Canto 24The Cosmic Dance
Book 16. Part Seven - Pondicherry Circa 1927 – 1947
Pondicherry, c. 1927–1947
The Cosmic Dance
(Dance of Krishna, Dance of Kali)
Two measures are there of the cosmic dance.
5Always we hear the tread of Kali’s feet
Measuring in rhythms of pain and grief and chance
Life’s game of hazard terrible and sweet.
The ordeal of the veiled Initiate,
The hero soul at play with Death’s embrace,
10Wrestler in the dread gymnasium of Fate
And sacrifice a lonely path to Grace,
Man’s sorrows made a key to the Mysteries,
Truth’s narrow road out of Time’s wastes of dream,
The soul’s seven doors from Matter’s tomb to rise,
15Are the common motives of her tragic theme.
But when shall Krishna’s dance through Nature move,
His mask of sweetness, laughter, rapture, love?