The Flight of the Swan

You will never find OM in the temple,
Or ever learn the truth from those who preach;
You join the crowd and become one of them,
Yet never to know your real divine Nature.

The real man of wisdom dwells in secret;
You must find him, he will not seek for you.
When a man becomes popular and famous,
You will know he has not the true teaching.
Those willing to distort the Absolute
Always attract the greatest following;
Those who really know the truth do not preach,
For who cooks food only to throw to dogs?

When a guru wins popularity,
He knows there is error in his teaching:
That somehow the truth is now polluted,
To make it suit the palates of the beasts.
Thus, his way of life is now defective,
And brainwashed clods now love his ways too much;
The real yogi-guru of perfection
Is left alone, unwanted by the world.

Living only in pure Absoluteness
Is the equipoise of the plenum.
Who can visualize the universe
Like a dewdrop on a blade of grass?
Can you imprison the wayward wind
And put it in a glass bottle?
Words from the mind are only gas
Which roars when you open the throttle.

Maya has mixed the milk with the water;
Now, who is there to separate it?
Can you drink the milk from such a mixture
And only leave the water in the glass?
Only the Supreme Swan knows the art,
And this, for him, is still the greatest craft;
He can take the Absolute true wisdom
And throw the errors back from where they start.

~Shri Dadaji Mahendranath