Cry of the Soul

All potent art Thou and can do aught, then why this delay? (Kabir)

My soul endures a magnificent longing. (Hafiz)

-1-

“Beside me on the left appeared an angel in bodily form. He was not tall but short, and very beautiful; and his face was so aflame

that he appeared to be one of the highest ranks of angels, who seem to be all on fire. In his hands I saw a great golden spear, and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point of fire. This he plunged into my heart several times so that it penetrated my entrails. When he

pulled it out I felt that he took them with it, and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God. The pain was so severe that it

made me utter several moans. The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one can not possibly wish it to cease, nor is one's soul content with anything but God. This is not a physical but

a spiritual pain, though the body has some share in it -- even a considerable share.” St. Teresa of Avila

-2-

It is unanimous where I come from. Everyone agrees on one thing: It’s no fun when God is not near.

(Hafiz)

If it is not my portion to meet Thee in this my life then let me ever feel that I have missed Thy sight - let me not forget

for a moment, let me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams and in my

wakeful hours. (Tagore)

-3-

Because of the desire to be Thy devotee once again I took this physical form.

(Bhai Nandlal)

O Lord, I, a beggar, ask of Thee more than a thousand kings may ask of Thee. Each one has something he needs to ask of Thee;

I have come to ask Thee to give me Thyself. (Ansari of Herat)

-4-

Those years are the best of my life which are spent in Remembrance of Thee. O Satguru, when I forget Thee

those moments are like death. (Bhai Nandlal)

O Master, what kind of love has been awakened in me? I am blessed with both the bliss of meeting You

and the pain of Your separation. (Mirabai)

-5-

O Master, I’ve spent my whole life loving You and have no regrets. If I die in the dust of Your doorway, dreaming of You,

I will have lived a full life and will die smiling there.

(Hafiz)

I have been counting the stars and passing the whole night in wakefulness. When will the time of happiness come, O God!

My Lord, meet me and be never separated from me. (Mirabai)

-6-

Just to see Thy face again, I once more took the physical form. Thy face draws my heart out with its beauty.

Just to see that reflection of God I came again to this world. (Bhai Nandlal)

From my first breath I have longed for Him. This longing has become my life.

This longing has seen me grow old. (Rumi)

-7-

I once had a thousand desires, but in my one desire to know You all else melted away.

(Rumi)

Out of the madness of love, we will see You; The One whom I love will come.

He must come! We will see my loved One!

(Sant Kirpal Singh)

-8-

As Your lover, all I’ve ever asked for is a glance. If I could only breathe one breath with the Beloved,

that would be enough. (Hafiz)

If once in this world I win a moment with Thee, I will trample on both worlds, I will dance in triumph forever!

(Rumi)

-9-

O Master, I know You taught us that we couldn’t get to You without much effort and without Your help,

but all this silence is leading me astray. (Hafiz)

I have been Your lover and been with You a thousand times; yet each time You see me, Your question is always,

“Who is he?” (Hafiz)

-10-

Oh, my Beloved, you will find us every night, on Your street, with our eyes glued to Your window,

waiting for a glimpse of Your radiant face. (Rumi)

O Master, since You went away, Your lovers are drinking poison and are dying off like flies. Why have You abandoned us this

way? Have our weeping and our prayers been too much for Your ears? Are there not tears in Your eyes, too?

(Hafiz)

-11-

Beloved, I am waiting for You to free me into Your Mind and Infinite Being. I am pleading in absolute helplessness to hear,

finally, Your words of grace: Fly! Fly into Me! (Hafiz)

I painfully await You, O Beloved! Broken, I have lost all hope of meeting You. Day and night I yearn to see You - why don’t

You call me unto You?

(Sant Kirpal Singh)

-12-

It is the burn of the heart that I want. It is this burning which is everything - more precious than a worldly empire -

because it calls God secretly in the night. (Rumi)

To love the Master, O sister, is to love only sorrow. He murmurs sweet words while he’s with you, then forgets and

departs. Mira says to her Lord, bring back Your beauty. When I can’t see You, that absence knifes open my heart.

(Mirabai)

-13-

If Thou speakest not I will fill my heart with Thy silence and endure it. I will keep still and wait, my head bent low with

patience. The morning will surely come, the darkness will vanish, and Thy voice pour down in golden streams breaking

through the sky. (Tagore)

Oh, when will dawn for me that day of blessedness when He who is all Good, all Beauty, and all Truth will light the

inmost shrine of my heart? When shall I sink at last, ever beholding Him, into that Ocean of Delight?

(Ramakrishna)

-14-

O Friend, at this banquet You have set before us, how long must we sit here with an empty plate?

(Hafiz)

O Beloved, please come back. My heart is broken and grief has conquered my bleeding heart; only Your face will

free me of this pain. (Hafiz)

-15-

When the Guest is being searched for, it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that does all of the work.

Look at me and you will see a slave to that intensity. (Kabir)

I wish I could give you a taste of the burning fire of love. There is a fire blazing inside of me. If I cry about it,

or if I don’t, the fire is at work, night and day. (Rumi)

-16-

I feel repentant and sad as I know not how to contact my Beloved. He lives in the high heavens

while I am a creature of the earth and miserable without Him.

(Kabir)

What have I done that was so bad that You won’t even accept my gifts or recognize my name? This is Hafiz,

and I am standing at Your door. Where else is there for me to go? Where will I go, what will I do, what will I be,

what will be my plan? I’m sick of all this sorrow and deceit. (Hafiz)

-17-

My life is in torment for my Beloved has gone, leaving no clue. All my hopes being singed, I know not where to go.

(Sant Kirpal Singh)

I live in yearning for You and I burn in the fire of separation. Having enmeshed me in Your love, wherefore have You gone?

(Sant Kirpal Singh)

-18-

Your worshipper of old wanders ever longing for favor still refused.

(Tagore)

What else is there for me to do but to sit here and cry? I wouldn’t wish this sadness on even my worst enemy.

You are far away, and day and night I lie grieving. And why shouldn’t I,

when my heart says there is no hope? (Hafiz)

-19-

O Beloved, where are You? Since You left, my heart has become a fountain, and blood is pouring from my eyes. From the root of

every eyelash trickles a hundred drops of blood, and from my heart pours gallons more! Hafiz has become a slave to this grieving.

(Hafiz)

-20-

O Beloved, please allow us one look at Your face, for life is short and soon You will be gone. Hafiz, when the way to the tower of

the Beloved’s palace is blocked, then in the dust of this door’s threshold let us put our head and stay.

(Hafiz)

The sweetness and delights of the resting-place are in proportion to the pain endured on the Journey. Only when you suffer the pangs

and tribulations of exile will you truly enjoy your homecoming. (Rumi)

-21-

O Master, how many more tears will Hafiz have to cry? Won’t You call for him now that his heart has been broken in two?

(Hafiz)

No one has been united to his Beloved through mirth. Whoever has attained communion with Him has done so after shedding many tears. If it were possible to meet the Beloved

while laughing and in a state of comfort, why should one suffer the anguish of separation?

(Kabir)

-22-

My voice is choked in my throat, the tears are flowing from my eyes, and I am restless in the intense longing for my Beloved, day and night. I am crying: “When shall I meet my Lord?

My chest is being torn. When will the day come when I will have the opportunity of meeting Him?”

(Charan Das)

A person who is without intense longing to meet the Lord is like a graveyard.

(Baba Farid)

-23-

Last night, throughout the night, my Beloved did not come to me, and every part of my body is aching. If this is my condition after

His absence for one night, what is the state of those who never meet Him, and how do they pass their nights?

(Baba Farid)

There’s a limit to my patience, and I can feel the bitterness filling up my heart. O candyman, bring me some sugar from the

Beloved’s lip; my love-disease is tired of so much salt! (Hafiz)

-24-

The flame called the moth but the glass pane was there. How many have died not in the fire but in the cold,

crazed in longing? (Saint John of the Cross)

The separated lover sends this message to the Lord: O Lord, can a fish live out of water? How then can I live without Thee? My eyes have become sore by gazing at the path by which You come; my tongue has been worn away in calling Thy Name. My eyes shed tears like ceaseless rain; the whole night I spend

weeping for Thee. (Kabir)

-25-

I feel restless all the day and get no sleep at night. By constant waiting and watching have I grown lean like a thorn. The arrows of love have pierced my heart and I cannot for even a

moment forget the love pangs. (Mirabai)

O Master, what kind of love is this? I am suffering from the pain of separation, yet I am so ecstatic.

I am ecstatic and miserable at the same time. (Mirabai)

-26-

Those eyes which are weeping for the sight of the Beloved will one day surely behold Him. In love, weeping acts as a ladder. When

you make a ladder of your eyes, then you will automatically be speeding towards the sky. The ocean of the Beloved’s grace

reaches from one end to the other, and no place is without it. But this fire of intense longing due to separation is for the purpose of

ripening the faith of the followers on this path. (Shams Tabriz)

A Master is the manifestation of His Love and to love the Master is to love the Lord.

(Master Kirpal Singh)

-27-

I am bewildered by the magnificence of Your beauty and wish to see You with a hundred eyes! My heart has burned with passion

and has searched forever for this wondrous beauty that I now behold! My arrow of love has arrived at the target. My soul is

screaming in ecstasy. Every fiber of my being is in love with You! (Rumi)