A TRIBUTE TO GITANJALI

O Gitanjali, the great Master’s creation!

O Gitanjali, the holy prayer,

Of the Master, of every poet!

Thy verse is holy, For

It sings not hymns of praise

To the hollow walls

Or stones without life,

Those barricades of mind

Fixed in the most spiteful shrines!

Thine is a prayer to the only One,

Oneness of being,

Of life and death,

Of light and darkness,

Of joy and pain,

Of silence and noise!

Thou seem to preach :

Darkness, the most wonderful sight;

Silence, the sweetest melody;

For, thy Master hath learned

The most blissful song,

The song of the poet –

Of melancholy and pain!

Thy master knows

The joy of living,

“The embrace of freedom-

In a thousand bonds of delight”

                            And yet oft he quoth                           

The joy of dying is nothing less!

Where art thou, Gitanjali,

I sing this prayer

In the direst need!                             

The need of the times,

The blood of brethren often spilt

For, the gleam of riches

Blind their eyes;

Nature’s become but a

Havoc spot, in silent tears

Of a glorious past!

Impart thy lessons, Gitanjali,

Of love and service,

Ardent devotion, and

The blessed chapters of supreme faith!

The Master’s cloak of dust

Is lost in the labyrinth of time,

But You know no death

O Gitanjali, the eternal one!

Thy Master breathes ever anew

In the death of each and every second,

Through You he lives forever more

In the depths of boundless space and incessant time!

Picture courtesy: Internet