Gangtok, Sikkim (India)

THE KASÎDAH IX, 89, 104

Thus, as thou view the Phantom-forms
 which in the misty Past were thine,
To be again the thing thou wast
 with honest pride thou may’st decline;

And, glancing down the range of years,
 fear not thy future self to see;
Resign’d to life, to death resign’d,
 as though the choice were nought to thee.

On Thought itself feed not thy thought;
 nor turn from Sun and Light to gaze,
At darkling cloisters paved with tombs,
 where rot the bones of bygone days:

“Eat not thy heart,” the Sages said;
 “nor mourn the Past, the buried Past;”
Do what thou dost, be strong, be brave;
 and, like the Star, nor rest nor haste.

THE KASÎDAH IX, 73, 88

True to thy Nature, to Thy self,
 Fame and Disfame nor hope nor fear:
Enough to thee the small still voice
 aye thund’ering in thine inner ear.

From self-approval seek applause:
 What ken not men thou kennest, thou!
Spurn ev’ry idol others raise:
 Before thine own Ideal bow:

Be thine own Deus: Make self free,
 liberal as the circling air:
Thy Thought to thee an Empire be;
 break every prison’ing lock and bar:

Do thou the Ought to self aye owed;
 here all the duties meet and blend,
In widest sense, withouten care
 of what began, for what shall end.

Buddhist Sculptures, Indian Museum, Kolkata (India)

THE KASÎDAH II, 61, 72

Two-footed beasts that browse through life,
 by Death to serve as soil design’d,
Bow prone to Earth whereof they be,
 and there the proper pleasures find:

But you of finer, nobler, stuff,
 ye, whom to Higher leads the High,
What binds your hearts in common bond
 with creatures of the stall and sty?

“In certain hope of Life-to-come
 I journey through this shifting scene”
The Zâhid snarls and saunters down
 his Vale of Tears with confi’dent mien.