One phrase that I first heard in childhood and that haunts me to this day is a phrase that I’ve heard repeated as a part of someone’s funeral service: “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” It is comprised of just 3 different words (all repeated twice) but what they convey is quite a deep thought indeed; I can’t help but shiver a little every time I hear it. It reminds of a hymn from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji (the holy scripture for followers of the religion Sikhism) that I only truly comprehended for the first time at my cousin’s funeral service several years ago. The English translation for it is as follows:
Wealth, the beauty of youth and flowers are guests for only a few days.
Like the leaves of the water-lily, they wither and fade and finally die. ||1||
Be happy, dear beloved, as long as your youth is fresh and delightful.
But your days are few – you have grown weary, and now your body has grown old. ||1||Pause||
My playful friends have gone to sleep in the graveyard.
In my double-mindedness, I shall have to go as well. I cry in a feeble voice. ||2||
Haven’t you heard the call from beyond, O beautiful soul-bride?
You must go to your in-laws; you cannot stay with your parents forever. ||3||
O Nanak, know that she who sleeps in her parents’ home is plundered in broad daylight.
She has lost her bouquet of merits; gathering one of demerits, she departs. ||4||24||
The angelic poetry and vivid imagery in this hymn never fail to bring me close to tears. It is so hauntingly beautiful as it speaks of death and the process whereby the body is left behind by the soul as not something to be feared but rather as something to be accepted as a part of life…a journey to be continued. For this reason perhaps, the phrase and hymn I have quoted above bring about an odd sort of peace for me…an acceptance of sorts, possibly.
In any case, as I was thinking (or maybe meditating to be more precise) on the word ash, I found myself with words that needed an escape, which they found via my pen. Here is what I wrote:
I would like to say ‘I am fire’, but I am not: I am the being who emerged from the ashes and who will return to them once more. I am the being that didn’t fear the fire (as a symbol of destruction) but saw it as the light of rebirth. I have been born many times, but with each and every struggle, I rise from the ashes stronger and standing taller. I am like a phoenix reborn, rising from the ashes and reaching for the stars. I am the being that came from nothing and to nothing I will return. “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
From the Ashes… by: lucky-louie
Logic of A Dreamer 