Tiger or a Lamb: Poems from the Heart #3

I was walking near the sea
when He came up to me
and asked, “Lamb or tiger are ye?”

“It depends,” I croaked 
in feverish stupor.
Yet, in His water
my feet firmly soaked.

“Lamb or tiger are ye?”
he asked once more.

Thoughts began to roar 
of worshipping Him
like a lamb, with a voice dim.
Thoughts began to roar
of wanting to run away 
like a tiger, swift
for not knowing the answer 
my mind was in a rift.

After all,
isn’t it in the half-known
that lies the reality?
isn’t it that there’s nothing ever 
that’s right in its totality?
And as humans, we must rise
above this duality
to find our Self.

So, it dawned…

We are lamb
that treads soft, heals, consoles
when the Earth needs us.
We are tiger
brave, strong
for us, and those around us
also fierce, killing evil around us.

I wandered back to the sea
one with Him, in me. 
I was that Self
ready to be
what it takes
a tiger and a lamb
when need be.
As either though
unflinching, calm, wise
as only the Self can be.

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The Back Story

Last weekend I celebrated my 18th birthday over a lovely hike around lake Elkhorn, and my friend of 45 years (yeah, it does not add up «wink») gave me a portrait she painted—of me—except it looked suspiciously like a tiger.

Bindi is a very talented artist when she is not busy being a brilliant scientist. She called it Purni-Sherni, Purni being my name growing up in Mumbai and Sherni being Hindi for a tigress. Suffice it to say that in some friends circles I am called a tigress for…maybe my once feisty outlook on life? You’ll have to ask Bindi! It brought up a slew of comments from my friends on whether I was a tigress-like character or not. Definitely they concluded, I was not a lamb. I concur.

When I marinated this conversation a bit more in my head later, this poem from the Heart was born.

What do you think? Aren’t we all shades of gray, ready to be what it takes in life—whether a tiger or a lamb? If not, our spiritual growth must get us there. We grow as much by adapting as learning new things. We must. Or else, life will pass us by...

Going beyond, the Bhagavad Geeta

yaṁ hi na vyathayantyete puruṣhaṁ puruṣharṣhabha
sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ dhīraṁ so ’mṛitatvāya kalpate
(Chapter 2, verse 15)

Translation: O Arjuna, noblest amongst men, that person who is not affected by happiness and distress, and remains steady in both, becomes eligible for liberation.

The Bhagavad Geeta—yes, of course, everything in life invariably is already in there «smile»—helps us go a step further and says, change is constant, so we have to be a tiger or a lamb, when need be, but even more important is to maintain equipoise in life whether as a tiger or a lamb, and not be affected by the situation at hand. Only then do we discover our true Self.

Swami Chinmayananda puts it beautifully: Calm endurance, both in pleasure and in pain, is a condition necessary for the right knowledge of the true Self.

So go ahead, be a tiger or a lamb, recognizing that they are both Maya or unreal, but ready to learn—well—from a roar or a bleat, if only to discover how strong and beautiful your Self is.

Meaningfully yours,
Anu Prabhala