The harvest has been employed as a metaphor by many poets and seers to describe the nature of Soul-realization, a time for collection of the reward for a season of loving labor.
The Great Farmer
In the opening three lines, (“Drawn by joy sublime, / I watch each harvest time, / When furrowed sky glows red with ripe sunbeams”), the speaker seems to be referring to the physical surroundings of the harvest, including the configuration and colors of the sky, but then he says, “But never have I found Thy ploughing teams,” and suddenly we realize that the speaker is actually addressing the Great Farmer, whose mystical teams have secretly ploughed the heavens. Of course, the speaker is referring to the cloud formations that display themselves against the backdrop of the sky.
The speaker then asserts that despite the outward beauty of the autumn sky, the one who is responsible for providing it remains out of sight. The “furrowed sky” is metaphorically a ploughed field and instead of ripe corn or wheat, it “glows red with ripe sunbeams.”
The Great Painter
Then the speaker offers other contrasting natural objects: The oriole’s glowing painted breast is shown, / And yet Thy brush, O Painter, ne’er is known! The colorful feathers of the birds are easily detected by the eye, but the Painter, the one whose brush dabbed on that color “ne’er is known!”
The speaker has thus far likened God to a farmer and then to a painter. As a farmer, He has ploughed the sky, and as painter has colored the birds with an array of alluring hues.
Master of Time
Then we are back to the heavens—“The North Star timely leaps, / Nocturnal watch unfailing keeps”--as the speaker claims that the North Star keeps a perfect schedule as do the “sun and seasons,” but the Master seems not present at all: “Thy house the sun and seasons supervise, / Yet Thou, O Master, seemest not to rise!” His outward features detected by the senses give us joy and make us ponder their beauty, but the one who provides that beauty remains hidden, shy as a little child.
The Harvest and Gratitude
Late autumn, the season most closely associated with the harvest, finds human beings enjoying the fruits of labor as they observe the beginning of the holiday season that culminates in Christmas and the glorious birth of Lord Jesus Christ. It seems that the pumpkin has become a big, bright symbol for the beginning of the autumn season, as neighbors decorate their front porches with haystacks and those large sturdy fruits that later will be turned into pies.
The Great Farmer/Painter has performed His skillful craftsmanship throughout the year, and as the temperature cools, hearts and souls become aware of their gifts and are motivated to offer gratitude. In addition to the physical beauty that the harvest season offers, it also brings a palpable spiritual beauty ushered in by gratitude and awareness of the constant spiritual journey.
Source
- Paramahansa Yogananda, “The Harvest,” 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..
