Swami Shankara, thou dazzling star soaring in wisdom’s skies, thou hast shed thy light over many souls, long darkened by religious forms and formalities.
Many sheep of human darkness have ed before the leonine roar of thy Self‐realization. With Christ thou hast sung: “I am He,” “Thou art That,” “I and my Father are One,” to awaken us from our material sleep.
Thou first exponent of “matter is not what it appears to be,” we pay all homage to thee.
O Swami of Swamis, thou didst teach us to behold the one ocean of Spirit hidden beneath all the rising, sinking, and dissolving waves of finitude.
Thou didst sing to us, not of a God who is gloom‐faced or revengeful, a stern judge of our every fault, but of One whose face wears an aureole of all‐alluring smiles. Thou hast shown us the secret of plucking blossoms of laughter from all hearts, and how to arrange them in the vase of our souls as a bouquet of celestial joy.
Our smiling lives were raised, like dancing waves, on thy sea of light. In thy one, oceanic joy many lives dance. And at the lull of desire’s storm, back into thy undying Bliss shall we all merge again.
O Shankara, many have beheld the sea of Spirit dancing in thy smiles: We all bow to thee!
