“My heart’s a tiny begging bowl; Just one thing I pray..."

Your Friday photo…

This beautiful bowl was crafted by artisan Darrel Wilson from salvaged wood from Baba’s Tree. The poem is by Heather Nadel, a resident volunteer in Meherabad and Meherazad, India, places of pilgrimage for followers of Avatar Meher Baba.

“My heart’s a tiny begging bowl;
Just one thing I pray —
Make it a little bit bigger every day
Make it a little bit bigger every day — ”

— Heather Nadel

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Begging Bowl Song

I am a poor man, I beg for my board
With a begging bowl that holds as much
As I ever care to hoard
And I wander through the countryside
Begging door-to-door
For a bowlful of love, and no more!

Well, one day feeling spritely, confident and wry,
I went up to the palace gate
Of which I’d ‘ore been shy
And I begged me a kingdom,
Of the porter asking, "Why
Does the King get it all, and not I?"

Just then in the distance, we heard a sudden sound,
Someone swift approaching
And the folk knelt all around
For the King in His splendour
From the tower room came down
And one quivering beggar He found.

He looked at me, my bowl of scraps;
He'd seen my like before
A smile flashed across His face,
And I trembled even more
Then He said, “I’d have given you the kingly store
But that bowl can't hold any more!"

Meher, darling Meher, you can see my dismay!
I didn’t know when I came to you
How much You’d give away —
My heart’s a tiny begging bowl;
Just one thing I pray —
Make it a little bit bigger every day
Make it a little bit bigger every day —

~Heather Nadel

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Source
Poems to Avatar Meher Baba, an Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook, pg. 11. ©1985 Manifestation Inc., North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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