16 – Hello, Playmate, I am Here!
These lines (in “Whispers From Eternity”) are based
on an experience in the Master’s childhood.
“Hello, Playmate, I am Here!”
BY PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA
Alone I roamed by the ocean’s shore,
And watched
The wrestling waves in brawling roar –
Alive with Thine own restless life.
Thine angry mood in ripply quiver -
Until Thy wrathful vastness made me shiver
And turn away from nature’s heated strife.
And then
A kindly, spreading, sentinel tree
Waved friendly arms to comfort me -
Consoling me with gentler look sublime,
Its swaying leaves in tender lullaby-rhyme,
Singing a message that I knew was Thine.
Above
I saw the gaugeless, mystic sky;
And, childlike, in the valley dim I sought to pry
At Thee, and to play with Thee.
But in vain I sought Thy body, hiding there,
Cloud-robed, foam-sprayed, leaf-garlanded -
Too rare for mortal eyes to see, or ears to hear.
And yet,
I knew that Thou wert always near,
As if to play hide-and-seek with me,
receding when I almost touched Thee,
Groping to find Thee through the maddening fold
Of ignorant darkness – old as time is old.
At last,
I ceased my search in dim despair,
My search for Thee! O Thou Royal Sly Eluder!
. . . everywhere,
Yet seeming nowhere . . . lost in unplumbed space,
Where none may clasp Thee or behold Thy face!
In haste,
I ceased my fruitless search and hied away from Thee!
Still, still no answer from the wrathful sea,
And only whispers from the friendly tree;
Just silence from the limitless blue sky -
Silence from valley low and mountain high!
Like a hurt child, within the depths of me
I hid and sulked-no longer seeking Thee.
When, lo!
Unheralded, some Unseen Hand
Suddenly snatched away the all-black band
That had so blinded me with fold on fold.
No longer weary, filled with strength untold,
I stood, and watched again
A laughing sea, instead of wrathful roars,
A gay, glad world, with mystically opened doors.
With only mists of dreams between,
Someone beside me stood unseen -
And whispered to me, cool and clear:
“Hello, playmate! I am here!”
