Songs from the Soul by Anilbaran Roy

Songs from the Soul

A collection of meditations and mystic poems by Anilbaran Roy. Anilbaran Roy was a professor of philosophy for seven years in Bengal. Subsequently he felt a call for national work and actively participated in the Non-cooperation Movement. He became profoundly impressed by the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and in June 1926 he joined the Ashram. Anilbaran was a prolific writer and has written books in three languages, English, Bengali and Hindi.

Sri Aurobindo translated his poem and wrote in November 1935 of his translation (which he has apparently just completed): “Anilbaran’s song is best rendered by an Elizabethan simplicity and intensity with as little artifice of metre and diction as possible. I have tried to do it in that way.”

The Mother made selection from Anilbaran’s prayers offered to her. She termed the collection a “Spiritual Dictionary”. They were published as part of this book “Songs from the Soul”

The following quotation from “The Mother” by Sri Aurobindo was chosen by Anilbaran to open the book:

“Follow your soul and not your mind, your soul that answers to the Truth, not your mind that leaps at appearances; trust the Divine Power and she will free the godlike elements in you and shape all into an expression of Divine Nature.”

Book Details

Author: Anilbaran Roy
Print Length: 116
Publisher: Sandhanam Printing Works
Contributor: Website Visitor
Book format: Pdf, ePub, Mobi
Language: English

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Contents

Meditations

  • Faith
  • Transformation
  • Will
  • Surrender
  • Peace
  • Aspiration
  • Divine Grace
  • Yoga
  • The Goal
  • The Path
  • Difficulties And Obstacles
  • Small Details
  • Waste
  • Self-Discipline
  • Obedience
  • The Power Of Words
  • Divine Help
  • True Attitude
  • Secret Of Work
  • The Mechanism Of The Lower Nature
  • Realisation And Its Methods
  • The Divine Call
  • Divine Presence
  • Dedication
  • Devotion
  • Love
  • Divine Joy
  • Purity
  • Sincerity
  • Hostile Forces
  • Divinity Of Man
  • Inert Passivity
  • Inner Organisation
  • Rest And Silence
  • Conquest Of Desires
  • Temptations
  • Relation With The World
  • Truth Consciousness
  • Self-Knowledge
  • Openness
  • Egoism
  • Jiva, The Individual Soul
  • Mystery Of Life
  • Mahakali
  • A Vision
  • Praise And Blame
  • Self-Deception
  • Personal Relation With The Divine Mother
  • New Birth

Poems

  • The Miracle
  • The Morning Star
  • A Vision Of The Self
  • My King
  • An Echo
  • Why Weepest?
  • New Birth
  • A Summer Night
  • The Cross
  • The Secret
  • My Beloved
  • Mahakali
  • The Great Hour
  • Eternal Smile
  • A Prayer
  • Glimpses
  • Fearless
  • Mother Earth
  • Mahalakshmi
  • The Heart Of My Heart
  • Mother Victorious
  • The Guide

Appendix

  • The Divine Mother

Book Sample

Songs from the Soul

PEACE

Peace is the foundation on which the edifice of spiritual life is to be built up — peace, deep and unshakable, pervading every part of our being.

A restless soul tom by passions and attachments cannot receive the light from above, cannot have the taste of pure divine joy, and constantly loses balance and self-control. Such a soul pulled in all directions falls an easy prey to the forces of falsehood. We hanker after work, thirst for knowledge, feverishly pursue the transient joys of the senses. We are anxious for gains, afraid of losses, impatient of obstacles and failures. The source of all this restlessness is our ignorant belief that we are the masters of our work, and that our egoistic self-satisfaction and enjoyment is the sole aim and meaning of our life. True peace comes only with the knowledge that it is the Divine who does everything, and that the whole world including ourselves exists solely for the sake of the Divine.
Firmly established in this divine knowledge, we should discard all desires and passions which are the real enemies of peace and spiritual life. We must not allow anything to move us unless it be an impulse from the Divine Mother. Unassailable and unshakable, we should sit tight in the fundamental calmness of our being. Only then will it be possible for the Mother to work in us and raise us to her own life.

* * *

Our life is a series of actions and reactions going on blindly for the satisfaction of the lower needs of nature. Objects and forces constantly act on us from the outside and move our mind and the senses, which rush out to seize them, to possess them and mould them egoistically; hence arise thoughts and actions, passions and emotions, which in their totality form what we know as our human life.

Herein lies our bondage, this capacity of forces acting on us to produce reactions. On account of this, we are at the mercy of the forces of nature which surround us and are ceaselessly acting upon us. If we can withhold ourselves and stop these reactions, if we can receive all touches from the outside absolutely unmoved, then we shall be really free; and it is only in a heart and mind so calm and free from reactions that the joys and the glories of a higher divine life can manifest.

As the sea receives innumerable streams of water into itself without being in the least perturbed by them, so we must receive all touches from the outside without any perturbation, and must not allow anything to draw us out, unless it be an impulse directly from the Divine Mother. And this is possible only by dissociation from the movements of the lower nature, which we should regard as being merely the interaction of natural forces on one another. Practising this dissociation from the lower movements, always seeking our union with the Divine Mother, all perturbations and reactions will cease in us, and a fundamental peace will be established in every part of our being. Only then will the foundation of a higher divine life be truly laid in us.

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