glance meets the glance of the woman I love. * * * Our eyes send messages which neither of us can interpret without the other. * * * Our hearts melt into a white felicity by the fire of our looks. In this ecstasy we murmur in broken, joy-inspired language the stories of the past and the stories of the future. * * * The memory of all our past lives is kindled in us by the two burning lamps of her eyes. * * * Our days are the flower-showers of smiles at each other, and our nights the meteoric gleams of starry dreams. * * * In this reverie of our love time is like a gurgling hill-torrent that goes rushing past us; and we, seated on its green edge, dip our feet in its current and talk and laugh together. * * * We grow in each other and to each other. I see the crown of her head touching the very * * * sky, so tall she grows before my admiring gaze! She wears with as simple an ease the light-blue shawl of heavens glittering with diamonds as if she took it out of her own wardrobe. * * * How can I describe one whom I love so blindly? My eyes see no fault in that absolutely divine workmanship. * * * Her fragrant form pervades both my body and soul, and fills the earths and heavens for me. * * * She is the wife—her head bent down with the weight of her full blossom, like the flower with its face bent down along its stalk in bash-fulness of its own beauty. * * * We seek in each other the selflessness and forgiveness, without limit, of the mother and the child. * * * We shut our eyes and see each other at great distances. I see her seated in one corner of the sky playing like a young girl with the white pebbles. Then from behind I go and blindfold her with the palms of my hands, and disturb her pebble-playing. When she opens her eyes we find we have just met for the first time. * * * Wonderful distances realised simply by shutting our eyes give us new glimpses of one another which the blind walls of nearness shut off. * * * Our quivering lips keep the red fire ever aflame, in which we cast continuously our complaints of each other. * * * We are as breath and body that interchange places continuously; at times I am breath and she is body, at others she is breath and I am body. * * * Proudly I garland her with flowers and pearls, and think much of it, and she conceals one love-wreath timidly in her soul for me, and thinks little about it. As I enter her chamber there is the infinite fragrance of that silent welcome with the garland of her arms round me. * * * She is a holy shrine to me where I offer myself. * * * She is my palace in a lowly little hut. As I look at her seated by me on the bare floor, I feel I am the owner of kingdoms that few have seen. * * * She is the lamp of my dark night by which I see the stars of Heaven. * * * She is the rose that bursts open and blossoms on its own twig and on its own root in the Infinite. I never think of plucking it to adorn my turban, as the whole of her, fed by the life-juices of the Infinite, is the feast of my soul. * * * We close our eyes in the joy of each other, and meet in pure beauty. * * * She is my vision of the Infinite that for ever thrills me with its glowing colors of life. * * * Man and woman are not red ripe enough for love like ours till, they both have drunk of the cup of wine, from the hands of the same Cupbearer; and the back door to the Paradise of infinite peace, within is left ajar for both of them by the Beautiful One with Her silver footprints shining on the path! Prof.puran singh. kulindersingh@yahoo.com