Au Revoir

How long shall this au revoir last,

Mother sweet!

Thy Presence comes, but it goes too fast

On lightning feet.

It brings with it the blissful ray,

Serenely pure,

The golden dawn, the promised day,

Dark sorrow's cure.

Thy breath awakes me in an air

With star-bloom scented;

Where floats my dream-world fine and fair

To which tormented

Souls like mine would fain retire

For rhythmed rest

Engulfed in Love's entrancing fire,

In Eternity's breast.

Thy holy touch with magic power,

(Too little enduring!)

Brings thrills created by the shower

Of Grace which luring

Body and soul to live in love

Thy life divine,

Lifts up my being to heights above,

Thy Glory's shrine.

But oh! Thy presence fades away!

Thy lunar smile

Retires too soon! Night spreads its sway

Upon my nature vile

Amid the sobbings of my soul.

Stay, Mother, stay,

Thou art my life. Thou art my goal

My destined way.

No more of au revoir I want;

Close, close remain,

Sweet Mother! be myself and haunt

My soul's domain!

 

18-9-1942

Douce Mere

Far sweeter than the sweetest thing this earth or heaven can bestow,

Over my infant soul the Mother, tender-hearted leaning low!

A never-failing friend She stands to shield me from ill-natured harms

The venomed world of monstrous mind lets loose in overwhelming swarms.

Compassion-dripping are Her eyes, forgiving all, divinely Kind;

They mirror my goal I long forgot in mists that made my vision blind.

Her face, the dawn of dawn divine dissolving glooms of gathered night,

Awakes and opens my sleeping self to golden glories of sun-born sight.

I feel up buoyed when I behold Her never-tiring soothing smile:

My rising star it is I know, my dreamings' diamond-studded isle.

How when She blesses with Her touch I touch all heaven with my flesh,

And lose my little self in seas of joy that all around me splash.

And when I kiss Her feet that grace this earth with lotus-beauty rare,

I rise transported to the land of blissful Love Her children share!

23-9-1942

Her Open Doors

The Mother has opened Her doors that were locked not,

The doors of Her heart of compassion and love,

Slow-seeking long-lingering though we have knocked not,

And cared not to call to Her waiting above.

Let us throw down the burden of things that decay;

From the stench and the mire let us lift up our soul;

Let us stray not on false paths that tempt us away;

Let us mount up the ladder that climbs to our goal.

Invitingly stands there Her Presence all-gracious;

Bequeathing the bloom of Her smile that She showers;

All the stars of high heaven are never so precious

As this wonderful blossom that graces earth's bowers.

Let us lay down our sorrow and suffering sore

At Her feet, and the too cherished little we have;

She is asking for all we have kept in heart's store,

In the caverns of life as if wealth in a grave.

She is taking our trash and is giving with pleasure

Her rubies of love and Her sapphires of heaven,

And Her life that is teeming with emerald treasure

And the symphony-self of Her ecstasies seven.

27-9-1942

The New Birth

A newer and diviner dawn within, a dawn concealed,

Awaiting the magic touch of the golden-haloed god of light,

Bursts forth now in its burning rose-red being and stands revealed,

Hungering, it feeds on the older morn and grows in God-ward might.

5-10-1942

Bonne Nuit

Bonne Nuit! yes surely it will be so

For Thou hast so ordained:

On every night Thy smiles bestow

Bright blessings unrestrained.

 

How can the night then press me down

With its dead weight of gloom?

No murk can face Thy fiery frown

That sends it to its doom.

 

By day Thou art my blazing sun,

By night Thou art my moon

To whom my dreams delighted run

Like moths on wings of swoon.

 

'Bonne Nuit' these words in sleep prolong

Their sweetness, Mother sweet!

My soul a star-tuned sumptuous song

Hymns twined around Thy feet.

And when I wake from waking sleep,

My being all athrill Meets

Thee again through the dawn a-peep

With Thy feet on a golden still.

 

6-10-1942

Bonjour!

Bonjour to Thee whose wonder-ray has mothered

The mystery of suns and stars and moons'!

Bonjour from me whom heinous nights had smothered

Till I was blessed by Thy redeeming boons!

I was a stranger once to dawn's delight,

Knew not Thy heaven-hearted beauty's bloom:

A helpless victim of a vicious Might,

I lay enshrouded in a murky tomb.

But quick Thy vast compassion turned to me,

Befriended my misfortunes with a smile

That poured its magic moonbeams ceaselessly

And soon dissolved the dread of darkness vile.

My life from death arose and opened wide

Its lotus-hearted being's yearning core,

That Thy auspicious Presence may close abide

For me to love, to worship, to adore.

And Thou hast come with Bon jour's august light,

Bonjour, Douce Mere! now step within my soul,

And make my self a home of Thy delight,

And let Thy love its mysteries unroll.

I yearn to make Thy rule my law of life

And serve Thy Will with all my strength surrendered;

For thus alone my Bonjour can be rife

With sacred solar rhythms by Thee engendered.

7-10-1942

The Clod

I lay a shapeless lump of clod

Abandoned to a ruthless fate,

I was despised and I was trod

Upon by all, in sorry state.

 

In summer scorched, in winter frozen,

And worn away in rainy weather,

I was an easy victim chosen

For the wrath of Time, the Scather.

 

I suffered long my lot of woe,

As one in senseless torpor drowned;

Dumb prayed my mute soul lying low,

And Thy compassion sought and found.

 

For soon my sighs had reached Thy heart,

Thy heart of mercy and of grace ;

Down earnest Thou to heal my smart

And bless with bright and blooming days.

 

Thy touch awoke me to an immortal

Life whose laugh puts Death to scorn;

Thy smile unbarred for me the portal

Of the sun-world's golden morn.

I drank and drank Thy limpid Love;

It bathed me in its bounteous streams;

My heart was soothed and looked above

To thank the Goddess of my dreams.

Then in my heart Thou sowedst with care

A wonder-seed from heavens high,

An Eden's beauty on earth to rear

And change to joy all grief and sigh.

Now wave luxurious emeralds green

And blooming rubies' raptured dance,

In heaven's breeze and sapphire sheen

Strange birds with hue and song entrance.

And my transmuted clod rejoicing

Hails Thy Presence day and night,

With ceaseless murmurs sweetly voicing

Thy name, O Mother of delight!

11-10-1942

Prayer

This is the prayer that, from day to day,

My soul enamoured of Thy lotus-feet,

Uplifts to Thee whom my awaking clay

Adores and loves with ardour infinite.

A yearning night, such is my self that asks

For Thy redeeming ray of deathless light;

Pour it upon me from the golden flasks

Of dawn, O sun-crowned Goddess! diamond-white.

Awake my lotus-heart and open wide

Upon the waters of a life aflame;

Step down O gracious One! and there abide,

And make me but the sweetness of Thy Name.

Let my whole being soar on wings of song,

And stand before Thy Presence, pure and bare,

And there remain, a flame of love among

Thy own eternal ones that never wear.

Of all my thoughts Thou art the only goal;

Let all my feelings rush to meet the sea

Of Thy unfathomed nectared Self, my soul

Be lost in Thine, one with Thy ecstasy.

Give me the eyes to see Thee, ears to hail

Thy soft commands, and strength to work Thy Will,

Firm faith and surrendered love that never fail

And a nature large for Thy sweet Self to fill.

31-10-1942

Child's Claims

Accept me Mother, body, heart and soul,

However much unworthy I may be;

Accept me in Thy service: any role

Thou choosest is a welcome thing to me.

My life to Thee I wholly consecrate

For Thy celestial plan of work on earth;

If Thou shouldst need, I will not hesitate

A million times again to come to birth.

I am completely Thine, for ever Thine;

My eager blood shall run to serve Thy word;

I simply need to know Thy will divine;

Obedience shall come winging like a bird.

I always err, Thou hast to choose the work

For me, omniscient Mother, Light of light;

How dare I trust my mind, the child of Murk,

Whose only hope lies in Thy blessings bright?

Heed not my uproar of dislikes and likes;

I want to make Thy work my only pleasure;

A bed of roses or of pointed pikes,

I care not; for Thy will alone I treasure.

Thou art my Mother, let me only claim

To be allowed to serve with love Thy choice;

Thy Presence is my labour's only aim,

Thy Name, the rune-word for my soul to voice.

31-10-1942 

Thy Singer

Make me Thy simple singer, Queen of Poesy,

Let Thy ambrosial sweetness flow in rhythmic strain,

Replete with raptures born of God's own harmony

Which only can fulfil in joy earth's life of pain.

Make me Thy little singer, sweet Mother, and nothing more,

Let not the poet's pride become a parting screen

Between me and Thy master music I adore,

Whose thrill I wish to bring here from the worlds unseen.

Mother, arouse and open up my hearing closed

To rune vibrations of Thy all-creative Word;

I want no other wayward voice to harm disposed;

Thy unique utterance alone, grant me, unblurred.

What can be more delightful to our human hearts,

That have been age-long victims to discordant notes,

Than Thy uplifting melodies? All sorrow parts

And buoyant earth song-borne in Thy own ether floats.

Release upon me Mother, all Thy music rare,

And let me merge my self in it and be Thy song;

And let Thy sweetness spread with it in the ardent air,

And let the word embodying Thee its life prolong.

1-11-1942

Soul of Sweetness

All is sweet when Thou art there

O Soul of sweetness!

Abloom, in earth-born Beauty rare,

Of God-completeness!

Heaven's smile is each transparent cell,

A miniatured moon,

And casts a silent magic spell

That sends into swoon

All sense of sorrow and suffering

On earth abiding,

And makes the heart rejoice and sing

On rapture riding.

A deluge is Thy love unbounded

And drowns us deep

Midst mysteries of delight we have sounded

In blissful sleep.

Thou art a magnet pulling close

Our souls to Thee —

To Peace, to Joy, to Light, Repose

And Purity

Of Being high, of life in God,

Thy greatest gift

 To yearning earth's life of dead clod

Or of dark drift.

Away from Thee Gloom's clouds we meet

And danger's dart;

And so our souls have clasped Thy feet

Close pressed to the heart.

O Soul of sweetness, Mother divine

With august face,

Let all Thy sweetness-self be mine

And all Thy grace.

11-10-1942

In Tune with Thee

In tune with Thee my heart a heaven grows,

Athrob with an enchanted life of joy, Rich with

Thy love-bloom's ruby-radiant rose

Bedewed with pearls of peace none can destroy.

No sorrow and no care assail my mood

That has grown intimately merged in Thine;

The True, the Beautiful, the Ever-Good

Has blessed me with a comradeship divine.

My little stream has come to Thee at last

Traversing tyrant lengths of Time and Space,

And found in Thee its dreaming's ocean vast,

And now it gives its heart to Thy embrace.

In harmony with Thee, O Mother-Flame,

My darkness-smothered spark now grows apace,

And fanned to fire by Thy all-puissant Name

Leaps up to where Thy suns of glory race.

My being now would breathe Thy very breath

And experience within the blessedness

Of gods and angels, free from age and death

And live for ever in Thy close caress.

Grant me, sweet Mother, the eternity

Of harmony divine but just begun;

And let Thy world-deluging ecstasy

Within my soul its swiftest movements run.

2-11-1942

Mother's Jasmines

Every time I turn to Thee

Thy Grace in smiling showers

Bestows Thy tender love on me

In the form of jasmine flowers.

 

These jasmines beam with purity

Stainless beyond reproach:

For it Thy sweet intimacy,

Thy heart it can approach.

 

For Thou art God's immaculate

Love, humans have not known;

Innocent souls pass through Thy gate

And can be in love Thy own.

 

Let not these showers ever cease,

Thy sweetly smiling Grace;

I wish may wash off soon with ease

The filth that stains my face,

 

That I may look up like a flower

Which Thou wouldst softly kiss

And pluck me from Earth's yearning bower

And wear on Thy bosom of bliss.

 

3-11-1942

The Mountain-Mass

I am an inert mountain-mass,

Stuck to the Earth,

Since Fate destroyed my wings, alas!

In cruel mirth.

 

No liquid life pulsates in me,

No more I feel

The joy of heart-beats dancingly;

I am stone or steel.

 

My soul of dream far from renaissance,

0 Mother Grace!

Yearns still to meet and greet Thy Presence

Face to face.

 

Thy ocean-heart, Life's sapphire-strewn

And deepest source,

Possesses pearled peace immune

From the storm's dark force,

 

Sweet home of treasured rubied love

Whose coral kiss

Brings sorrow's end in the secret grove

Of self-born Bliss.

 

Alas! My hopes are wasted all,

1 have no power

To rise and come up at Thy call

And like a flower

 

Drop at Thy feet which I would press

Upon my heart

And feel for ever their caress

That should not part.

I can but send Thee my poor streams

Of worship springing

Forth from my heart, O Mother of dreams,

Thy sweet name singing.

 

But if Thou wilt, send nectared showers

Of Thy Grace redeeming

And melt down all this callous tower

Of dead mass dreaming;

 

And deep engulf me in Thy sea

Of God-filled glory:

And in its rhythms of rapture free

Let me grow hoary.

 

4-11-1942

If

If I can only have Thee, Mother!

And hail Thee as my all in all,

I will with gladness lose all other

Things that men or gods enthral.

If I can get but a drop of Thy Love

And make my Heart its snow-white shrine

I will set fire to the Night's grove

Where shadow-loves drink sorrow's wine.

If I can gain but a ray of Thy smile

That lends its light to a million moons,

For good I'll send off in exile

The world's failing joys that mask as boons.

If I can once but kiss Thy feet

Whose gracious touch high heavens woo,

My lotus-soul will bloom in Bliss

And be the glory of their hue.

5-11-1942

At The Mother's Feet

When I bow down before Thy lotus feet

And press my burning lips of desert-dearth

Upon their beauty, the fount of nectars sweet

That would allay the thirst of all the earth,

I lose my mortal self in joy unbound

That breaks upon me like a swelling sea

From whose deep heart which only love can sound

I gather pearls of pure serenity.

And when Thy soft and star-celled palm descends

With blessings' bounty on my havened head,

I feel I am a monarch whose sway extends

Beyond the Earth to worlds where angels tread.

And when I rise and meet Thee face to face.

Immortal grown, Thy child and wholly Thine,

Thy radiant love holds me in its embrace

And in its warmth I bloom, a spring divine.

6-11-1942

The Mother's Love

Oh! what a power is Thy lenient love

Whose brooding warmth has clasped the universe,

Grey-shelled and nested in the ebon-grove

Of the Night that soon shall cease to be a curse.

How can one ever plumb its depth profound,

The home of God's great multi-mystery;

Or find a limit to its never bound

Expanse of an undreamed immensity?

And yet that boundless love I now behold

Embodied in Thy beauty, Mother Divine;

Earth-nursed, time-parted we come back to Thy fold

And wake to the feeling that we are but Thine.

Thine and for ever Thine, none can now part

The meeting of the soul-streams with the sea

Of sweetness swelling in Thy love's great heart

That we now claim as ours, we claimed by Thee.

And all of us are overjoyed to know

That Thy whole heart of love without reserve

Pours out for all and makes us all aglow

With dawns of God whom we are born to serve.

7-11-1943

I will Never Leave Thy Feet

No, I will never leave Thy feet

That I have found at last;

I will adore them, Mother sweet!

My heart shall hold them fast.

 

Long lost to me, forgotten long,

Before me now they bloom;

Their beauty melts me to a song

That thrills my burning gloom.

 

Come from where rubied roses rhyme

With dawns divine aglow,

Where breathes a fragrant life which Time

Can end not with his blow,

 

Where song to song in sweetness speaks

And dance meets dance in rapture,

Where snow-white silences on peaks

Of peace lone spirits capture;

 

How they have bled, profusely bled

On the thorn-strewn paths of the earth;

Each foot-print is a wealth of red,

We know not yet its worth.

 

It is a sacrifice supreme

That only Thy love can

Perform, O tenderest Soul of dream,

Fulfilment come to man!

 

O let me wash Thy sacred feet

With tears of gratefulness;

Allow my eager lips to greet

Them with a warm impress.

Let me caress with fingers light

Their lovely lotus-grace,

O let their beauty beaming bright

My ugliness efface.

 

Let me enthrone them in my heart

And worship them with a love

That offers all, nought left apart,

Nor makes one selfish move.

 

Let my whole life be an ardent song

Of service dedicated

To Thy gracious feet that now belong

To Earth, with their touch elated.

 

8-11-1942

Thy Saviour Grace

How little is my love for Thee,

How great Thy warm reply!

Thy call is ever after me,

Though I may turn and fly.

 

The less I seek, the more I find

Thy captivating Grace:

It comes and clasps my wayward mind

And greets me face to face.

 

Thy tenderness is never tired,

Thy bounties never cease,

Thy sweetness swells like a song inspired

And brings me joy's increase.

 

A hundred wild desires distract

Me, causing dark delay;

I spurn Thy love and blindly act

Against Thy rule of Ray.

 

Still, Mother! Thou wouldst not allow

Me to be lost to Thee:

Thy Saviour Grace, true to its vow

Of succour runs to me;

 

And I behold before me stand

Thy Presence warmly close,

And, Mother! soon Thy helpful hand

Ends all my gathered woes.

 

And once again I rise above —

A free and happy thing,

And drink with eager lips Thy love

And all its sweetness sing.

 

26-12-1942

Blessed with Thy Feet

Our Earth has now become a blessed thing:

Its secret soul rejoices evermore,

Its atoms grown alive thrill, dance and sing

Their song of silent adoration; for

Thy Love supreme has sweetly condescended

To bring to us the blessing of Thy feet

Whose presence is eternally attended

Upon by heaven's glory infinite.

With them has come to us the Light of light;

Its magic ray has changed our night to morn,

Such as Earth never knew: a golden sight

Reveals to us our self in God reborn.

The ugliness on earth is doomed for good;

For now the Lotus-beauty, Mother divine,

Of Thy soft feet moves here with gracious mood:

At every step bloom forth charms hyaline.

No more shall now our Earth redeemed remain

A curse of seething, all-engrossing strife;

For Thy victorious feet have brought the reign

Of peace and rhythms of a God-given life.

29-12-1942

The Choice

My soul has made its choice, its final choice,

And all my being shall obey its law,

My heart shall heed to no misguiding voice,

With every falsehood I am now at war.

With all sincerity I want to serve

The Truth divine, supremely held by Thee:

My faith is firm, my will shall never swerve

From works of love that shall be life to me.

To Thee are offered all my energies;

Yoke them to Thy high purpose, Mother great,

Suffuse them with Thy strength that does with ease

Accomplish all — a world divine create.

Thou art my steady shining polar star

Towards whom shall my being always turn

Its single-pointedness, and brook no bar;

False ways its faithfulness has sworn to spurn.

I choose what Thou hast chosen, Mother wise,

I will abide by it through thick and thin;

I will endure and hail Thy sun-world rise

With symphonies of light and life divine.

3-1-1943

Nearer to Thee

Nearer to Thee, yet nearer day by day

My blessed journey brings me, Mother sweet.

All dark obstacles break and clear my way;

For it's Thy Grace that leads me to Thy feet.

My mind, my heart, my life of mortal flesh

Now on the path of Light, laid out by Thee,

At every step begin to feel the fresh

Delightful breeze of Heaven hailing me.

False voices now shall nevermore succeed

In luring me to ways that breed but fear:

A wakeful knowing fire impels my speed

Obedient to Thy call I love to hear.

My clouded days have cleared, my troubled nights

Have grown in peace profound rich with strange stars

And moons that ever wax; Thy Love invites

My being to Thy heart that has no bars.

And I am coming, Mother! nearer to Thee,

Nearer to God's great glory come to Earth,

Nearer to Joy and Immortality,

Nearer to the bright fulfilment of my birth.

7-1-1943

An Aspiration

Thou art the inmost and the most intimate

Truth of all being, Mother, soul of my soul;

How can I cease to love Thee? Mystery great,

To claim Thy heart and live there is my goal.

Let every moment of my life be rich

With Thy remembrance, packed with sweetness rare;

At every breath Thy name I sing bewitch

My consciousness a-wing in Thy purest air.

Let all my thoughts converge on Thee, God's soul,

And on their lighted tracks my seeking mind

Speed to Thee and be caught in Thy aureole,

And in Thy sun-self melt and grow its kind.

Let all my feelings born of deep sentiment,

That leap like waves in my love-liquid heart,

At the sight of Thy moon-beauty Heaven-sent,

Make dance and song their joy's eternal art.

Let all my gladly dedicated life

Be turned into a movement willed by Thee,

A movement free from sorrow and from strife,

Rising from Death to Immortality.

9-I-1943

Thy Name

A magic is Thy soul-awaking name,

A wonder of vibrations, Mother divine !

God's lyric of His love's immortal flame

Embodied in Thy Presence for which I pine.

I was in Night's abyss without a way,

Betrayed even by hope, the prop of life:

But Thy befriending name brought down the ray

And led me up to joy from saddest strife.

From mire it pulled me out and placed above

Where soon the Ganges of Thy purity

Bathed me and made me worthy of Thy love

Whose rubied depth has housed Divinity.

It lent its strength and turned my lagging mind

Into a steadfast will that can disperse

The onslaught of dark forces most unkind:

Thy name has saved me from their evil curse!

Now it has made my life a mood of song,

My days a music of celestial birds,

My dreaming nights their pearled peace prolong:

In it my soul has found the word of words.

Let Thy sweet name be wedded to my breath

And all my being rise to bless this meeting:

O let its sweetness melt the heart of Death

And make eternal-joyed each moment fleeting.

13-1-1943