One of my favourite Poems by Jananeshwara :
I honor the God & the Goddess,
The eternal parents of the universe.
The Lover, out of boundless love,
Takes the form of the Beloved.
What beauty!
Both are made of the same nectar
And share the same food.
Out of supreme love
They swallow up each other
But separate again
For the joy of being two.
They are not completely the same
but neither are they different.
No one can tell exactly what they are.
How intense is their longing
To be with each other.
This is their greatest bliss.
To enjoy this world.
When that “difference”
Had one glimpse of their intimacy
It could not help but merge
Back into the bliss
Of their eternal union.
Without God,
There is no Goddess,
And without the Goddess
There is no God.
How sweet is their love!
When either one is asleep
The other stays awake
They become two
For the sake of divine play,
But in every moment
They seek to become one again.
Both of them see together,
Both of them are seen together.
They are happy only when together.
Shiva has become all forms:
Both dark and light,
Both male and female.
By the union of these two halves
The whole universe comes to be.
Two lutes make one note.
Two roses make one fragrance.
Two lamps make one light.
Two lips – one word.
Two eyes – one sight.
Shiva & Shakti – one universe.
He appears because of Her,
And She exists because of Him.
We cannot tell sugar
From its sweetness,
Not Camphor
From its fragrance.
To capture light,
We take hold of fire
To capture the Supreme Shiva,
We must take hold of Shakti
They enjoy the nectar of their own Union.
Shiva and Shakti are one!
Shiva and Shakti cannot be separated.
they are like musk and its fragrance,
like fire and its heat.
Embracing each other,
They merge into One,
As darkness merges with the light
at the breaking of dawn.
So I enjoy the worship of Shiva and Shakti,
though I am never separate from them.
Or see my Yoga Jewellery – Mālā and Musings on Mā