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THE POET PORTRAYS THE DIVINE

Wondering at the vast creation of the universe, baffled and

intrigued by the mystery of creation, man finds his intellect

questioning him “who is the super human power that presides over

the whole universe? What is the mystery that lies hidden behind the

visible and wonderous creation?” These are the twin questions that

seers, men of higher intellect and poets perennially confront. These

questions, challenging man‟s intellect, have created in man, a kind of

metaphysical unrest and spiritual thirst for the ultimate purpose and

meaning of his life. Man began to explore the invisible world in an

endeavour to discover and capture the eternal truth of creation. This

led him to his goal of discovering the One presiding over the whole

universe. Throwing light on the ultimate spiritual purpose of man‟s

life, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan proclaims:

To be inspired in our thoughts by divine knowledge, to be moved

in our will by the divine purpose, to mould our emotions into

harmony with divine bliss, to get at the great self of truth, goodness

and beauty to which we give the name of God as a spiritual

presence, to raise our whole being and life to the divine status, is the

ultimate purpose and meaning of human living1.

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As Dr. S. Radhakrishnan says, the attainment of the divine as

the eternal, spiritual truth is the ultimate purpose and meaning of

man‟s life. Man in an attempt to capture this infinite, eternal mystery

of the creation and to comprehend this superhuman power in a

concrete and verbal form calls it God. The Nobel Laurate,

Rabindranath Tagore too, broods over this infinite, cosmic mystery

when he writes as to the mission of the poet “he felt the ineffable

which is in all forms of perfection, the mystery of the one, which

takes us beyond all thought into the immediate touch of infinite. This

is the mystery which is for a poet to realize and to reveal2”

.

Here, “he” refers to the poet. The poet, mystified and intrigued

by this cosmic mystery of the infinite, has been obsessed with the

task of exploring and revealing this mystery. The infinite comes to

be known as God in common parlance. The revelation of the

mystery of the ONE in the whole universe is the profound mission

the poet is ordained to carry out through his poetry.

Poets are invariably drawn to the mystery of creation and the

super human power behind the veil of the mundane world. God

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teases, intrigues, baffles and challenges human intellect from times

immemorial, remaing a puzzle, engaging the creative imagination of

poets all over the world. To the western poets, God is a vague idea,

an abstract thought and a mysterious feeling that calls for an

intellectual quest to embark on and to learn and comprehend. So

they dwell on “God” as a vague concept that runs through their

poetry as an undercurrent. They always approach the subject of God

through intellect, as to them, God remains just an intellectual

concept.

But to the Indians, God is never an abstract idea or an

intellectual concept. The very word “God” is so dear to the hearts

and souls of all Indians that it is not just a word, but something to

which their lives are bound. Some Indian English poets in their

poetry merely express their grasp of the existence of some

mysterious power operating in the world so intelligently, though

they never name it God or divine. Other Indian English poets like

Tagore treading the path of religious devotion (Bhakti movement)

discover it as mysterious super human power. A few other poets in

their poetry articulate in unambiguous terms, an astounding

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sensibility of such divine power in varied manifestations. From

Tagore to Harindranath and Nissim Ezekiel, the Indian English poets

approach the subject of God in their poetry in consonance with their

personalities and craftsmanship.

Thus, Contrary to the outlook of western poets, Indian English

mystic poets like Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and

Rabindranath Tagore and Harindranath Chattopadhyaya approach

the subject of God not as an abstract idea, but as a concrete, absolute

reality. To them, God can be felt deep down in the heart. This

evidently reflects Indian Culture. While western poets contemplate

on God at the intellectual plane, our mystic seer - poets experience

God at the emotional plane and with them, it‟s all soul-to-soul

contact with God, an intimate relationship between Atma and

Paramatma and a profound, inner spiritual experience.

As in the poetry of Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore,

the theme of God is so dominant that it keeps recurring persistently

in the poetry of Harindranath Chattopadhyaya. Mystic to the core of

his heart as Harindranath is, “God” captures his mystic mind and

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fertile poetic imagination so firmly that the poet does not approach

and handle God as a mere subject in his poems. The poet envisions,

feels and experiences God, not as an abstract entity, but a concrete,

absolute reality.

The conception of God as it emerges from the poetic works of

Harindranath is evolutionary, and it involves various stages through

exploration. We can hardly get at the recurring theme of God in the

poetry of Harindranath. In his earlier poems, Harindranath‟s

conception of God is abstract. He is aware of the mystery of the

beyond. Nowhere in his earlier poetry, does he name it “God”, nor

does he endeavour to study and explore the nature and strange ways

and actions of God. He hardly concretizes God. Being a true

mystic, Harindranath remains obsessed with the mystery of the

beyond, the deeper law of the universe, and the One behind the veil

of the universe.

Only in his later poetry, the conception of God is crystallized

into a concrete reality. In his pursuit of God, Harindranath undergoes

different phases:

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1. The poet becomes conscious of the existence of the divine

within him, around him and in the universe.

2. The poet experiences a spiritual unrest and embarks on an

untiring quest for God.

3. The poet as a part of his quest for God launches his spiritual

odyssey towards the realization of God.

4. The poet sets before him the spiritual goal of reaching God

and merging with Him. To realize this spiritual goal, the

poet seeks the divine grace and he also realizes that to

surrender himself to God is essential for the realization of

his spiritual goal.

5. Ultimately, pursuing the divine relentlessly, the poet

reaches God and attains the highest spiritual goal, the

ultimate union with God.

In poem after poem, Harindranath manifests these varied

phases in his spiritual growth. He experiences God as a concrete

reality in the deep of his soul and ever seeks to enter into

communion with God. So, not surprisingly, God becomes the

central metaphor in the poetry of Harindranath. As Dr. Sarvepalli

Radhakrishnan points out:

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In mystic religion God is not a logical concept or the conclusion of

syllogisms but a real presence, the ground and possibility of all

knowledge and values. Mysticism, which lays stress on the personal

experience of God, direct contact with the creative spirit, is what

Bergson calls “Open religion”3

Harindranath‟s poetic personality finds adequate and rich

expression in the mysticism of the poet. Like Tagore, Harindranath

also never looks upon God in awe as some super power. In the

Tagorean mystical tradition, he is so emotionally bound with God

that he develops a deep intimacy with Him, pursues Him in myriad,

colourful relationships and calls Him by various names. The

relationship that the poet strikes with God is the relationship that

exists between lovers, between friends, between a mother and child,

between a bridegroom and a bride, between brothers, between a

master and a beggar and sometimes, quite surprisingly between a

musician and a lyre. So he is like Tagore, in the tradition and fashion

of Vaishnava Bhakti movement. The poet‟s sustained and perennial

interest in God has roots in the poet‟s up-bringing. The poet grew

up in an atmosphere ever brimming over with mystical discussions

on subjects like God. As a child growing up in such an atmosphere,

the poet acknowledges this mystical experience categorically:

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Slowly I deepened into a mystic, a really conscious mystic.

From that age, I have always held an almost continuous vision of the

one-behind-the many and the one broken into the many. This just

came to me with ease as it were, a gift from the ancestors4.

Even when he was quite young, Harindranath was constantly

conscious of and drawn to some mysterious law that operates so

perfectly in the universe. The poet gives vent to his vision of this

mysterious law in the universe:

Since my youngest days I have somehow sensed a deep law which

operates behind us, above us and around us! The lord which never

goes awry5

Though Harindranath does not call that law some super human

power or God, the poet explores the mystery of this law. He sings of

it as God, unravelling the whole truth about it.

The poet‟s eyes always rove restlessly in quest of that

mysterious law operating around him and above him and he attempts

to capture it. Confronted with the setting evening, the poet does not

describe its beauty like other poets. Instead, he envisions the beyond

and chooses to express his love for “the severing mark on the

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horizon‟s arc” and celebrates the mysterious power and beauty of

the beyond in the poem “Lyric of a mood”:

I love the severing mark

on the horizon‟s arc

cleaving the light and dark

At evening‟s close6

The severing mark is nothing, but God as he sings of it in his

later poems. In his eternal search for the beyond, the poet longs to

journey beyond time to reach out to his supreme love “Time is the

coloured sense / which stirs and stops / upon the soul‟s immense /

white mountain – tops whose crests I yearn to climb / fixed as a star /

To reach beyond all time / My love a-far”7. Quite aware of the

ephemeral, earthly beauties and the supreme eternal Beauty of the

beyond, the poet wishes to gaze beyond the veil of the world to

experience the same, “Time‟s flame is flickering in the gale / All

beauty passes, let it pass, / Brief shadow in a fiery tale, / shutter

illusion‟s mirrored glass / and learn to see behind the veil”8.

In the poem “to Wordsworth, the poet does not join the high

priest of nature to paint and celebrate the beauty of the rainbow, nor

does he record the ecstatic leapings of his poetic heart at the

spectacle of the rainbow nor does he pay a glowing tribute to the

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English romantic poet for his marvellous skills in his descriptions of

beauties of nature. Contrary to such usual expectations, Harindranath

perceives beyond the seven tints of the rainbow and captures the

white colour -- the fountain-head from which all the seven colours

emerge to form the rainbow,”. “In seven tinted glory dreams /within

me, of the white”9. Deeply conscious of the truth that all objects are

“reflections in the mirrored glass / of some huge unaware”,

Harindranath addresses wordsworth, “Dim images of the Beyond,

you yet did never find” and points out Wordsworth‟s failure to

grasp the supreme beauty of the beyond which Harindranath always

visualizes as “the deeper dream”, “you never really had a grip / over

the deeper dream”10

. Thus the poem “to wordsworth” offers a fine

critique of wordsworth‟s poetic vision and strongly turns out to be a

typical mystical poem.

To Harindranath, God dwells within his heart, in his desires

and dreams. The poet invariably feels the transparent touch of the

divine. The poet proclaims:

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He is throbbing in the crystal

magic centre of my dreams…

Lo! His splendour bursts like lightning

Thro‟ the burning mystic space…11

However, the poet searches for god and finds Him not only

within his soul, but everywhere, all around him and in the world.

The poet confirms the truth that God is near man and comes for man.

So the poet chants:

I see you everywhere

An image warm and true,

……………………...…

………………………..

……………………….

Again and yet again

You meet me through the hours;

I sense you in the rain,

I smell you in the flowers

I hear your endless time

Played in the sun and moon;

On changing plane on plane

You wield your magic powers12

Possessed by the divine consciousness, the poet sees, smells

and hears God and feels the magic powers of God all around him in

the world. About God‟s enchanting omnipresence and possession of

his own self by God, the poet realizes and admits, “you have

possessed me quite / in your enchanted grip”13

The poet is always

haunted by the mystery of the divine existing in the universe, though

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he is hidden from mortal eyes. Beholding pink roses and lilies, he

questions, “who reposes in pick roses? / lilies / I ask / who burns you

and wears you / like a mask”14

. When the poet catches the sunrise

and the sunset, he is seized with the mystery of the divine and

aspires to grasp the One who stands behind sunrises and sunsets. The

poet articulates his desire, “I want to know / who stands behind the

glow/ of sunrises / ushering in such surprises?”15

The poet‟s

unquenchable thirst for the knowledge of the creator behind the

whole creation gets manifested in this short, but beautiful poem.

The poet comes face to face with the light of the divine and in

his encounter, the poet possesses a unique experience of bliss.

Harindranath voices the experience of the divine:

O Light ! already face to face

I meet you everywhere I go;

Already I began to know

The poignant bliss of your embrace16

The poet realizes that the touch of the divine liberates man‟s

spirit from the bonds of time:

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One touch for you, O light sublime,

O alchemy of alchemies!

Transmutes this fretting flesh and frees

The spirit from the bonds of time17

Envisioning the divine in different forms in the universes,

Harindranath chants, “The Universe is his unique attire/ Donned in a

feast of forms …18.

The Poet realizes that God is beyond man‟s

reach:

You who dwell beyond our dream,

Far beyond our thought,

High beyond all human speech,

And our huge conceit!

Can we ever hope to reach

To your lotus-feet19

Man is unable to recognize God existing everywhere and in

everyone and passing by every person in the world. God, passing by

a cobbler, fisher woman, a madman, a mother, drunkards and the

poet, asks the poet:

….. do you know who I am

I am everybody, I passed by

I am everything I passed by 20

God declares his pervading presence to the poet, “I am he who can

make dead man rise / I am you, I am Christ”21

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The poet‟s will to realize God is as far as an old, lonely hill

with the vision of the divine dominating and pervading his will.

This indication of the poet with the divine is well conveyed through

the beautiful and striking images of “hill and eagle:

My will is like an olden

And lonely standing hill;

God‟s solitary eagle

Of vision proved and regal

With pinions wide and golden

Is monarch of my will;

My will is like an olden

And lonely standing hill 22

With his love like “a boundless, even-unclouded sky,” his soul

like “a lonely ripe lustre – warmth”, his hope like the “playing

ecstatic flute”, his prayer like “a branching Gaint – aspiring tree”

and his faith like “a mountain rising higher and higher”, the poet

seeks God untiringly.

The poet wishes to grasp the truth of God‟s nature, the

mysteries and glories of God‟s creation. The key to the divine secret

lies in the creation, simply because everything in creation is blessed

with the radiance of the divine and reveals God.

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So Harindranath embarks on the mission of singing of God‟s

creation. All religions establish the truth about God as the creator of

the universe. Nothing in God‟s creation is insignificant and

unworthy, for He creates all things with equal labour and masterly

skill.

Thus the poet‟s mystical vision captures in the tiny worm

“God imaged to a feeble worm” and the worm is “a thing of inward

light / a shining star of heaven when seen / in depths of deeper

sight”23

. (The worm). The poet perceives the worm as “a secret

sailing afloat / Bearing God‟s merchandise / Across wide ages set

about / beyond the veil of eyes”24

. While the mountain hides his

face in shame, a tiny ant approaches the poet and enlightens him,

“unlike me, / It represents God to you, being huge / while I, hardly

visible, / Hide the invisible” 25

. Again, a speck of dust, rising from

a heap of dust, speaks to the poet, the same words of enlightenment

uttered by the ant.

The poet is always aware of the intimate, inalienable and

eternal relationship between the human soul and the divine soul - the

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Upanishadic truth of the sacred Indian religious scriptures. The

seemingly simple poem “Earthen Goblet” embodies this inalienable

affinity. The poem is laden with metaphysical significance. The

Earthen goblet expresses its unhappiness over its transformation into

a colourful thing from shapeless clay. The goblet bemoans that its

present form, though colourful, is death for it as it no longer enjoys

the fragrant friendship of a little flower bursting out of its bosom as

it used to do in its previous form of clay. The earthen goblet voices

the anguish of its sweet memory:

………….. I used to feel

The fragrant friendship of a little flower

Whose root was in my bosom buried deep26

Cast in the form of a fascinating dialogue between the goblet

and the poet, the theme of poem is too mystical to be deciphered.

Enriched with metaphysical complexity the poem depicts the

anguish of the human soul (Jeevatma) for being alienated from the

universal soul (Paramathma). The goblet detests its colourful shape

and views it as death, for it is artificial and transitory and deceptive.

It loves its shapeless, natural clay form which is true and eternal. It

is the human soul‟s (Jeevathma‟s) reluctance to be cast in human

form, resulting in its alienation from the divine. Through the

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potential and alluring image of the earthen goblet, Harindranath

drives home the ancient, eternal and inalienable bond existing

between the human soul (Jeevathma) and the supreme soul

(Paramathma). “The little fragrant friendship of a little flower” and

the little flower flaming through my breast” in the goblet‟s past, and

the unshapely form of clay is in fact the spiritual efflorescence and

fragrance of the divine companionship.

Though the poet realizes that God pervades the whole

universe, he is deeply pained to know the inability of modern man to

reach and realize God, despite the amazing scientific and

technological advancement. He delineates this tragic predicament of

the 21st century man in space age, “I can reach the man / I can reach

Mars / I can communicate with earth / But alas ! I can not

communicate with God / I can not reach that which is the nearest and

dearest to me”27

. This is how modern man laments over his failure

to communicate with God dwelling in himself, though he has

conquered space. To realize God, one need not renounce the world

and go to mountains. One can attain the realization of God, living in

the world and performing his duties:

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The man that lived in the mountains

Groped endlessly in the dark

The man that wrought at the anvil

Forever caught the spark. 28

(Realization)

The Karma Yoga as preached by the Lord Krishna in “The Gita” is

what Harindranath presents here so effectively and wisely.

The poet now wonders at the creation of God. The poet with

the sole objective of grasping and experiencing the divine in his

spiritual progress watches, studies and comprehends God‟s splendid

creation. The poet in doing so attempts to reach God through his

understanding.

The notion that God‟s creation is like a play without any

struggle and labour, is quite erroneous. Harindranath contradicts this

notion. In one of his short, beautiful poems, he unveils the truth that

God strives hard, restlessly without sleep. “A flower that springs

through the slit of a stubborn granite stone” reveals the hard and

sleepless toil of the creator. “Springs a flower through the slit / of a

stubborn granite stone, / crimson eye of infinite / sleepless and

alone”. 29

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Wondering at the Master-Creator ever engaged in the task of

creation without sleep and rest, the poet muses, “wherefore does the

Holy keep / lonesome vigil without close, / without respite, without

sleep? / who can tell? Who knows?”30

(The Eye). The poet‟s vision

soaring higher and beyond the mundane, captures the creator whose

“crimson eye” is revealed to the poet through a flower springing

through the slit of a stubborn granite stone”. This short and beautiful

poem celebrates the mysteries of God‟s creation.

The God who creates purple mornings, beautiful roses, light,

joy and birth also creates black nights, thorns, darkness, pain and

death. God declares, “My mystery even encloses / black night with

purple morns; / how could I have made my roses / had I not

conceived of thorns?”31

He further elaborates:

I, the creator of wonder, / have through it both wise and right /

to marry the silence to thunder, … extinction to all creation / and

death to every birth.32

(creator)

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Man can never unravel the mysteries of God‟s creation. He

can merely remain content with the realization of the mysteries of

God‟s creation. God asks man, “My power shall you never unravel

/ nor take my secret to bits; / be content that I always travel / through

glaring opposites” 33

(creator)

However, the poet is evidently not content with his chanting of

the mysteries and glories of God‟s creation. Diving deeper and

deeper into the divine, the poet comes face to face with the true

nature of God and his mysterious tasks. The poet‟s conception of

God is apparently rooted in the Indian psyche and Indian sensibility

and reflects verily the Indian cultural heritage. The conception of

God as it emerges in the poetry of Harindranath is certainly that of a

staunch Hindu.

According to the Hindu religion and mythology, shakti is the

primordial divine power and it is the fountain-head of the whole

universe and the origin of the entire energy in the universe. This

primeval divine power is differentiated into the Trinity of Gods

known as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva with each God assigned a

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distinct, individual work to discharge in the universe. These three

deities preside over creation, sustenance and destruction of the

universe, interwoven and running perfectly like a cycle well set in

motion. While the scientist realizes the phenomenon of trinity of

these actions in the universe as a great scientific truth, the poet looks

upon it as an intricate web of highly fascinating mysteries.

Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, while treating the subject of

God in his poetry, takes up only two facets of God – God as a

creator and God as a destroyer, leaving another facet of God as a

sustainer, for he is primarily and immensely fascinated by the twin-

mysteries of creation and destruction in the universe. To him, God

who creates the universe is not different from the God who destroys

the universe. Nowhere in his poetry does the poet broach the idea of

God as the feeder and sustainer of the universe. Thus the poet

strikes a departure from the Hindu mythological conception of God,

the Trinity of Gods. Hence, in many of his poems, Harindranath

embraces the subject of God and delineates God as a creator and

God as a destroyer.

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Though the poet‟s conception of God is evidently rooted in

Hindu religion and mythology, the God portrayed in the poems is

not Hindu or Muslim or Christian. He remains nameless and is

consequently secular. The poet‟s interest is not to present a

particular religious outlook, but to manifest a mystic‟s explorations

of the mystery of God and creation. This secular approach of the

poet helps the reader, irrespective of his religion and region, to

glimpse the whole truth about God as it is.

In “Builder”, Harindranath takes up the conception of God as a

creator and as a destroyer and celebrates the mystical text of God

and His creation. The poet hails God who labours ceaselessly,

employing all His masterly skills and creates so meticulously and

perfectly the marvellous beauties in nature. The colourful cloud in

the sky, beautiful sun-flower and tender rose, pearly dews hanging

cutely over soft blades of grass are all the wondrous master-pieces of

God that display the magical, artistic skills of the Master-creator.

But quite intriguingly, the same hands of the creator destroy all these

beautiful things. The poet wonders at the contradictory, dual roles of

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God, “All things that come / From the human tear / to further most

star / Are a martyrdom / of beauty a- near / To a Beauty a-far” 34

Hence, the poet urges the reader to study and experience the

mystical text of God and his creation “Read with the inner sight / In

bird, bloom and sun / this mystical text Twixt the a dark and the

light.35

This conception of God as a creator and as a destroyer is sung

of in poem after poem with spiritual fervour and passion as an

essential part of the poet‟s spiritual evolution:

All things the Master can destroy

And make the centuries disperse

Full of the self-same generous joy

That went to build the universe,

Holding the heaven in His hand

With graceful and untrembling ease

He can withdraw its wonder and

Crumple its blue serenities36

Again, in the poem “ Creator”, Harindranath takes up the

subject of the contradictory roles of God throwing, more light on the

mystery of God and His creation. God as a Master-creator creates

the beautiful, tranquil rose and shapes a beautiful eye and toils in

mother‟s womb to mould a tender baby, labouring through centuries.

But quite surprisingly, the same God creates the most terrible things

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of the universe such as earthquakes, fire and flood and executes

destruction of all these beautiful things created by Him.

Harindranath explores the mystical text of God and His creation in

an inimitable fashion:

He who sets out to destroy

Whole cities with fire and flood

Toils in a mother‟s womb and moulds

A baby as soft as a bud37

(Creator)

God as a creator, creating beautiful, delicate and marvellous

things of the universe on one hand and the most terrifying things on

the other hand and God as destroyer, smashing all the beauties looks

like a huge puzzle and the poet depicts this paradox of the divine in a

splendid fashion.

This strange nature and paradoxical roles of God bring to the

mystic mind of Harindranath the truth about God as the Lord of life

and as the Lord of death, through the apt and evocative image of

Nataraj. In a state of peace and lonely rapture, God dances shaping

all creation:

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Nataraj, the red-fire dancer,

Poised in peace and clad in storms,

Dances in his lonely rapture

He is dancing all creation

To the pattern in his mind.38

(Natraj)

Harindranath points out marvellously the amazing and

contradictory roles of God as the creator and as the destroyer:

He has come at last to capture

unpremeditated bliss,

Through the running lonely rapture

Born to beings, in his kiss

See him dancing, dancing, dancing

Like a darkly drunken breeze!

He is breaking and re-making

Terrible eternities.39

God as a creator is an incomplete conception of God. It is just

one facet of God. That‟s the bright one. The other facet of God is

equally significant. It is the dark one-God as a destroyes. While one

is the positive facet, other one is the negative facet. Only when one

grasps these two bright and dark facets of God, one can claim to

have a thorough and complete knowledge of God. That‟s why

Harindranath explores different facets and roles of God.

God creates the universe and keeps vigilant, watching the

goings-on in his creation with detachment and non-interference into

the happenings of the world. However, he does not remain detached

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and unconcerned when his beautiful creation is marred and darkened

by man‟s barbaric, sinful deeds like murders and rapes. When his

stars and planets are disturbed and affected by such sordid events,

God donning the role of the Master-destroyer, in his righteous divine

wrath, destroys his creation. This profound truth about God as

revealed by Lord Krishna in the Gita reflects in the poet‟s words:

I shall deluge the world and set fire to my creation

since my aloofness begins to feel

It is being disturbed at last by vibrations

Striking it at last!40

With God as his wondrous mate, attaining a wondrous silence

and tranquillity, the poet feels the tune of the divine being played

from the flute of the divine. Harindranath voices his spiritual,

musical experience:

Thou hast made me so silent, so wondrous mate/ that now thou

earnest play on my flesh like a flute, / The tune of the one and the

Absolute / whose each tone echoes thy master –tone.41

The poet does not care for the World and the World‟s mockery

of his spiritual journey. He makes his spiritual journey resolutely to

realize his sublime dream of reaching God. He chants, “I go faster/

towards the same God, / I‟m going to the Master / who dreams of my

soul”42

The poet is quite sure of reaching God and feels that just as

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he dreams of God, God too dreams of him. These lines show the

poet‟s spiritual resolution and his firm faith in God‟s guidance in his

spiritual journey.

Some make much delay in reaching God while others make no

delay. However, God receives them all alike. The spiritual journey

is not a flowery path, “And behold! It was mine to reach thee /

through the path of fire”43

(Attainment). The seeker must surrender

himself completely to God. This firm, spiritual belief of the poet is

expressed thus, “I have taken the oath to see his face / I have taken

the oath, and I‟ll go/ to bend at his feet and receive his grace , / and

I‟ll keep to the oath, I know”44

(Loyalty).

Taking an oath to reach God, the poet makes a complete

surrender of himself to God to receive his grace and keeps

journeying towards the attainment of his spiritual goal. To the poet,

God is a beloved friend whose sublime companionship the poet ever

seeks. Hence, to reach Him, the poet is prepared to face all hardships

and even chooses a risky path. He is well determined to keep plying

his boat across the dark waters, undaunted by dreadful lightenings

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and crushing thunders to reach the shore. It undoubtedly testifies to

the poet‟s will power and undaunted spirit.

Spiritual seekers choose different paths and adopt varied

means in their spiritual journey. Whatever paths they tread and

means they adopt, their ultimate goal is to reach God. The poet

chooses his songs as his means. He sings of God and celebrates the

divine in myriad ways. Like Meera Bhai, Kabir and Annamayya,

Harindranath seeks to reach the feet of the divine through music.

The poet sings, “Through song, through every verse and line / I

reach Thee in a hundred ways, / And gradually grow divine / By

granting thee my human praise”. 45

(Inspiration).

The poet keeps singing ceaselessly. The inspiration for his

songs flows to him from no other source than God. He realizes that

each poem is the revelation of the divine “Each word is as a golden

drop /dropped from thy goblets into me”46

(Inspiration). Chanting of

the splendid tranquillity and the supreme beauty of the divine-

realization, the poet pours forth the enlightening truth:

83

Each poem, poet! is a brief

self-revelation of thy Bough

of silence in its fullest leaf

which Thou doest to man‟s heart allow, 47

(Inspiration).

What Lord Krishna said in The Gita as to the actions

performed by men in the world, gets emphasized in the poem

“Shaper Shaped”, bringing out another facet of God--God as an

executor of actions (Karmas) in the world. Exploding man‟s illusion

that man is the doer, Harindranath affirms the truth of the Gita that it

is God who is the real doer of every action in the universe. The

potter, the poet and the fashioner of swords -all in the poem are

none, but God himself. The complete surrender of man to God to get

himself moulded by the Master‟s hands is what man is expected to

do for the realization of the divine. Man is just a mass of clay in the

hands of the Master potter to be moulded into a beautiful pot, song

to be born out of the pen of the Master-poet and a sword to be

fashioned by the Master-sword maker and a beautiful dream to be

dreamt by the Master-dreamer.

84

Making a total surrender of himself to God and experiencing

the divine, the poet voices. “I am brimming with / the silence of the

Lord, I am kneeling / At the feet of the supreme”48

the poet wants

man to search for the divine and merge himself with God and

become a man-God. The man-God is one whose body moves about

with people in the mundane world and whose mind is in constant

communication with heavens and the divine. Such a man-god is truth

who can guide the humanity on the right path to attain the divine-

consciousness and the world badly needs him. But a God-man is a

fraud who exploits masses in the name of God and religion for the

gratification of his selfish, mean desires. So Harindranath

distinguishes a man-God from a God-man, “A man-God,

embodiment of truth/ unlike a God-man, a liar”.49

In the present

modern world, much fraud is perpetuated in the name of religion by

pseudo-religious people and people are deceived and exploited. The

poet exposes irreligion and hypocrisy of God-man and upholds the

need of man-God whose, “feet are wedded to the mud”, yet “whose

head is in constant truth with stars”. The poet aspires to be a man-

God.

85

Blessed with the divine, the poet acquires spiritual freedom,

the poet turns into a fire-fly, flying everywhere, transcending all

barriers and hurdles towards the spiritual goal. The poet expresses

his spiritual freedom:

I am a fire fly who fly

Across air, across grass, across flowers

I am God‟s spark

Expressed in the fitful moods of the Divine,

One spark of mine, is worth a million stars” 50

.

Just like a fire-fly that keeps flying, sparkling all its way, the

poet continues his spiritual Journey. The poet is aware that his

spiritual journey is very hard. However, he resolves firmly to pursue

his spiritual goal untiringly. Harindranath chants of this steely

resolve:

Tireless I climb the thorny steep

A world of roses staking

My waking has became a sleep

My sleep became a waking

Towards the near yet distant goal

My feet go ever treading

I seek the silence of the soul

Which is a master-wedding. 51

(Quest)

86

The poet is well prepared to receive God in whatever form He

comes to him:

Come in whatever form you like,

Come as the fiercely reddening storm,

Or as the cooling cataract,

In any form, O master 52

But in man‟s way of the realization of the divine, stands

“Samsara” which is a prison house for man and binds him with its

unbreakable chains. The poet‟s deep consciousness and search of

the divine and his steely will to fulfil his ultimate goal of the

realization of the divine spurs him to get his chains snapped and the

prison-walls of the world (Samsara) broken :

All the chains have slipped and fallen,

All the prison-walls are cracked

From the morning sky what glory

Pours down like a cataract…53

(unimprisoned)

Anticipating God, the poet keeps the door of his house open

and he himself keeps waiting for Him. Inviting God to his house,

the poet makes other arrangements for his rare, celestial guest. The

poet declares :

87

I will light my little

Dim lamp of clay,

Hoping that you may arrive

Someday.

I will weave the garland,

Love! for you. 54

(Loyalty)

To the poet, God is his love. Just as the lover keeps looking

forward passionately to his love, the poet is expecting God to step

into his house. These lines manifest the poet‟s passionate love for

God and his eagerness to receive God. But the poet is resolute in his

goal and undaunted by hardships, the poet makes his journey

untiringly towards his goal :

The travel shall never exhaust me

Whose feet with white fire are shod,

With no one to greet or accept me,

The loneliest path I have trod:

I care not if sun-rays blind me

For I have left seeing behind me

And with deep closed eyes I have lost me

In an ultimate vision of God 55

(Way faring)

Travelling lonely, yet determinedly, confidently and

optimistically, the poet realizes that he is near his spiritual goal and

he envisions and experiences “the glow of deepening over soul”. He

chants:

88

All is a running glow

Of deepening over soul,

The goal? – O love ! I know

I have not long to wait 56

(Wing-ache)

The poet treads, slips and errs, but he is not disheartened:

In several little ways

I err and fall and slip, -

O bring thy tender gaze

To bear on me, and drip

Its honey on my pores,

In sweet companionship

Lead me into thy doors,

Beloved of my days 57

(Wing-ache)

Reaching the state of the stoic (Sthithaprajna) as is said of the

true spiritual-seeker in The Gita by the Lord Krishna, the poet is in

bliss, untouched by the mundane. The poet sings:

Nothing shall hurt or break or mar

The joy which I contain,

Which never knew a wound or scar

Or yet a trace of pain !

An independent Joy that grows

To greater fullness in repose,

A- glowing like virgin star

On God‟s blue - pearly plane 58

(Masterhood)

89

This doesn‟t mean that the poet didn‟t experience pain nor is

the poet averse to it. Having experienced the earthly life of joys and

sorrows, the poet aspires to reach God:

BELOVED, having tasted

The bitter cup of earth

I came to thee, a lover

Of heaven, ……

…………………

…………………

…………………

And now I came to measure

The golden wine of Him, 59

(Exemption)

Once the poet savours “the golden wine of Him, he is no

longer he and he becomes “His own”. That is the bliss of individual

human soul (Jeevathma) merging with the Transcendental soul

(Paramathma). The poet has taken on oath :

Beloved, I have taken

An oath to be thine own

O let me be one living

Expression of thy giving

Within me rouse and waken

Thy melodies alone! 60

(Exemption)

Complete surrender to God is what is absolutely required of

the seeker. Shedding his ego, the poet surrenders himself to be the

clay instead of being a potter, the song, instead of being a poet, the

90

sword, instead of being a sword maker, a dream, instead of being a

dreamer in the hands of God:

But now that I am kneeling

At the feet of the supreme

I have ceased to be the dreamer

And learned to be the dream 61

(Shaper Shaped)

The poet invites God to enter his heart and be there at the

centre of his heart where the light of God is lit:

It is time for you to enter

my heart and rest in it

For already at its centre

Your diamond lamp is lit 62

(Enthroned)

The poet and God look at each other as a child and a mother,

as a bridegroom and a bride, as a comrade or a lover, as a brother or

a son. The varied intimate relationships the poet strikes with God

and how the poet seeks union with God through such emotional

attachments with him are well manifest in the following of lines :

We have looked for one another

In forms which scarce abide,

Sometimes as child and mother

Sometimes as groom and bride;

……………………………..

…………………………….

As a comrade or a lover,

As a brother or a son

…………………..

………………….

91

Through fulfillments and delays

I have sought your union 63

(Enthroned)

To reach and realize God, the seeker must cry for God from

the deep of his soul. Though his cry remains unheard and

unanswered by God, the seeker, without getting exhausted and

abandoning his endeavour, must keep crying from the depth of his

heart till his cry is persistently heard and answered by God and he

reaches his goal. This is exactly what the poet, as the true seeker of

God, longs to practice ceaselessly to reach his goal.

“I will cry out to thee from the depth of my soul / I will cryout

to thee; / By crying to thee I will reach the goal, /I will cryout to

thee” 64

(I will cry out to thee)

A relentless pilgrim, the poet wishes to capture a glimpse of

God‟s smile :

I have journeyed, Beloved, mile after lone mile,

A pilgrim who seeks but a glimpse of thy smile,

And my journey has been o‟er a broken track,

I will cry out to thee 65

92

The poet experiences the fragrance and the rhythm of the

divine in his blood and within his body :

My blood grew to a scented blush

of roses, while the body was

A rich experience of hush,

A rhythm-flowering of pause 66

(Moment of Trance)

The words “scented blush, hush, rhythm and pause” reveal the

spiritual trance the poet is in. In his spiritual journey, the poet‟s

vision encounters “the ancient man” with the poet‟s soul in his hand

swinging like a lantern. “The ancient man” here is none other than

God Himself. The poet unveils the image of the divine captured by

his vision:

At the end of the silent secret lane

I saw the ancient man turn,

Swinging my soul in his calm right hand

As though he were swinging a lantern 67

(Powers)

God is ultimate truth that man has to realize as a ladder

difficult for man to climb, “ The soul essays truth‟s ladder, rung by

rung / most difficult to climb / God‟s silence ever wandering on high

/ Echoes … 68

(Solution)

93

The poet is not just a spiritual piligrim. He is a dart shot from

God‟s bow :

You have shot me and I go

Straight across the worlds and bear

The fire-message of your bow

quivering through the cloudy air, 69

(Surrender)

To savour and experience the bliss of the celestial and the

divine, the soul grows deeper and deeper and soars higher and higher

towards the cosmic splendour. To Harindranath, God is the priest of

beauty who can lead him to inner feast and the poet‟s soul burns like

a jewelled lamp of God:

With thee as beauty‟s priest,

To pass into a state of sky

Lit to an inner feast.

Deepr and deeper grows the soul

To splendours that can awe

………………………….

……………………….

…………………………

O‟er paths untrod or trod,

It burneth clearly like a lamp,

A jeweled lamp of God 70

(Fusion)

94

Behind the many hues of the world lies the virgin whiteness --

the origin of all colours. Harindranath has his vision fixed on it. The

poet views his poems as ways and means to reach the virgin

whiteness of the world.

So the poet addresses himself :

O poet! What you call poems

Are so many ways and means

Of reaching the virgin whiteness

Behind the World‟s golds and greens

Divine attempts at storming

The subtle wonder that slips

Between the words you utter

From your song-enchanted lips 71

(Voices of poems)

The virgin whiteness the poet talks about in these lines is the

very foundation of the divine with whom the poet is obsessed and by

whom the poet is possessed in his spiritual quest.

To attain the realization of God and to merge with the

supreme, complete surrender to the divine is the very essential

condition for the spiritual seeker to fulfil. Hence, as a true spiritual

seeker, Harindranath offers himself to God as a flower and a fruit to

God who is a honey-bee and urges him to gather him without delay:

95

Lo! I am both flower and fruit

At the same time

See my petals open wide

Where the God-bee comes and settles

Drunk with honey-aeons inside

The circling petals.

Concentrated, ripe and mute,

Inly-gathered, inly-sweet now

I lie as a voiceless fruit

At your feet now. 72

(Song of Flower and Fruit)

Through the apt and evocative images of flower and fruit and

honey-bee, the poet beautifully depicts the kinship between the

spiritual seeker and God. The imagery is romantic, but the goal is

spiritual.

To the spiritual seeker, God appears to be at hand, at one

moment and at another moment, far away from him. Thus God

plays a funny game with the seeker. The poet writes :

The nearer I come

To you, my love!

The further you seem

To go from me

-----------------

-----------------

-----------------

From day to day

And from night to night

This heart of mine

96

Goes looking for you

O Far - away

Unreachable light 73

(One-pointed)

The poet is a beam from the light-house of God‟s dream :

You have sent me like a beam

Through the blackness of the night

From the light house of your dream

Over seas that asked for light 74

(Surrender)

A spiritual seeker on his spiritual pilgrimage. The poet states that he

carries God‟s will. Realising the universe draped with the presence

of the divine, the poet sees god everywhere in the Universe:

I see you everywhere

An image warm and true,

The rainbow in the air

Is but a streak of you 75

(Realization)

Through all the senses, the poet experiences the divine in rain,

flowers, the sun and the moon :

I sense you in the rain

I smell you in the flowers,

I hear your endless tune

Played in the sun and moon

On changing plane on plane

You wield your magic powers. 76

(Realization)

97

God wielding magic powers in the universe is what the poet

finds. Having finished his spiritual journey, the poet wishes to take

rest in the lap of the divine:

Let me rest my head in your Lap, beloved!

In the rest I have long desired

My eyes are full of sleep, beloved!

And my heart is very tired

………………………

………………………

I have come at last to rest, beloved!

To rest my head in your lap. 77

(Rest)

Thus the poet‟s ceaseless quest for God culminates in the

poet‟s spiritual realization with his soul, merging with the cosmic

soul. Every poem the poet pens radiates with the poet‟s blossoming

and ripening spirituality. Each poem is a window to the other world

and offers the reader a vision of the eternal truth, “Each poem is a

shadow-ladder/ Reaching towards a kindled height” 78

(Epilogue)

The unrest of Atma for Paramatma and the struggles of human

soul in its journey, are delineated vividly and beautifully in the

poems focusing on the theme of God.

In poem after poem, Harindranath is preoccupied with the

subject of God and his mystic vision constantly keeps hovering over

98

God. The poet, quite conscious of the existence of the infinite in the

universe, envisions God in all objects in the universe and endeavours

earnestlty to capture and comprehend the nature of God and

mysteries of God‟s creation, to embark on the spiritual pilgrimage to

reach, realize and merge with God, undergoing various stages in

spiritual progress. The poet strives to have the grasp of God‟s nature.

Baffled and intrigued by His mysterious, contradictory roles as a

creator and a destroyer. He seeks to win divine grace. He abandons

his ego and surrenders himself completely to God, He sings

ecstatically of the glories of God and makes his spiritual journey

under the divine grace to reach and merge with God.

In the poems dwelling on the subject of God, currents of deep

Hindu Vedantic philosophy are perceptible. Harindranath in his

approach to the consciousness and realization of God displays a fine

blend of Dvaita and Advaita philosophy. Herein lies the height of

mystic vision and masterly poetic craftsmanship of Harindranath.

The way he dwells on the theme of God also manifests the eternal

splendours of Indian culture and heritage the poet‟s personality is

deeply rooted in. His poetry offers mankind a sort of spiritual

99

enlightenment, creating an awareness in them about God pervading

and radiating the whole universe, nature of God, mysteries of His

creation and the spiritual destination of man--certainly, the kernel of

Indian culture and heritage and what India teaches the world sunk

into the abyss of spiritual gloom through the prophetic voices of its

sages like Sri Aurobindo Ghose, Rabindranath Tagore and

Harindrantah Chattopadhyaya.

100

References:

1. Dr. Radhakrishnan S, The Hindu view (Chapter). Eastern

Religions and Western thought, (New Delhi: Oxford

University Press, 2002), P.57

2. Tagore Rabindranath, Poet‟s Religion, Selected Essays,

(New Delhi : Rupa. Co, 2004), P.11

3. Dr. Radha Krishnan S., Op.Cit., P.63

4. Chattopadhyaya, Harindranath, Life and myself, Vol.1,

(Hyderabad: Writers‟ Anvil, 1948), P.72

5. Ibid., P.135

6. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath A Treasury of poems,

(Bombay: Hind Kitabs, 1948)

7. Ibid., P.45

8. Ibid., P.46

9. Ibid., P.40

10. Ibid.

11. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, The Feast of Youth,

(Madras: Theosophical publishing House, Adayar, 1918),

P.20

101

12. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, The Divine Vagabond,

(Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, Adayar,

1950), P.119

13. Ibid.,

14. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, Roses of eternal life,

(Tirupati: Sri Venkateswara University, 1978), P.118

15. Ibid., P.118

16. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath; Op.Cit., P.122

17. Ibid., P.122

18. Ibid.,P.1

19. Ibid., P.11

20. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, Mirage and mirror,

(Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation, 1989), P.15

21. Ibid., P.16

22. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, Op.Cit., P.12

23. Gokak. V.K., A Golden Trasury of Indo-Anglian – Poetry

(New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1992), P.35.

24. Ibid.,

25. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath Mirage and Mirror (Delhi:

B.R. Publishing Corporation, 1989), P70.

102

26. Gokak.V.K. Op.Cit., P.194

27. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, mirage and mirror, (Delhi:

B.R. Publishing Corporation, 1989), P.107

28. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, The Feast of youth,

(Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, Adayar,

1918), P.6

29. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, Roses of eternal life,

(Tirupathi: Sri Venkateswara University, 1978) P. 105

30. Ibid., P.105

31. Ibid., P.61

32. Ibid., P.61

33. Ibid., P.62

34. Gokak U.K. The golden treasury of Indo-Anglian poetry,

(New Delhi, Sahitya Akademi, 1992), P.57

35. Ibid., P.57

36. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, The Divine Vagabond,

(Madras: The Theosophical publishing house, Adayan,

1950), P.7

37. Gokak V.K., Op.Cit. P.196

38. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, Op.Cit. P.73

103

39. Ibid., P.73

40. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, Mirage and mirror, (Delhi:

B.R. Publishing Corporation,) P.P.2 &3.

41. Gokak V.K., The Golden Treasury of Indo-Anglian poetry,

(New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1992), P.65

42. Ibid., P.52

43. Ibid. P.53

44. Ibid., P.55

45. Ibid., P.P. 67& 68

46. Ibid., P.67

47. Ibid., P.67

48. Ibid. P.198

49. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, mirage and mirror, (Delhi:

B.R. Publishing Corporation, 1989), P.105

50. Ibid., P.P. 108&109

51. Chattopadhyaya Harindranath, The Divine Vagabond,

(Madras: The Theosophical publishing House, Adayar, ,

1950), P.18

52. Ibid., P.19

53. Ibid., P.22

104

54. Ibid., P.24

55. Ibid., P.27

56. Ibid., P.30

57. Ibid., P.31

58. Ibid., P.35

59. Ibid., P.39

60. Ibid., P.43

61. Ibid., P.78

62. Ibid., P.56

63. Ibid., P.57&58

64. Ibid., P.61

65. Ibid.

66. Ibid., P.84

67. Ibid., P.85

68. Ibid., P.92

69. Ibid., P.115

70. Ibid., P.51

71. Ibid., P.97

72. Ibid., P.103

73. Ibid., P.111

105

74. Ibid., P.116

75. Ibid., P.120

76. Ibid., P.120

77. Ibid., P.90

78. Ibid., P.135