The Mother Awakes   It is midnight; the world is asleep in silence, The Earth is asleep in the lap of darkness; Asleep are the heavens, breathless the wrathful winds; The stars twinkle not in the dense blackness of the clouds. The birds wrap their eyes with their wings And rest self-absorbed in their nests; Animals wander not, nor are footsteps heard. Then the Mother awakes; The Mother awakes with a terrible cry. The Mother awakes; opens Her frightful eyes, As though a pair of suns.       The Mother awakes, not a leaf moves; The still flame of the lamp is dying in the room: In the lonely paths of the city, in the fi

The Life Divine       Chapter V THE SOUL, CAUSALITY AND LAW OF NATURE         What then of this causality that we see everywhere? What then of this law and fixed process in all Nature which is at least the indispensable condition of all human activities? How can the supposed freedom of the soul be reconciled with the actual despotism in fact of an ordered Cosmic Energy?       Vedanta does not deny either Law of Causality or Law of Nature nor their fixity nor their imperative control over individual activities; it rather affirms them categorically and, as we shall see, with an inexorable thoroughness far more unsparing than the affirmations of modern Rationalism.

January 31, 1966 (Satprem's letters to Mother having disappeared, he does not remember what caused the "sadness" Mother refers to here, probably certain ways of being in life that he found hard to accept, or perhaps his own incapacity to tolerate life in the world as is it and his tendency to dart off to the heights - unless it was the abyss. Satprem then asked Mother if he should not start writing a new book, "The Sannyasin," in which he would attempt to exorcize a certain refusal of life as it is.) Tell me, why do you feel sad? Because ... if you have realized that there is a progress to be made, there's no need to feel sad anymore. It's when one has a progress to make and does

M o t h e r's   A g e n d a   May_1959 May 1959 (Letter to Mother from Satprem) Pondicherry, May 1959 Sweet Mother, You have rid me of my headache in a spectacular way, not to mention the beginning of an infection in a wisdom tooth. So I am writing you. ... ... ... ... I was prompted to speak to X about the financial difficulties of the Ashram and I took the opportunity to tell him about the subtle 'détente' that has occurred. I told him that you had wondered whether he had not done something (I am putting all this very succinctly). He replied that as soon as he returned to Rameswaram, he made a special puja of gratitude to you for three days and prayed to his divinity to repay you a hundr

-51_Bande Mataram (in prose).htm BANDE MATARAM TRANSLATOR’S NOTE It is difficult to translate the National Anthem of Bengal into verse in another language owing to its unique union of sweetness, simple directness and high poetic force. All attempts in this direction have been failures. In order, therefore, to bring the reader unacquainted with Bengali nearer to the exact force of the original, I give the transla­tion in prose line by line. Page– 311 Page– 312 Bande Mataram I bow to thee, Mother, richly-watered, richly-fruited, cool with the winds of the south, dark with the crops of the harvests,

SONGS OF BIDYAPATI Songs of Bidyapati Childhood and youth each other are nearing; Her two eyes their office yield to the hearing. Her speech has learned sweet maiden craft And low not as of old she laughed, Her laughter murmurs. A moon on earth Is dawning into perfect birth. Mirror in hand she apparels her now And asks of her sweet girl-comrades to show What love is and what love does And all shamed delight that sweet love owes. And often she sits by herself and sees Smiling with bliss her breasts’ increase, Her own milk-breasts that, plums at first, Now into golden oranges burst. Day by day Love’s vernal dream

ON FATE Fate Masters the Gods Brihuspathy1 his path of vantage shows, The red disastrous thunder leaves his hand Obedient, the high Gods in burning rows His battled armies make, high heaven’s his fort, Iravath swings his huge trunk for his sport, The Almighty’s guardian favours over him stand; That Indra with these strengths, this lordship proud Is broken by his foes in battle loud. Come then, bow down to Fate. Alas, the vain Heroisms, virtues, toils of glorious man! A Parable of Fate A serpent in a basket crushed despaired, His organs all wi

Love-Mad* The poetic image used in the following verses is characteristically Indian. The mother of a love-stricken girl (symbolising the human soul yearning to merge into the Godhead) is complaining to her friend of the sad plight of her child whom love for Krishna has rendered "mad" — the effect of the "madness^ being that in all things she is able to see nothing but forms of Krishna —, the ultimate Spirit of the universe. The Realisation of God in all things by .the Vision of Divine Love. 1.  Seated, she caresses Earth and cries, "This Earth is Vishnu's"; Salutes the sky and bids us "behold the Heaven He ruleth"; Or standing with tear-filled eyes cries