Perfection

From a Poet’s Heart

Oh rose, Queen Sirikit or Tiffany, whatever your name may be, you are perfection.

Oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ*

Your wholeness, your fullness, even that tiny flaw where a hungry bug gnawed a small hole in your whirling petal make you one with the heart of the universe.

You burst from a thorny stem.

Inhospitable, one might say, if one was inclined to shear you away from the vine of your life to bring you inside and place you in a crystal vase upon a poet’s desk.

But you, you reach through the misty fall mornings, and nod towards the sun.

Pick another one, I thought I heard you say. I want to live another day.

Just one more day to feel the sun’s fingers play with your petals and the wind in your whorls.

Rimmed by candy pink edging, so fine it’s as if something divine painted your lips and tousled your skirts just so…

You are perfection, you know?

Like the Milky Way, whose fiery center spins off into nebulous arms which cradle our tender world, you twirl from the center, unwinding, unfurling, yearning for —

I don’t know. What do roses yearn for?

The kiss of a bee? The trill of a nightingale’s song? The gown of mist which you don in the mornings?

I will not pick you this day.

No, I will let you sway with the breeze, and dance with the sun.

Your journey has just begun.

But I know that tomorrow your petals will not be quite as crisp. And your lipstick might have faded a bit.

But such is life.

It begins and it ends.

And, it’s not always as pretty as you. But it’s true — oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ. We are all a part of that perfection. We are all a part of the whole. We are all a part of the One.

* Oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ is my favorite chant to begin my yoga classes with because it speaks to the idea of interconnection and wholeness. We are all infinite waves of the infinite Ocean of Consciousness. Reality, Consciousness and the Universe are One.

Oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ is from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad and is also part of the invocation to the Īśa Upaniṣad.

The Upaniṣads are some of the oldest of the sacred texts of India, preceded by the Vedas (from somewhere around 1700 B.C.E — the saṇskrittranslation means knowledge or wisdom) and the āraṇyakas (probably around 900 B.C.E. — the forest or wilderness texts).

The dating of the Īśa Upaniṣad is uncertain, although it was likely written sometime around 800–600 B.C.E. (after the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad and the Chāndogyopaniṣad). Hymns from this Upaṇiṣad speak to the nature of the soul (Atman) and tell us that “everything is one, and that the whole of creation remains within perfection, which remains forever.”

Literal Translation:

Invocation to Īśa Upaniṣad

Oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idam, pūrnāt pūrṇam udacyate pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate

That is full (or whole, or perfect); This is full (or whole or perfect). The fullness (or wholeness or perfection) comes out of the full (wholeness, perfection). Taking the fullness (or wholeness or perfection) from the fullness (or wholeness or perfection), the full (or whole or perfect) remains full (or whole or perfect).

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, cat-mom, photographer, and a lover of nature and travel. She has been studying and teaching the ancient yogic texts for many years and holds an MA in Yoga Studies as well as a MS in Neuropsychology.

I hope you enjoyed this journey into the perfection of a rose. You might also like:

Poem and photos ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.