MY SOUL’S DESIRE AND DESTINY
I’ve travelled down through centuries.
Have never known one moment’s rest.
Have passed through every phase of life.
Is this, O Father, Thy behest?
I’ve battled with conditions that
Oftimes seemed much too hard to bear,
Would then give up, and seem to sink
Into the maelstrom of Despair.
Again would take Life’s burdens up
Without a knowledge of my past.
Experience was of little use
In seething whirlpool it seemed cast.
The same temptations come to us;
As fiends, they ever us pursue.
The consequences are the same.
We’ve brought down retribution too.
I still desire to live, to do—
I am not ready yet to change
My form, my thoughts, my puny life;
E’en though I gain a wider range.
Absorbed though I may be in Love,
And e’en a part of Deity,
I still am human in desire,
And human still, I wish to be.
Soul’s Destiny I now take up.—
Where shall I go? What shall I be?
Shall I aye travel on, and on?
Or be a part of Deity.
Will memories of the past be mine?
And will a panoramic view
Before mine eyes be ever cast?
If so, that past I can but rue.
Absorbed in God, I lose myself.
I am no part of my own life.
Though one with God, and part of Him,
My soul will still keep up its strife
To be itself, apart, though with
The Maker, Ruler of my soul.
The Soul’s Desire is not yet dead,
E’en though bright heaven is its goal.
Though I may carry “Karma” on,
Improve upon it ever, aye;
Could I not do the same, and yet
Not on this weary earth e’er stay?