Lamp Poem by Rajendra Prasad Meena Jaipur India

I
Within the silent court of soul,
a solitary lamp was lit,
no guiding wind, no destined goal,
Yet still it learned to glow and sit.

The shadows cast a hundred cries,
no answering voice to them replied,
yet in that fragile flame would rise,
a song the dark could not divide...

II
The road empty none to guide,
No voice that called no hand beside,
The walls returned in echo's dome,
within yourself must stand your home.

My weary heart at thresholds stayed,
while dreams in dust and silence frayed,
yet from the lamp's faint tender heat,
The frozen faith began to beat.

III

I turned within where borrowed light,
could never reach the inner sight,
in breath's deep hush, unseen, apart,
Day's hidden glimmer stirred the heart.

Not world but self in waiting stood,
beyond the veils it never could,
The lamp I sought in distant air,
was glowing softly always there.
IV

I rose and carried through the night,
The little flame I'd learned to light,
So small it seemed yet strong enough,
To tear the dark's enclosing stuff.

Unnumbered eyes in slumber deep,
Felt sudden streaks of amber sweep,
In empty palms as if from far,
There bloomed the dust of waking star.
V

No longer night appeared an end,
Nor darkness weight the soul must bend,
The silent lamp once lit inside,
Made every hidden pathway wide.

Not burning fierce nor claiming throne,
A gentle art by patience grown,
For light is never outward cast,
It wakes within the heart at last.

VI

If storms should bow my fragile flame,
And winds erase its tender name,
Still from its spark another rise,
Awakes in some new life's surprise.

A lamp is never lone indeed,
Once it has learned the way to lead,
The light we share the glow we give,
Makes deathless paths on which we live.
VII

No more this radiance mine or thine,
No boundary left for name or sign,
All limits melt like drops in sea,
The light alone remains to be.

In every breath the selfsame fire,
Takes form through ages climbs up higher,
Lamp and bearer fade away,
Only the shining holds its sway.

VIII

Where countless lamps forget their birth,
In one vast glow that floods the earth,
The inward light unbounded complete,
Fills silent words with pulsing beat.

No first-born sparks no final hand,
No separate flame no distant land,
All ends and origins untie,
In heart's unmeasured deathless light.

IX

No need to kindle now or strive,
For light in every breath alive,
No darkness left to break apart,
It beats already in the heart.

Not journey calls no becoming waits,
No road begins beyond the gates,
What once I carried sought and knew,
Was simply being always true.

X
No lamp remains no bearer stands,
No inner-outer parted lands,
Both dark and light in stillness blend,
Where forms and meanings softly end.

Nothing was lit nor kept nor lost,
No claim of gain no measured cost,
Before all names in silence deep,
The source of every flame we keep.