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Mainstream, VOL 61 No 9 - 10, February 25 & March 4, 2023

Shaper Shaped | Harindranath Chattopadhyay

Saturday 25 February 2023

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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)

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