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.
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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:
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Her veil withdrawn, she bids farewell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.
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!
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.
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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!
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 Paradise –
On their wings often and anon falls in showers
The glorious dust of thy feet, my Goddess, O Word divine!
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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. . .
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Plunging in that luminous moment, the steed
Once more speeds away, towards the far hills
Where lies its whole haven of life.
INDIA'S NIGHT IS GONE!
India's Night is gone! The Dawn breaks, O Traveller!
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!
DILIP ROY
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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
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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.
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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 19-9-1962
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,
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Indifferent to the rude impacts of Reality,
Dreaming the victorious Mother's
wonder dreams,
Shaping in his heart of hearts
the golden garden of Paradise
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.
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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.
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Nothing else, Mother, nothing else any more –
Fill all, all with your own self,
Leave no corner whatever for anything else to stay.
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. . .
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The One without a second
But in and through the thousand flames
Kindles her own single peerless Fire.
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