Shunyata- -Completeness In Nothingness Poem by Om Chawla

Hush hush voices
murmuring noises
A hall full of audience
filled with air of expectation
As the lights gradually fade out
All the sounds die down
and submerge in silence
in nothingness - shunyata.
From the illumined dais
rises the sound of musical note
stirring the frozen melody
from silent dormancy in shunyata.
A web of melody is woven slowly
by rendering of intricate notes gradually
in rhythmic tempo
and in rising crescendo
transporting the audience
to a different universe
of sensual fulfillment.
Then a pause,
a stillness of completeness
from which again flows
series of melodious notes
meandering to a soothing close
culminating in completeness of shunyata.
Spell bound audience stand and applaud
this spell of journey of melody
from shunyata to shunyata
of completeness in nothingness
A moment to cherish, to relive and remember.
Is our life any different
emerging from shunya - a state of not being
and submerging in shunya - a state of ceasing to be.
Is that the way of everything in universe
Or is that what universe is?
- - - - - - - - - - - -

P.S.
I have written this poem in memory of my brother, Pandit Amar Nath, disciple of shri B.N.Dutta and Ustad Amir Khan, a great musician in his own right. He used to advise his disciples to 'shunya ho kar gao' [meaning: singafter reaching the state of shunya i.e.completeness] This concept of shunya is explained by his daughter and disciple Ms Bindu Chawla as: -
'The concept of zero, otherwise referred to as nothingness, emptiness or the void, is shunya, a state of everythingness, fullness or wholeness and a condition of mind our gurus asked us to reach before the singing of any raga, before its unconditional manifestation could begin.
Shunya in the ancient texts is known as pujyam or 'worthy of being prayed to'In Buddhism it is the phenomenological term for the experience of absolute reality. Shunya is also another word for equilibrium, the state of equipoise, a state of 'yuja' or union, the end and beginning of all cycles of existence. And that is why in classical music it is symbolised by 'sa'
the first swara or note, the root note where all notes rest, lying in dormancy.'

Glossary:
shunya in everyday usage means...zero or nothing
shunyata ''' ' ' 'nothingness.
Swar' musical note.