Homage to Rainer Maria Rilke

Poetry

A small homage to Rainer Maria Rilke and his work

Rainer Maria Rilke

Like many of our contemporaries, Punya and I are aficionados of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who was born in Prague in 1875 (then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire) and died fairly young in Switzerland before either of us was even born. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language, unconventional and unusual in his writings. For example, in a little-known poem from 1989, ‘Visions of Christ’ he portrayed Mary Magdalene as the mother of Jesus’ child…

As it is, we both recently came across this poem below (synchronicity) which we felt to share, as it uncannily describes a vision our planet and humanity could do with.

All will come again into its strength:
the fields undivided, the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong and varied as the land.

And no churches where God
is imprisoned and lamented
like a trapped and wounded animal.
The houses welcoming all who knock
and a sense of boundless offering
in all relations, and in you and me.

No yearning for an afterlife, no looking beyond,
no belittling of death,
but only longing for what belongs to us
and serving earth, lest we remain unused.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours

Wondering if Osho ever spoke about Rilke, a little research showed that Osho quoted some of Rilke’s poems in discourse, which might not be widely remembered. Osho enjoyed poetry but he always made a point not to reduce poetry to philosophy:

Poetry is like a bird on the wing: it is beautiful in the open sky, but when you catch the bird and put it in a cage it is no more beautiful because the freedom is gone. And concepts are cages, thoughts are cages.

Osho, Believing the Impossible Before Breakfast, Ch 11

Read here what Osho says about Rilke and another of his poems…

Bhagawati for Osho News

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