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ON KARMA* Action be Man’s God
Whom shall men worship ? The high Gods ? But they Suffer fate’s masteries, enjoy and rue. Whom shall men worship ? Fate’s stern godhead ? Nay, Fate is no godhead. Many fruits or few Their actions bring to men, — that settled price She but deals out, a steward dumb, precise. Let action be man’s God, o’er whom even Fate Can rule not, nor his puissance abrogate.
The Might of Works
Bow ye to Karma who with puissant hand Like a vast potter all the universe planned, Shut the Creator in and bade him work In the dim-glinting womb and luminous murk; By whom impelled high Vishnu hurled to earth Travels his tenfold depths and whorls of birth; Who leading mighty Rudra by the hand Compels to wander strange from land to land, — A vagrant begging with a skull for bowl And suppliant palms, who is yet the world’s high Soul. Lo, through the skies for ever this great Sun Wheels circling round and round by Karma spun.
*There is a distinction, not always strictly observed, between Fate and Karma. Karma is the principle of Action in the universe with its stream of cause and infallible effect, and for man the sum of his past actions whose results reveal themselves not at once, but in the dispensation of Time, partly in this life, mostly in lives to come. Fate seems a more mysterious power imposing itself on men, despite all their will and endeavour, from outside them and above— daivam, a power from the Gods. Page– 199 Karma
It is not beauty’s charm nor lineage high, It is not virtue, wisdom, industry, Service, nor careful arduous toil that can Bring forth the fruits of his desire to man; Old merit mind’s strong asceticism had stored Returns to him with blessing or a sword, His own past deeds that flower soon or late Each in its season on the tree of Fate.
Protection from behind the Veil
Safe is the man good deeds forgotten claim, In pathless deserts or in dangerous war Or by armed foes enringed; sea and fierce flame May threaten, death’s door waiting swing ajar; Slumbering or careless though his foemen find, Yea, though they seize him, though they smite or bind, On ocean wild or on the cliff’s edge sheer His deeds walk by his side and guard from fear; Through death and birth they bore him and are here.
The Strength of Simple Goodness
Toiler ascetic, who with passionate breath Swellest huge holinesses, — vain thy faith! Good act adore, the simple goddess plain, Who gives the fruit thou seekest with such pain. Her touch can turn the lewd man into a saint, Inimitably her quiet magic lent Change fools to sages and hidden mysteries show Beyond eye’s reach or brain’s attempt to know, Fierce enemies become friends and poisons ill Transform in a moment to nectar at her will. Page– 200 Foresight and Violence
Good be the act or faulty, its result The wise man painfully forecasting first Then does; who in mere heedless force exult, Passionate and violent, taste a fruit accursed. The Fury keeps till death her baleful course And blights their life, tormenting with remorse.
Misuse of Life
This noble earth, this place for glorious deeds The ill-starred man who reaching nowise heeds, Nor turns his soul to energy austere, With little things content or idlesse drear, — He is like one who gets an emerald pot To bake him oil-cakes on a fire made hot With scented woods, or who with golden share For sorry birthwort ploughs a fertile fair Sweet soil, or cuts rich camphor piece by piece To make a hedge for fennel. Not for this In the high human form he walks great earth After much labour getting goodliest birth.
Fixed Fate
Dive if thou wilt into the huge deep sea, The inaccessible far mountains climb, Vanquish thy foes in battle fierily, All arts and every science, prose and rhyme, Tillage and trade in one mind bring to dwell, — Yea, rise to highest effort, ways invent And like a bird the skies immeasurable Voyage; all this thou mayst, but not compel What was not to be, nor what was prevent. Page– 201 Flowers from a Hidden Root
With store of noble deeds who here arrives, Finds on this earth his well-earned Paradise. The lonely forest grows his kingly town Of splendour, every man has friendly eyes Seeing him, or the wide earth for his crown Is mined with gems and with rich plenty thrives. This high fate is his meed of former lives. Page– 202 |
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