' When Compassion Comes '...

I spent my days idly as a vine
growing slowly in some holy place.

Then compassion came,
and I saw the Absolute.

All the names are true,
but I kept repeating that
of my teacher, and OM.

And sometimes I sang Om
Namah Shivaya, the greeting
that gives peace to the world
as well as to the spirit.



- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic

From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992