Shaper Shaped | Harindranath Chattopadhyay

In days gone by I used to be

A potter who would feel

His fingers mould the yielding clay

To patterns on his wheel;

But now, through wisdom lately won,

That pride has gone away,

I have ceased to be the potter

And have learned to be the clay.

 

In other days I used to be

A poet through whose pen

Innumerable songs would come

To win the hearts of men;

But now, through new-got knowledge

Which I hadn’t had so long,

I have ceased to be the poet

And have learned to be the song.

 

I was a fashioner of swords,

In days that now are gone,

Which on a hundred battle-fields

Glittered and gleamed and shone;

But now I am brimming with

The silence of the Lord,

I have ceased to be sword-maker

And have learned to be the sword.

 

In by-gone days I used to be

A dreamer who would hurl

On every side an insolence

Of emerald and pearl

But now I am kneeling

At the feet of the Supreme

I have ceased to be the dreamer

And have learned to be the dream.

— Harindranath Chattopadhyay

(The above poem appeared in The Divine Vagabond published by the Theosophical Publishing House in 1950)