Sudarshan Faakir, the renowned Jalandhar-born poet-lyricist who died recently, was known for his biting wit and immaculate personal integrity, which nevertheless was mixed up with a seemingly limitless zeal for 'bottle-worship'.
The poet who lent words to the great lords and ladies of ghazal such as Begum Akhtar, Mohammad Rafi and Jagjit Singh, once advised a venerable Shaikh “to imbibe but a few drops/ for one had to first know what's good and bad only then could one teach”... He ends the refrain with a plea: “Listen to the heart and keep the cups flowing.”
That paradoxical brand of 'spirituality' is also reflected by Chinese Taoists known as 'Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup' led by the legendary poet Li Bai. Known for his striking Taoist imagery, Li Bai once confessed, “When I am drunk, I lose Heaven and Earth / Motionless, I cleave to my lonely bed. / At last I forget I exist at all, / and at that moment my joy is great indeed.”
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Such ecstatic epiphany is also encountered in the writings of the so-called Left-handed Masters of Siddha Tradition. But appearances can be deceptive. The vamachara practices contain what William Blake once described as “the Road of Excess leading to the Palace of Wisdom”...
~ from Finding purity through impurity ~
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