Swami Krishnananda Shashtyabdapurti Mahotsava Commemoration Volume

A Souvenir released on Swami Krishnananda's 60th Birthday

Swami Krishnananda, with disciple
S. Bhagyalakshmi, whose poem appears below.

Yogin Krishna! I Beseech Thee

by S. Bhagyalakshmi

Why should I do this and that
For progress in the spiritual path?
Why pour over books, eyes growing dim,
And get giddy with tried idioms
For a drink of the Upanishads, it's honey?
Why bend and loop and stretch in Asanas
To cleanse the mind of the Vasanas?
The flattering honey bird thither hastens,
To the swaying flowers it speak fastens,
Drinks honey deep in their chalice.
Ah! flutter and fail I to fasten
To the messages in Vedic parlance.

So, my hope is here, perchance,
In sitting at thy holy feet?
Suffice it then to sit there in delight,
The while thy inner personality, ageless,
Spreads its charming light;
The while the music of thy voice
Casts a spell upon ears poised
And into them knowledge pure
Of the Veda, Vedanta and the Gita pours;
The while too, thy laughter rings
Echoing the peal of temple bells;
The while thy laughter to memory brings
The joyous music of the bubbling brook.
Suffice it then to sit still and listen,
As thou answerest queries moot or great
Cascading from devotees or tourists,
And in the passing, pick and store
All the pearls of wisdom-lore.

Sit and listen, listen and sit,
This, I shall do, no more; nor
Meditate in desperate bid
To catch in the still darkness
That which thy smile awakes.
"You want it the cheaper way—
It is not Sadhana", thou laughest;
But I can not that harder way.
Lord Krishna, the merciful, does say,
For the embodied, sure, it is hard,
For the mind the un-manifested to reach.

Yogin Krishna! I beseech thee, grant
That I so sit and listen, so listen and sit;
And in so simple and dedicated an act,
My personality be so recast,
That my soul regaining its kingdom lost,
Its quest ended, rests in the Absolute.