LORD BUDDHA, on thy Lotus-throne, <br />With praying eyes and hands elate, <br />What mystic rapture dost thou own, <br />Immutable and ultimate? <br />What peace, unravished of our ken, <br />Annihilate from the world of men? <br /> <br />The wind of change for ever blows <br />Across the tumult of our way, <br />To-morrow's unborn griefs depose <br />The sorrows of our yesterday. <br />Dream yields to dream, strife follows strife, <br />And Death unweaves the webs of Life. <br /> <br />For us the travail and the heat, <br />The broken secrets of our pride, <br />The strenuous lessons of defeat, <br />The flower deferred, the fruit denied; <br />But not the peace, supremely won, <br />Lord Buddha, of thy Lotus-throne. <br /> <br />With futile hands we seek to gain <br />Our inaccessible desire, <br />Diviner summits to attain, <br />With faith that sinks and feet that tire; <br />But nought shall conquer or control <br />The heavenward hunger of our soul. <br /> <br />The end, elusive and afar, <br />Still lures us with its beckoning flight, <br />And all our mortal moments are <br />A session of the Infinite. <br />How shall we reach the great, unknown <br />Nirvana of thy Lotus-throne?<br /><br />Sarojini Naidu<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-a-buddha-seated-on-a-lotus/
