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LOVE IS NOT A FORMULA by Urmila Devi Dasi


Spiritual practices are an entering into a personal relationship of love...
                           ...not a mechanical formula. 
                                       This poem is a reflection on that reality, as I experience it.

Love is Not A Formula
'Madhava' by Braja Sorensen


Oh my dear Madhava
To push a button
That opens up, then
The world within us
Awake from chrysalis.
It’s a dance, my king,
Where angels sing
And love perfumes
Hearts’ inner rooms.
How can one make
A way to take
Love, essence of life,
Cut it with a knife
Bottled in a jar
Studied from afar?
Photography by Quoc Dinh
Love always resists
An analysis.
Capture is hopeless
And force is useless.
If we want to control,
We remain like a mole
Who desires the sun
While beneath everyone
Digs deep in the ground
Where the sun is not found
I do want to love
And need grace from above
For I’m too poor to know
How real love I can show
Can’t remember the key
That unlocks the real me


(This poem was published in the book Journey of the Heart: An Anthology of Spiritual Poetry by Women, Balboa Press, 2014. Available by clicking here.)

Urmila Devi Dasi (Dr. Edith Best) has been practicing bhakti yoga since 1973 and travels the world teaching the science of the Bhagavad Gita and the practical application of bhakti to life. She has a PhD in education and has three decades of experience teaching primary and secondary students, which include 19 years of experience as a school administrator and leader. She has published VaikunthaChildren, a guidebook for devotional education, The Great Mantra forMystic Meditation, dozens of articles, and Dr. Best Learn to Read, an 83 book complete literacy program with technology enabling the story books to speak in 25 languages at the touch of a special “pen”. Urmila and her husband, Pratyatosa, have three grown married children and eleven grandchildren. In 1996, Urmila and Pratyatosa entered the renounced order of life, or vanaprastha, in Sanskrit. You may connect with her through her website here, or subscribe to her on Facebook
~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~

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