Canto 45The Guest
Book 16. Part Seven - Pondicherry Circa 1927 – 1947
Pondicherry, c. 1927–1947
The Divine Worker
I face earth’s happenings with an equal soul;
In all are heard Thy steps: Thy unseen feet
5Tread Destiny’s pathways in my front. Life’s whole
Tremendous theorem is Thou complete.
No danger can perturb my spirit’s calm:
My acts are Thine; I do Thy works and pass;
Failure is cradled on Thy deathless arm,
10Victory is Thy passage mirrored in Fortune’s glass.
In this rude combat with the fate of man
Thy smile within my heart makes all my strength;
Thy Force in me labours at its grandiose plan,
Indifferent to the Time-snake’s crawling length.
15No power can slay my soul; it lives in Thee.
Thy presence is my immortality.
The Guest
I have discovered my deep deathless being:
Masked by my front of mind, immense, serene
20It meets the world with an Immortal’s seeing,
A god-spectator of the human scene.
No pain and sorrow of the heart and flesh
Can tread that pure and voiceless sanctuary.
Danger and fear, Fate’s hounds, slipping their leash
25Rend body and nerve, — the timeless Spirit is free.
Awake, God’s ray and witness in my breast,
In the undying substance of my soul
Flamelike, inscrutable the almighty Guest.
Death nearer comes and Destiny takes her toll;
30He hears the blows that shatter Nature’s house:
Calm sits he, formidable, luminous.