I WAS NOT aware of the moment when I first crossed the threshold of this life.
What was the power that made me open out into this vast mystery like a bud in the forest at midnight!
When in the morning I looked upon the light I felt in a moment that I was no stranger in this world, that the inscrutable without name and form had taken me in its arms in the form of my own mother.
Even so, in death the same unknown will appear as ever known to me. And because I love this life, I know I shall love death as well.
The child Cries out when from the right breast the mother takes it away, in the very next moment to find in the left one its consolation.

ঘুম কেন নেই তোরি চোখে?
কে রে এমন জাগায় তোকে?
       চেয়ে আছিস আপন মনে
       ওই যে দূরে গগন-কোণে,
       রাত্রি মেলে রাঙা নয়ন
             রুদ্রদেবের দীপ্তালোকে!
রক্তশতদলের সাজি
সাজিয়ে কেন রাখিস আজি?
       কোন্‌ সাহসে একেবারে
       শিকল খুলে দিলি দ্বারে,
       জোড়-হাতে তুই ডাকিস কারে?
               প্রলয় যে তোর ঘরে ঢোকে।

BRING TO THIS country once again the blessed name
which made the land of thy birth sacred to all distant lands!
Let thy great awakening under the bodhi tree be fulfilled,
sweeping away the veil of unreason
and let, at the end of an oblivious night,
freshly blossom out in India thy remembrance!
Bring life to the mind that is inert,
thou Illimitable Light and Life!
Let the air become vital with thy inspiration!
Let open the doors that are barred,
and the resounding conch shell
proclaim thy arrival at Bharat's gate.
Let, through innumerable voices,
the gospel of an immeasurable love announce thy call.