Friday 12 July 2013

12 July : One Circle More

[A fragmentary poem composed at Ridgely Manor, in 1899]

Swamiji wrote the poem "One Circle More" on Ridgely Manor stationery. The original was sent to Swami Prabhavananda by Frances H. Leggett in 1962  It would appear that the three lines Swamiji wrote on the left-hand side of the sheet, which was actually the back of the folded letter paper constituted his final version of the first verse.

One circle more the spiral path of life ascends Circle
        Spins
 And time's restless shuttle — running back and fro
 Through maze of warp and woof
 of shining
 threads of life — spins out a stronger piece.

(Cf. a slightly different version of the first three lines of this poem which appeared in Swami Vivekananda’s own handwriting on the left-hand side of the folded letter paper containing the original draft (Vide the facsimile):

One circle more the spiral path of life ascends
 And Time's restless shuttle running
back and fro
through maze of warp and woof spins out a
stronger piece.)

Hand in hand they stand — and try to
 fathom depths whence
 springs eternal love, each in other's eyes;

And find
 No hold o'er that age but brings the youth anew —
 And time — the good, the pure, the true.

  Today's-Special : 9 July in Swami Vivekananda Life  

Inspired Talk by Swami Vivekananda

Date: 
Fri, 2013-07-12
12 July 1895 : Inspired Talk
Does seeing depend upon our own efforts or does it depend upon something outside? It depends upon ourselves; our efforts take off the dust, the mirror does not change. There is neither knower, knowing, nor known. "He who knows that he does not know, knows It." He who has a theory knows nothing.
The idea that we are bound is only an illusion.
Religion is not of this world; it is "heart-cleansing", and its effect on this world is secondary. Freedom is inseparable from the nature of the Atman. This is ever pure, ever perfect, ever unchangeable. This Atman you can never know. We can say nothing about the Atman but "not this, not this".
"Brahman is that which we can never drive out by any power of mind or imagination." (Shankara).
The universe is thought, and the Vedas are the words of this thought. We can create and uncreate this whole universe. Repeating the words, the unseen thought is aroused, and as a result a seen effect is produced. This is the claim of a certain sect of Karmis. They think that each one of us is a creator. Pronounce the words, the thought which corresponds will arise, and the result will become visible. "Thought is the power of the word, the word is the expression of the thought," say Mimâmsakas, a Hindu philosophical sect.

 

Expansion is Life

 

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