Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Thy Divine Gypsy” from Songs of the Soul features a speaker who dramatizes the spiritual journey of an ardent worshiper of the Divine who sees the Creator everywhere.
First Stanza: “I will be a gypsy”
The speaker metaphorically likens himself to a gypsy and asserts that he plans to “roam, roam, and roam.” He will “sing a song that none has sung.” He is not like the Robert Frost character that merely hints at choosing a road less traveled; he insists that he will definitely travel that unexplored road.
He will “sing to the sky,” “sing to the winds,” and he will “sing to my [his] red clouds.” He will acknowledge and commune with all of the Creator’s creations as he roam, and he will be the “King of the lands through which [he] roam[s].”
Second Stanza: “By day, the shady trees will be my tent”
This joyful speaker will be even more unconventional than an ordinary gypsy: instead of living in a tent, he will employ “the shady trees” for his tent during the daytime, when the sun is hot overheard. And by night, he will engage “the stars” to be his “candles.” The moon will serve as his lamp that will “light [his] silver, skyey camp.” He is no ordinary gypsy; he is a divine gypsy.
Third Stanza: “I will eat the food that chance will bring”
This blissful speaker will not worry about finding food; he will be satisfied with whatever his Creator provides him. He will take his liquid sustenance at the “crystal sparkling spring.” He will “doff his cap” and move on. He will “scatter the joy” of his bursting heart to “birds, leaves, winds, hills.”
Then again, he will be off for sights unseen and places hitherto unknown. He anticipates visiting and enjoying “stranger and stranger lands, from East to West.” He then repeats his divine refrain: “Oh! I will be a gypsy— / Roam, roam, and roam.”
Fourth Stanza: “Oh, I will be Thy gypsy”
The speaker finally avers that he will “roam and roam—through aeons roams.” It becomes clear that the speaker is referring to his soul, not just his physical and mental bodies. He suggests that the physical level of being is a dream.
When it is time for this wandering soul to rest, he will “dream of Thee whom I love best.” And by dreaming of the Creator he will, in fact, “wake from many lifetimes’ dreams fore’er.” Once he unites his soul with its Creator, “Thou and I, as one, shall gypsy everywhere.” After he has contacted his own Divine Beloved, his Creator, the two will become one and journey forth as a Divine Gypsy.
Source
- Paramahansa Yogananda, “Thy Divine Gypsy,” 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..
