Ashram Poets
HYMN TO THE MOTHER Goddess Supreme, Mira! Creator of the Worlds, Nourisher of the Worlds, Benefactor of the Worlds! Mother! Goddess Supreme, Mira! The infinite mother of the Gods, the universal Goddess! The Home of the Worlds, thy gracious feet! Rays of the immeasurable light, descending from the divine family of the Gods, We shall take birth as the new race, spreading wide thy force of light by our valour. A new humanity, a new race of beauty, they bear in their eyes the tranquillity of thy eyes. Train all thy children, Mother, under thy training, give them thy own initiation. We shall pin thy words upon our flag and march on from peak to peak, firm in heart, towards the goal. Ever shall we hold in front our ideal. We are seekers who seek to lay themselves at thy feet, ever shall we seek refuge in thee. Sun Goddess, O Mother Mira! Origin that has no origin and no end! On thy forehead shines the glorious heaven, At thy feet lies the Path freed of darkness! New lights shine in thy limbs, new lightnings flash in thy glances; thy steps measure out the rhythm eternal; thy smile bewitches our prone
heart to surrender.
Page – 184 Thy touch pours abroad thy supreme blessings, thy face irradiates thy overflowing grace. O, thy feet, the wide open eternal refuge of all! Goddess Mira, Mother of the Worlds, Without thy upholding strength the universe is a helpless orphan. With thy Presence upon earth, dispel all evil, all untruth. Victory, Victory to the giver of victory, We bow down to the Supreme Ruler of the worlds, the Mother!
SAHANA DEVI THE
SWAN-BOAT The swan-boat On its two wings – its twin oars – Moves afar towards the far Where the last shade of the horizon Fades away into the bright bosom of the Void. Where is the Path, where the Shore? Only a vast unbounded expanse – A calm sea of blue veilless, stainless, Engulfing the horizon's belt, spreading out Tranquil and steady within its own self eternally. And below all along The swan-boat moves on its two wings – its twin oars Seated in her frozen light, Drowned in her dreams, the moon sails In the Night bereft of sense, Bewitched by the toxic gleam. Whose is the gathering lustre? At
His feet Night's hushed soul lies prone and immobile:
Page – 185 Her veil withdrawn, she bids farewell As the last ferry comes a:Iong the shore. The Unseen Breaks through the barriers, comes nearer: A guarded secret signal peeps out On a pregnant moment's brink. He at the helm – The swan-boat moves slowly onward On its two wings – its twin oars.
SAHANA
DEVI THE
DREAM-JOURNEY The first tremor of the Light, 10 the dream-journey! Night's desire is now appeased, she feels the Sun within her – The Mother of Infinity holds in her bosom her first Guest: The Call awakes in the lotus-scented senses! On the far shore where moves the fiery Wheel Rose, unheeded, the cry of the Spaces – It spread and enveloped even our shadowy horizons: A golden vision flutters on Earth's eye-lids, As the flaming Spider weaves his luminous web around himself! The Bard wheels onward in his sweeping march: He gathers in perfect rhythm the soul's obeisances, Urges secreted in the heart of the sun-flower, Hymns limned in her petalled gold! Darkness massed on darkness has burst all on a sudden: Eyes once closed open to
the Lightning's flare!
SAHANA DEVI AN
ETERNAL MIRACLE.POWER An eternal miracle-power gleaming in infinite beauty Drew an arabesque on Time's wide forehead And hid within it an unseen radiance – The sweet cup-bearer to creation, embosomed in its first articulations.
Page – 186 A lightning sunk in the Night flared a moment And with its eyes lone and aloof, washed in loveliness' own hue, beheld there: A boat on a stream of flames moving towards the far Morn in the orbit of the sun; The Dawn-world flashed, the Night tore open! And yet Doomsday clouds came down, one knows not from where – All hint of light vanished in a dead obscurity. . . Suddenly quivered overhead the vehement urge Of a voyage in an aerial chariot of flowers bathed in bloodred – And the full Moon smiled and blew its flute Dripping with solar light!
SAHANA DEVI GODDESS
THAT HAST DAWNED Goddess that hast dawned upon the horizon! Hast thou crossed the infinitude of Darkness And come into the timeless moment? Thou hast revealed thyself in thy complete regalia – The hem of thy garment sweeps my heart. Countless are the seeds of rhythms and songs thou hast sown Within the bosom of the Earth, throbbing for expression. Thou hast descended like a lightning flash with thy swift motion of delight To gather in thy gracious hands the sheaf of songs offered to thee. Goddess of dream, hast thou shed upon the Night The hue of thy perfect vision of creative might? Celestial moments reddened with thy kisses Weave an
unseen bond between Earth and On their wings often and anon falls in showers The
glorious dust of thy feet, my Goddess, O Word divine!
SAHANA DEVI
Page – 187 THE
UNKNOWN CREEPER
Behold! From where comes this unknown Creeper Along the woodland path anointed by the rising Moon? All pain she has tinged with the blue of the Heart-stream, She has made Heaven unveil and break out into murmuring billows. The magic of her compassion flowers in hand, And the thunder-roar that booms the world's end is hushed suddenly; In the morn that is the death of the naked skeleton She stalks over the world, a gathered Fire, voicing her approach. The Dark One has put on a golden garland, And on her delicate forehead burns the flame of red sandal – She, the eternal Memory, from within the forgetfulness of earth's depths Kindles the first spark of the Word born of churning. The eye of the waxing Moon at night-end Pours
out of her blue the golden gleam of a dark Collyrium.
NIRODBARAN THE
HEAVENLY STEED The heavenly steed speeds away in sheer darkness, Scattering with its hooves the hot sands of the desert; Untiring, through the fiery tongues of the wind, Its breath blazes up in a neighing blare. A thunderflash gleams in its eyes, in its manes: It hurries shaking the skies with its flares; The swooning lips of the stilled Night Spouts a stream of blood as though at the approach of Death. The steed halts all on a sudden. It looks and sees Far on the faint rim of a horizon A peak
lifts high its blue banner. . .
Page – 188 Plunging in that luminous moment, the steed Once more speeds away, towards the far hills Where lies its whole haven of life.
NIRODBARAN The rosy morn blows its conch! Dreams glimmer from house to house, Wreathed are garlands of glory, New hopes pour their perfume – The heart leaps up in joy! Youth's sun is up in the sky, The bugle roars out victory – Men and women troop forth in battle array! Light sings in every heart, the demon flees at the angel voice. Onward! Onward! A new race awakes to life Agleam with a new love! Trampling falsehood and fear and evil, Welcoming the true, the good, the heart's treasure Every soul shall burn bright to the end of time: Happy worshippers of the Ever-Beautiful, Makers of the age, shine fearless, Raise high the deathless chant! For the New Age to come They utter the word of victory, the word bringing God's gifts – They fashion the New Word of triumph. Light sings in every heart, the demon flees at the angel voice! Onward! Onward! A new race awakes to life Agleam with a new love!
DILIP
Page – 189 MY
MARVELLOUS MOTHER Marvellous. . . My Mother marvellous. That is what matters about me, that and nothing else, that this frail death-bound body should carry Her blessings, the blessings of lmmortality. That is why crossing a hundred deaths these arms stretch towards the life everlasting. Bird in a cage the music of the spheres I sing, O gift of Mother mine. Strewn with thorns my path, feet bound in chains. . . yet a Pilgrim on the march am I! Seat in the dust with the stars do I hold my tryst and my rendezvous, such is my Mother's will! Weak flame of a little lamp, it blows out again and again, but then how it blazes up too, again and yet again! O the alchemy of Mother mine! Wherever I turn beauty unending startles my eyes. . . in specks of dust I see the Taj, in dew drops are written the Vedas and the Upanishads, in leaves and creepers whisper the holy hymns in every eye the fire of sacrifice, in all sounds a prayer, an incantation, the murmur of the Mother's name I hear everywhere...
NRIPENDRAKRISHNA
Page – 190 ON
LOOKING AT A PHOTO OF THE MOTHER Two Great Mysteries – the sky and the sea – have held an ageless attraction for the mortal mind and eye. From the shores of a small island Victor Hugo, in exile, kept looking at the sea all day long. How was he going to pass his days of exile? they asked him. I shall keep looking at the sea, he spoke in reply. The sea and the sky, for ever they gaze at each other. . . the shades of the sky change the hues of the sea and it stretches its arms of wave to touch the rim of the sky. . . In between, here below, on the sandy shore, plays about the child of Man, just as he likes. . . But all the time someone or something draws him to the horizon, there where the sky meets the sea! The more he advances the more recedes the skyline. Amazed and bewildered, he seeks for the point where the Great Mysteries meet. Two pictures in a frame. In the Mother's face have I seen, tht Meeting of the Mysteries: while Her one eye mirrors the measureless sky, the other holds the mystery of the blue. Two pictures in one frame. NRIPENDRAKRISHNA
Page – 191 AMRITA
(On
his birthday¹) WHAT we understand easily we believe we understand rightly, We make a confusion between the face and its mask. We think the horizon line is the finishing line, We forget that a blue sky stretches still beyond. The world is built with the tears and smiles of the gods. . . A child is at play on the sandy beaches: He is never to be met in the crowd. . . A jewel knows not itself, nor does a pearl know that it is a pearl ! The goal fixed for ever, for ever he goes on, The path offers no bar, no call reaches from behind: Lo! The eternal voyager, eternally free, Eyes ever turned to the dawning East, never to the setting West. He hides behind a veil and moves on . . . Is it the stream? Is it the ocean vast?
ROBI GUPTA ¹ THE
CREATOR IN HIS DREAMING The Creator in his dreaming has created This immortal thing in creation, Figuring as a common creature, forgetful of his self: A mystic reason makes him hide his own form and nature, Ever at labour in working out the Impossible: To transfigure Nature, to establish the Transcendent Here on the bosom of material Earth, To feed the divine sacrificial Fire with this human body, with this bounded frame. Lo, the timeless hero worker with this flaming faith,
Page – 192 Indifferent to the rude impacts of Reality, Dreaming the victorious Mother's wonder dreams, Shaping in his heart of hearts the golden A faultless, sleepless, pure self- dedication Has built this life into a piece of IMMORTALITY. CHINMOY THE
AUSTERE SOUL Who are you, young austere soul, Standing before the temple as the night draws to its end? The sky has not begun yet its festival of colours, the fair has not assembled yet. You came plying your life's boat, you did not loiter. Long, long ago in a bygone age, In a great conquering gesture, You leaped into the arms of the Mother crying, "O Mother, here I am!" Nor doubt nor hesitation could seize and shake you in their whirls. Abandoning home, abandoning your own, Escaping all ties of affection, You did not fall into the trap that the sly Mind lays with its duplicities. Unmoved, unchallenged you clung to your Path, With the Grace upon you. Even as Ekalavya of old you hit the mark straight Shutting out all else around your path. In your one-pointedness, in your heart's yearning, in your natural pull of love You move with eternal pilgrim steps towards the Supreme Presence on the peak.
Page – 193 ON AMRITA'S
BIRTHDAY His Grace pours down ceaselessly Along the path of His manifestation. It is that which showers its love upon your life and moulds it anew, It is that which makes of your birthday always a day new and green. Today I join my prayer with yours And implore at the Mother's feet: May we make of our life a constant surrender, May we fulfil the great work she is pursuing ceaselessly in and through us.
ARUNA DEVI A PRAYER Take it, take it, Mother, whatever I have anywhere, Take it all. I renounce the demand – "give me, give me" – I want that only which you want. I and mine are all now yourself, You alone shine everywhere, You alone find yourself in me ever in new forms. The python ego hisses always all around, He swallows utterly all the riches you give me. That is why although I want to give, yet cannot And all the more cling to him – And never remember that your feet alone are the eternal refuge Crush this I of me, O Mother, let its hungers end, Keep in your own hands the key of your golden gate.
Page – 194 Nothing else, Mother, nothing else any more – Fill all, all with your own self, Leave no corner whatever for anything else to stay.
ARUNA DEVI
ONWARD You must tear off the bonds of the finite: Mother Infinity has sent you the call. How long would you remain a prisoner? She is waiting for you, the Mother. The endless path of Her Grace She has laid That welcomes you in your journey to Her. The Mother Light signals you the way Lifting Her finger, a beacon sun – Arise and onward! The ties that bind you to your own, O traveller, must not hold you down Any more – Stand unflickering – And listen, in your heart, the ringing Word Shankara uttered, his soul transfixed on the Mother: “You are my refuge, my sole refuge, you, alone, O Mother!”
NISHIKANTA THE SECOND CRESCENT MOON I looked up and gazed And saw all at once on Infinity's brow Amidst bright clusters of stars Swinging in faint flush a linear golden moon – The second crescent moon. . .
Page –
195 The One without a second But in and through the thousand flames Kindles
her own single peerless Fire.
NISHIKANTA
Page – 196
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