Paramahansa Yogananda’s “My Cosmic Mother’s Face” from Songs of the Soul features thirteen stanzas, celebrating the speaker’s devotion to God as the Divine Mother.
First Stanza: “Fairy dream faces, like fresh flowers”
The speaker reveals that in meditation he has glimpsed the ephemeral visions of “fairy dream faces” that resemble blossoms in the “vase of [his] gaze” which is visible to his soul. Even though he is able to visualize these beautiful phantoms, he knows that they do not represent the “Face that vanished behind space.” As his earthly mother’s face vanished from his physical sight, his Divine Mother’s face has also been absent from his sight.
Second-Fourth Stanzas: “There are faces of transcendent beauty”
In the next triad of stanzas, the speaker then catalogues the various faces that exist throughout the cosmos including those that are peculiar to the earth. Some faces express “transcendent beauty” and “exquisite charm,” but none can compete with the Face of the Divine Mother.
Some faces feature the “fires of lust” and represent the type of face “a child cannot trust.” But even the faces of true beauty “are dim beside” that of the Cosmic Mother. Some faces are revealed in various flowers, violet, lily, lotus, and rose, and even in the stars, moon, and sun. But as lovely and luminous as these faces are, they do not appeal to the speaker as much as that of the “One Face” of the Beloved Mother.
Fifth-Sixth Stanzas: “After my search through aeons unnumbered”
The speaker then reveals that he has sought the face of the Divine Mother “through aeons unnumbered.” He metaphorically likens his glimpses throughout his search to “streamlets of [his] dreams.” And now those streams have all merged with “Thy silver ocean-face.” As all rivers and streams all ultimately reach and merge with the ocean, his dream streams have reached and merged with oceanic face of the Cosmic Mother.
Seventh-Tenth Stanza: “Without Thy face, there is no light for me”
The speaker emphasizes the importance of the Cosmic Mother’s face for him: without her face, he has no light. While the activity of the cosmos carries on, the Mother’s face exists for him throughout eternity. For him the smile of the Divine Mother is reality bolstered by “selfless prayer.”
His mind and his heart are like a “calm lake” on which glistens the face of his Beloved Mother. He senses in the “deep crystal pool” of his heart the face of his Comic Beloved Mother forever reflecting the love and security that he had always craved.
Eleventh-Thirteenth Stanzas: “As I, awakening, pass through gates of light”
The lights of the physical plane dim in comparison to the glow of the Mother Divine. All the lights from “auroras,“ “hives of atoms,” “world of flame,” and “Dumb stones and speaking minds” meld into one form that is perfect and eternal, “To form Thy one face and to spell Thy one name.”
In a glorious, finale of triumph, the speaker exclaims, “My vision, withdrawn from viewing pulsating centuries, / Throws its countless eyes within to search eternity; / And all I seek, O Cosmic Mother, all I crave forever, / Is the light of one face – the face of Thee!” The speaker avers his complete unity with the light of the Cosmic Mother’s face, flashing forever on his inner, spiritual eye.
Source
- Paramahansa Yogananda, “My Cosmic Mother's Face,” Songs of the Soul, Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, 1983.
Linda Sue Grimes - As a writer, researcher, and SRF devotee, Linda Sue Grimes has studied poetry and practiced Kriya Yoga for over thirty years..
