 | Vigil and vision |  |
VEDANTASARA.
1.
UNTO his soul, that on the Alpine heightsOf the Vedanta hath his harbourage found
And by the Indian Wisdom hath unwound
The veils that be about the Light of Lights,
The knowledge, which from hope of heaven's delights
And dread of hell's affearments doth redound
To free the imprisoned spirit, in this round
Of darksome days confined and careful nights,
The world and all its creatures, joy and woe,
Its baseless hopes and fears, its ill and well,
Are as a vain phantasmagoric show,
That answers to the omnipresent spell
Of the One Self, midst all that come and go,
Alone unchanging and perdurable.
98
2.
YEA, cognizant he is that, on this sideThe evolution of the Self, Gods are
And heaven and hell and sun and moon and star
And what worlds else beyond the skies abide,
Which, at Its hest as erst they lived and died,
Evenso for ever It shall make and mar,
Æon by æon still, in space o'er far
And time for thought to follow over wide.
Thus to the Selfless Soul all Gods must bow,
The One sole-throned where erst the many sat,
And in thought's cruset molten, old and new,
Religions all resolvéd be unto
The all-involving dictum, “That art Thou”,
Whose golden obverse readeth, “Thou art That”.
3.
COLD is the air upon those Alps of thought,And he, for his soul's health who harboureth there,
Must, ere his lips can breathe that ether rare,
Cast off concern of all that here is wrought
And all that is of mortals prized and sought,
And putting by earth's tests of foul and fair,
Himself address unto the only care
The Truth to seek, than which all else is nought.
But here to find, for those who seek, is Light,
The eternal Light of conscious Selflessness,
Which, once enkindled in the enraptured spright,
From heart and brain the darkness doth expel
Of ignorance and doth the soul possess
With peace, indwelling, inenarrable.
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4.
WHAT can be likened to his ecstasy,Beside his bliss ineffable, as wind
What earthly joys are not, upon whose mind,
After long continence, the things to see
Behind the veil vouchsafed, 'tis borne that he
The Self Undifferenced is, with which he pined
To be made one, and nowhere else to find,
Save in himself, Gods, hell and heaven be.
Thenceforth, for him an end of doubt and strife
There is; thenceforth as life is death and life
As death; thenceforth, with the Eternal Whole
For evermore incorporate and one,
The Light Supernal shineth in his soul,
That is beyond the light of moon and sun.
| Vigil and vision | |