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There will come the day when I shall go forth in love and trust
As a bride to my Lord Myself’s house in the Street of Dust.
He-myself has promised me this final consummation,
Ending this impenetrable night of dull stone’s station.
I see the world of creation as a vast ocean
Escaping from itself, yet trapped in its own tidal motion.
Across the black waters shines my Beloved’s glorious face
As a sun newly risen, compassionate, shedding grace.
If I did not believe he is my own reality
I could not trust my Beloved’s huge prodigality.
I have hoisted the seven-hued rainbow as my banner,
And bound myself with indentures to the trade of dust’s manner—
So that on that glad morning when I go forth as a bride
Nothing shall ever take me from my Lord Myself’s side.
A sharing with us of utter trust. Even when still being in ‘dull stone’s station’ Francis is sustained by the deepest sureness that Baba is ‘Myself’, his own reality.
His real maturity as a guide on the path shines through. His profound identification with Baba makes him totally accepting even though still across the black waters.
Only the faith that sees Baba as true self can be adequate to ‘trust my Beloved’s huge prodigality’. Prodigality can mean giving in generous abundance and that may be the primary meaning here. But it can also mean wasteful extravagance and there can also be the idea that the apparent wastefulness of the universe is a challenge to any sense of providence unless we have this intimacy with God.
The seven hued rainbow is Baba’s flag taken here as a sign of his promise just as the rainbow was in the Bible after the great flood.
The ocean wanting to escape from itself but trapped in its own tidal motion is a great image. The tides are of course caused by the fluctuations of the moon. Here it stands for the pull of sanskaras accumulated in this time bound world.
Indentures are the legal agreement between an apprentice and his master, binding on both. The bond on the apprentice here is the obedience of dust.
This is not an intellectual faith but one grounded in love and seeing Baba as love.
The journey and the arrival may not yet be identical but they are inseparable.
The power of the verse is dust’s singing.