Song of Freedom

What can we know of freedom who are bound

As if by tungsten threads or chains of fate

To habits and desires blindly seen

And motived movements miniscule or great.

As through a window in a speeding train

We watch the scenes of life go streaking by

And realize that mid our hopes and dreams

A witness-self within sends forth a cry

For peace upon the ravaged heart of time.

The free are those who have surrendered all

The pettiness of man's mechanic ways,

Who answered to the spirit's subtle call

Awakened from the drowse of ignorance,

Attuned to rhythms in a vaster air,

Whose lives took the irreversible step

And of their higher self became aware,

Who chose the ego-limits to transcend,

To seek the Infinite in finite things,

Devoted to truth god-men recognize,

And a voice divine that now within us sings.