SRI AUROBINDO

Collected Poems

SHORT POEMS — 1895-1908

The Vedantin's Prayer

Spirit Supreme

Who musest in the silence of the heart,

Eternal gleam,
 

Thou only Art!

Ah, wherefore with this darkness am I veiled,

My sunlit part
 

By clouds assailed?

Why am I thus disfigured by desire,

Distracted, haled,
 

Scorched by the fire

Of fitful passions, from thy peace out-thrust

Into the gyre
 

Of every gust?

Betrayed to grief, o'ertaken with dismay,

Surprised by lust?
 

Let not my grey

Blood-clotted past repel thy sovereign ruth,

Nor even delay,
 

O lonely Truth!

Nor let the specious gods who ape Thee still

Deceive my youth.
 

These clamours still;

For I would hear the eternal voice and know

The eternal Will.
 

This brilliant show

Cumbering the threshold of eternity

Dispel, — bestow
 

The undimmed eye,

The heart grown young and clear. Rebuke, O Lord,

These hopes that cry
 

So deafeningly,

Remove my sullied centuries, restore

My purity.
 

O hidden door

Of Knowledge, open! Strength, fulfil thyself!

Love, outpour!

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