Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/448

 God in the World

(From "Gitanjali")

(Most popular of Hindoo poets, who recently achieved international fame, and received the Nobel prize)

Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!

Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found? Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; he is bound with us all for ever.

Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense! What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained? Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.

Priests

(From "Songs for the New Age")

(See pages 45, 129, 147)

Priests are in bad odor, And yet there shall be no lack of them. The skies shall not lack a spokesman, Nor the spirit of man a voice and a gesture.