WHEN THE BELOVED CALLS
By Sujata Ameya
A book of poetry and art
Mandalas and sketches by Sujata Ameya
Cover design and page layout by Nivriti Roddam
Love and longing are two sides of the same coin. Longing enlivens love and love sharpens longing. But love and longing are also contrasting energies: Love is directed towards the other, whereas longing demands a response from the other. If you ‘fall in love’ and find that it cannot or will not be reciprocated, it does not mean that your love is not real or valuable. It simply means that your love is not being met in the way you hope and wish, in the way your expectations are conditioned. Such a situation is often a Call, to completely immerse yourself in the emotional depths of both love and longing so that a new you can emerge, infused with a very different order of love, for the Beloved within. This ecstatic love neither seeks fulfillment from the other, nor feels deprived due to the other’s absence. It leaves you forever satisfied, grateful, and whole, irrespective of an actual relationship with another person. These poems are a glimpse into the hide-and-seek process of immersion and emergence that is at once, deeply personal and surprisingly universal.
“Sujata Ameya’s luminous and mesmerizing collection When the Beloved Calls is poetry of the mysterious and the sacred, an exquisite wonder that beckons us to ‘her cosmos within’ and ‘many-splendoured grace’ so we can experience the redemptive power of love.”
– Hélène Cardona, internationally acclaimed poet, actor and translator
“A wonderful book of poems on love. These are perfect to be savoured over a year, one poem a week!” – Subhash Kak, Author of The Loom of Time, Mind and Self and others.
“The poems have a quality of passion seen through the lens of dispassion. The Beloved is there with us all the time, but we yearn for it as though it is not. We recognise it only in spaces that are soft and quiet. Thank you for taking me there.” – Raghu Ananthanarayanan, Author of Totally Aligned Organization, and Leadership Dharma
“The poems touch the soul and move the heart through their entreaties to the Beloved at so many levels.” – Kumar S. Sharma, Ph.D., Author of Age of Ananda – Conscious Evolution to the Life Divine
“This is essential reading for every man and woman, whether or not in a relationship, to get a taste of love and longing, and to understand the uplifting potential of vulnerability.”
– Sanjay Darbha, Founder and CEO, PeerLend