Daily Mystic Messages - Abou Ben Adem
Today I want to share one of my favorite poems. It's by James Henry Leigh Hunt, and i was introduced to it in a book by Swami Parthasarathy called Select English poems. The poem:
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?"—The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
What I love about this poem is the reminder that faith and devotion are living practices. If we get so caught up in the dogma of religion and theory that we forget about loving and caring for one another, we have truly missed the mark.
And who better to start with than loving yourself.
Because self love where you really learn the foundations, the limits of your love and conditions you put on it.
The more free you become of those conditions, the more you embody the essence of love.
And there is nothing more godlike than this kind of untarnished, unbridled love. I believe this is what Emerson was referring to when he said that we are "Divinity in Disguise."