The Master’s Shoes

I was moved to write this poem when I visited the Baha’i temple in
Chicago for the 4th time.Not many people knew that there is actually an
archive on the lower ground of the temple and there is one custodian who
looks after this archive.To go into this archive, one must make an
appointment.This archive is a triangular shaped room adorned with
beautiful persian carpets that contains some of the Master’s belongings
and to list a few they are: The Master’s wallet, handkerchief, pen, a
beautiful ring, His hair, some of His letters and what really caught my
eyes was in a glass box. It was the Master’s worn out pair of old
shoes.At a moment’s glance, I envied those shoes so much and longed so
much to have had the chance to take it’s place.

I stood there for hours in prayer and whenever I went to the temple, I
would visit this room and pray. With all those little belongings of the
Master, it felt as though, He was in that room with you. This poem is
about those shoes and I wrote it almost 9 years ago.I felt since it is
close to the ascension of Abdul Baha and all, I would like to dedicate
this to Him Hope you will like it.

The Master’s Shoes

Strolling in awe, mesmerized on hallowed land
I entered a room where a treasure stands
Old and worn out shoes it appeared to be
Yet it held within, the grace of a majestic He

I stood there alone staring for hours, wondering in prayer
What roads You walked and what pain You had to suffer
Through times of sorrow you adorned His heavenly feet
Why couldn’t I have been a stone He’d step on in the street

Heaven and earth could have crumbled over me that day
But its humble majestic presence, faded my sorrows away
With these shoes, the Servant of Bahá traveled to the poor
To protect the feet of the Mystery of God, O what an honor

Among the few, the Servant of the servant called you His own
On distant lands you adorned Him as His seeds of love were sown
You witnessed His knighthood at the royal throne of unasked fame
While those who wished harm upon Him, were put to shame

In the eyes of the world you are but a pair of old shoes
But do they know, over my life, in your place I would rather choose
Even the dust under those shoes was luckier than me
For it had the bounty to be blessed in a moment of blissful eternity

How could a pair of old shoes bring such tears to my face
With painful longing and heartfelt desire to take its place
I was lost, wandering this life and lived among the fools
Until the day, time stood still when I first saw the Master’s shoes

Narendran Narasiah

Damansara JY on an adventure!

Our beloved JY group have been enjoying our sessions of late. We recently trekked up Templars Park for a reflection to finish the last lesson from the book Walking the Straight Path.

We reached the furthermost point possible and set up camp on a rock by the stream at about 8.15am. Our devotional was done to the soothing sounds of nature’s stream next to us. After a quick breakfast, to our surprise, we had a visiting monkey. Check out pictures of our misadventure here. These pictures are best viewed as a slideshow.

Both our animators turned out to be not very good at chasing away wild animals. After a provocative snare, we decided it was best to Walk the Straight Path down to where more humans were.

We studied our final lesson in jungle surroundings and then took sometime to meditate and reflect upon our roles and hope for the future of this group. After some tiring games that rendered us tanned and tired, we left.

Since then we have been planning for our service project and we have started a new book: Learning About Excellence. Ling Li’s Chinese life and its complications have already begun to evoke more discussions among us. Also, we have slowly begun implenting some of our suggested improvements to ourselves and the group and we hope to increase in quality and size soon.

Please pray for us!

Love,
JY Group Damansara