Canto 10The Vedantin’s Prayer
Book 3. Part Three - Baroda and Bengal Circa 1900 – 1909
Baroda and Bengal, c. 1900–1909
That whisper to each other as they push
To shoreward side by side, — long lines and dim
Of movement flecked with quivering spots of foam,
5The quiet welter of a shifting world.
The Vedantin’s Prayer
Spirit Supreme
Who musest in the silence of the heart,
Eternal gleam,
10Thou only Art!
Ah, wherefore with this darkness am I veiled,
My sunlit part
By clouds assailed?
Why am I thus disfigured by desire,
15Distracted, haled,
Scorched by the fire
Of fitful passions, from thy peace out-thrust
Into the gyre
Of every gust?
20Betrayed to grief, o’ertaken with dismay,
Surprised by lust?
Let not my grey
Blood-clotted past repel thy sovereign ruth,
Nor even delay,
25O lonely Truth!
Nor let the specious gods who ape Thee still
Deceive my youth.