The 1968 Edition was a 44 page boklet inthree chapters. In 1979, Gopi Krishna added more verses (chapters 4-6), and at the end, an11 page chapter entitled "Conclusion" (pages 105-115). The stanza on page 110,reproduced below, is of special significance as we enter the new millenium:
Next two eventfuldecades will unfold,
An awe-inspiring Drama, staged by Fate,
To end the present order, as foretold,
With fires of war lit by greed, power-lust, hate
(i)
The future happenings, already a part
Of one Eternal Present, with no end,
No ceaseless movement of time and no start,
On those the illusive veil of thought can rend,
Cast their reflection, when the shadows part,
As each succeeding lightning flash reveals
The changed position of a moving cart,
But not the regular motion of its wheels.
And these projections from a subtle plane
Of life, an unconditioned Realm Sublime,
Upon the time-conditioned mortal brain
Become a picture clothed in space and time.
So utterly amazing and unique
Is this experience of immersion in
The Void of Future that when at the peak,
The mortal, cut off from the noise and din
Of earth, is lost in wonder at the sight,
Which now unfolds before his inward eye,
A world of mystery aglow with light,
Impenetrating both the earth and sky;
Across which, shadowed on a glowing screen,
Ethereal portraits in a luminous dress,
With all the context of a future scene,
In rapid flashes whole events express.
But only to the extent as is allowed,
To him to see and hear by Grace Divine,
For Laws Celestial ev'n in those endowed
With this rare gift, prescribe the boundary line.
What is vouchsafed to me whenev'r I brood
On destiny, in a devotional mood,
I honestly and faithfully record,
Treating it as a Mandate from the Lord.
But in these fleeting glimpses of the scenes
Of future, when those who now in their teens
Will have grown mature, I see filled with awe
The operation of a Mighty Law,
Which we are flouting now to purchase ease
And comfort for the flesh, that has to cease.
For man, evolving slowly to reach God,
Cannot make flesh his only measuring rod,
And leave the Soul to take care of itself
The while he runs mad after power and pelf.
I but repeat what all religious creeds
Had once enjoined to regulate the deeds
Of mortals, who averse to leave their hold
On pleasures of the flesh, on power and gold,
Commit the same mistakes time and again,
Not knowing that they harm the evolving brain,
Thus forcing nature, to avert decay,
To use coercive measures in some way.
What I see sometimes in the lucid mood
Provides for my digestion heavy food,
For I see pain and suffering, deaths and loss,
Soul-harrowing scenes of woe before I cross
The boundary of the present century,
And there an all united mankind see,
Trying to steer clear of our vices, firm
On virtues, building for a glorious term
Of peace and happiness with faith devout
In Godhead, cured of disbelief and doubt.
These are the visions, which from time to time
I see in wakefulness and write in rhyme,
For both the vision and what I record
Come synchronously by the Grace of God.*
Unbidden nothing happens, not a leaf
Can stir, nor man act nor taste joy and grief.
So what I see when bidden by the Lord
With what is now to happen shall accord.
Gopi Krishna
Srinagar, Kashmir
India
May 1968
WorldWars
A Sign of Obstructed Evolution
(i)
The earth rotating round her axis brings
Our days and nights, the summers and the springs,
The falls and winters, verdure, flowers and fruits,
The mating seasons of the birds and brutes.
And all that makes us happy, dull and sad
Or angry, all that we call good or bad,
As from the earth's revolution streams
The light that gives us life, our hopes and dreams.
It also brings for mortals peace or war,
By spreading love or hatred near and far,
By causing, as in beasts it causes rut,
In men, when their unholy actions shut
The gate of mercy, cravings and desires
That spread from mind to mind like forest fires,
Until enveloped by the sparkling blaze
They fail to see what is before their gaze,
The human caravan, all in a heap,
Into the abyss of war about to leap.
But why, when everything comes from the change
In earth's position, should we think it strange
That our collective steps for peace or war
Are not of our choice, but come from afar;
From cosmic-conscious forces all around
The earth, unseen, mysterious and profound,
Which on our minds a dark reflection cast,
When we transgress or move too slow or fast?
As sun eclipses fill the world with gloom
At intervals, and to the moment last
When, of obstruction free, the sun has room
Again his radiance on the earth to cast,
Collective violations of the law
Of life, by nations, groups or all mankind
Create periodic spells when fear and awe,
Like shadows, settle on the human mind.
They mirror brewing storms upon the plane
Of Cosmic Being heralded by signs,
Which, though unnoticed by a normal brain,
A superconscious sage at once divines.
There are some questions which can well arise
In what I argue, more so from the wise;
For why should nature be so callous, when
Celestial laws are hid from common men,
As to apply the rod or use the knout
For e'en such faults we know nothing about?
Has e'en Almighty God a morbid thirst
For causing pain, when shackled mortals burst
Their bonds to have full liberty to taste
The pleasures He devised, lest they go to waste?
Why was not man cast in a nobler mold,
That lust would not have on him such a hold
As to neglect the duty owed to God,
And so obliging Him to use the rod?
These questions are the outcome of a lack
Of knowledge of the evolutionary track,
Of ignorance about the patent fact
That universe is not a lawless tract,
That ev'n the earth herself is strictly bound
By laws, complaisant turning round and round,
And so how can her dust, from which man springs,
Be unsubmissive to the King of Kings?
The very texture of the earth, her air
Or water and the sun, which mankind rear,
Are so imbued with law that questions such
As these the bottom of unwisdom touch.
The commonly accepted modern view
Of science, that man grew up from the beast,
Nor wholly Western nor entirely new,
Has long been in existence in the East,
More so in India where it forms the ground
For karmic doctrines and the ceaseless round
Of births and deaths for the embodied soul
Until it merges with the cosmic whole.
According to this view, it is the soul
And not the gross, corporeal appendage
In man which, to achieve a higher goal,
Through epochs worked its way up stage by stage,
Attaining, after changing many shapes
Of lowly creatures, reasonless and mute,
A form akin to that of man-like apes
And then of man, intelligent and astute.
Now this progressive growth of humankind,
Be it on Eastern or on Western lines,
It should be patent to the simplest mind
Cannot but act within some set confines,
And not unlawfully in a law-bound whole,
Where every atom plays a given part
And every sun performs a chosen role,
Not once attempting nature's will to thwart.
What vanity or lack of wisdom drives
The guiding spirits of this age to doubt
The fact that laws celestial rule the lives
Of men and cannot be infringed without
Incurring penalties that must be paid
For individual or collective breach,
In strict accordance with the canons laid
For our collective crimes or sins of each?
Unseen devices in the brain record
And judge the thoughts and acts of mortal men,
And every single act brings its reward
In time, without revealing where and when.
It is presumptuous on our part to think
That our self-conscious being is not bound,
When physical bonds intricately link
Our flesh to all the natural forces round.
Our mind and flesh connected from the day
When first the pulse of life stirs in the womb,
Without the slightest hitch obey the sway
Of one another almost to the tomb.
How in this body-mind compound can one
Only, out of the two, be bound by laws,
And the other with unchartered freedom run
Wherev'r it some alluring object draws?
The fact is, baffled by the mystery
Of life and not allowed to look behind
The veil of senses, mortals fail to see
That no less rigid laws control the mind;
That mankind destined for a lofty height,
A god-like stature, still out of her sight,
Must learn to obey the signs which nature makes
And follow them in what she undertakes;
As does a child, till it grows up to learn
Much more about itself, to work and earn.
Written by: Gopi Krishna
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