Photo credit: Mallikarjun Katakol
Lata Mani
Robert Oppenheimer, it is said, was awestruck as he watched the first atomic explosion. Yet, can anything be compared to the atomic implosion and nuclear fission of longing? All that is moving, all that is still, is sucked with incalculable velocity into the centripetal force of longing. What can compare to witnessing cells arching, straining, dancing and weeping as they make the slow but sure journey from forgetting to remembrance, spurred and propelled by longing! The body daily experiences the combining and recombining of particles, the release of powerful and, in this instance, loving energies. No degree in physics required; no particular interest in science. Only love of God, longing beyond any longing one could have imagined and a willingness to die out of everything one has ever believed oneself to be.
From Lata Mani, The Longing Heart, 2000, unpublished manuscript of poetry, prose & prayer.