BRAHMA'S ANSWER
By
Richard Henry Stoddard
1825 - 1903
Once, when the days were ages,
And the old Earth was young,
The high Gods and the sages
From Nature's golden pages
Her open secrets wrung.
Each question'd each to know
Whence came the Heavens above, and whence the Earth below.
Indra, the endless giver
Of every gracious thing
The Gods to him deliver,
Whose bounty is the river
Of which they are the spring, ---
Indra, with anxious heart,
Ventures with Vivochunu where Brahma is apart.
"Brahma ! Supremest Being !
By whom the worlds are made, ----
Where we are blind, all-seeing, ---
Stable, where we are fleeing,
Of Life and Death afraid, ---
Instruct us, for mankind,
What is the body, Brahma? O Brahma !
what the mind? "
Hearing us though he heard not,
So perfect was his rest,
So vast the Soul that err'd not,
So wise the lips that stirr'd not, ---
His hand upon his breast
He laid, whereat his face
Was mirror'd in the river that girt that holy place.
They question'd each the other
What Brahma's answer meant.
Said Vivochunu --- " Brother !
Through Brahma the Great Mother
Hath spoken her intent:
Man ends as he began, ---
The shadow on the water is all there is of Man."
"The Earth with woe is cumber'd,
And no man understands:
They see their days are number'd
By One that never slumber'd
Nor stay'd his dreadful hands.
I see with Brahma's eyes;
The body is the shadow that on the water lies."
Thus Indra, looking deeper,
With Brahma's self possessed.
So dry thine eyes, thou weeper !
And rise again, thou sleeper !
The hand on Brahma's breast
Is his divine assent
Covering the soul that dies not. This is what Brahma
meant.
&/\&/\&