Dear Friends of Overman Foundation,
It has been decided that we shall share with you from time-to-time some of our archival treasures. And to begin with, we are publishing four poems written by Rajnarain Bose (1826—1899), Sri Aurobindo’s maternal grandfather and the famous leader of the Brahmo Samaj, on Dr. Krishnadhan Ghose (1844—1892), his eldest son-in-law and Sri Aurobindo’s father.
These poems were written sometime in the year 1869 when Dr. Krishnadhan Ghose had gone to England to study medicine.
With warm regards,
Anurag Banerjee,
Chairman,
Overman Foundation.
(1)
Go, son belov’d! as pilgrim bold to lands
Beyond the stormy ocean’s wide domain,
Where Commerce, Art and Science freely rain
On freemen blessings rare with lib’ral hands.
Thou art not tied by false religion’s bonds,
Her chains are not round thee; thou ‘rt nobly free:
Thou art not one who fears to cross the sea,
And on the beach by her spell-bound stands.
I’hv freedom I esteem though my excess
I check oft. Go, but still as ours remain.
Be not like apes who change their manners, dress
And language, of their trip becoming vain.
They England for their home do shameless call,
And reckon mother-land and tongue as gall.
(2)
Go, son belov’d! as pilgrim bold to lands,
Where nature’s servant and interpreter,
Man, wields over elements a God-like pow’r
As slavish tools in his controlling hands.
Go, vent’rous youth! where Goddess Science’ bands
Most wondrous feats perform on land and sea;
There monuments of art thou rapt will see,
A marvel in itself each tow’ring stands.
Go there, and feast your eyes on men as things;
Great Herschel, Mill and Tennyson divine;
And others too whose fame in India rings,
Bright lights that in far England’s firm’ment shine.
Go, losing not yourself, learn from the west
And come back to your weeping father’s breast.
(3)
My son! when thou reach England, thou shalt see
Our kin in faith who, not adoring man
And book, lead boldly true religion’s van
Proclaiming Theism’s creed in discourse free:
Strong Newman, superstition’s enemy
Uncompromising, kinder e’en to doubt
And doubters than the hero-making rout;
Him and our sisters[1] on whom blessing be,
The Brahmavad’nis[2] of the Islands far,
Know as the White[3] in our Puranas old;
Who, like our Maitreyi[4], Old India’s Star,
Such noble truths in noble words have told
As by her said: “From things that do not give
Eternal life, what joy can I derive”?
(4)
When thou to England go, our brethren greet
Of Wakefield[5]; tell them they do well to preach
Theistic truths in Christian dress, to teach
Our countrymen those truths we think it meet
To clothe them in a Shastric garb. To seat
Celestial truth in hearts of people weak,
We should this plan pursue, until we break
The ranks of error strong and her defeat,
Our faith the same though vested different;
As Englishman and Hindu both are men
Though diff’rent clad. Religion true at end
Will win the fight, such forms need perish then,
But now let us all work, though slow yet sure,
As God Himself does work, to end secure.
*
[1] Miss Frances Power Cobbe and Miss Elizabeth Sharpe.
[2] Female discoursers of God, so called in the Vedas.
[3] Colonel Wilford in the Asiatic Researches conjectures the British Isles to be the Sweta Dwipa or the white Isles of the Puranas.
[4] Refer to the story of Maitreyi and Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
[5] The Free Unitarian Church or the Theistic Congregation of Wakefield.
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