Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Vanishing Bubbles” from Songs of the Soul features five variously rimed stanzas. Its theme dramatizes the evanescence of worldly objects under the spell of maya, and the speaker expresses a desire to understand where these things come from and where they go after they seem to disappear.
First Stanza: “Many unknown bubbles float and flow”
In the first stanza, the speaker states that many things come and go, and he would like to know both where they come from and where they go. The speaker metaphorically compares these worldly objects to “bubbles,” indicating that their existence is tenuous, ephemeral, and that they are in reality only temporary appearances on the screen of life.
He continues to describe the bubbles as things that “dance with me / And melt away into the sea.” The waves of the sea that cause little watery bubbles to bounce around the swimmer serve as a useful metaphor for the all worldly things that are passing through a fragile existence on their way to who knows where.
Second Stanza: “The rain drops and dies”
The speaker then reports, “The rain drops and dies,” noting again another natural phenomenon that comes quickly as leaves just as quickly. But then he adds, “My thoughts play wild and vanish quick.” With the rain, come and go the speaker’s thoughts.
He then reports, “red clouds melt into the skies; the rain vanishes and the cloud vanishes, leaving the speaker to desire ever so strongly to know “their motive.” He vows to “stake [his] purse” and “slave all [of his] life” to find out why these things behave as they do.
Third Stanza: “Some friends — though not their love”
The speaker then notes that even some of his friends have vanished, but he asserts that he knows he still has their love. The speaker is imparting the knowledge that the unseen is the part of creation that does not vanish; the physical bodies of his friends must undergo the vanishing act, but their love does not, because love is entrenched in the immortality of the soul.
The speaker then avers that his “dearest thoughts” also can never be lost. He then points out that the “night’s surest stars” that were “seen just above” have all “fled.” Objects as huge and bright as stars come and go, but his own thoughts and love do not.
Fourth Stanza: “Crowds of lilies, warbling linnets”
In the fourth stanza, the speaker offers to the eye and ear a list of nature’s creatures, “Crowds of lilies, warbling linnets, / Perfumed blossoms, honey-mad bees.” These lovely bits of nature once appeared on the scene “at yonder bowered trees,” but now “the lonesome field alone is left.” As the little wavelets and rain and the stars appeared and then vanished, so did these other phenomena.
Fifth Stanza: “The bubbles, lilies, friends, dramatic thoughts”
The speaker again offers the evanescent images of “bubbles, lilies, friends, dramatic thoughts” and reports that they play “their parts” “and entertain.” He then dramatically proclaims that after they vanish, they exist only “behind the cosmic screen.” They do not cease to exist, however; they merely change “their displayed coats.”
Instead of the physical world mayic drama of sight and sound, these once worldly presences become “quiet” for they are “concealed.” But the important, uplifting thought that accompanies the spiritual reality of all phenomena is that they do not truly vanish; they “remain.” The scientific law of the conservation of energy as well as the spiritual law of immortality proclaim their eternal existence.
Source
- Paramahansa Yogananda, “Vanishing Bubbles,” Songs of the Soul, Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, 1983.
Note: This article received an Editor's Choice Award. The Editor's Choice Award checkmark icon disappears, after writers do any further editing of their articles.
Linda Sue Grimes - As a writer, researcher, and SRF devotee, Linda Sue Grimes has studied poetry and practiced Kriya Yoga for over thirty years..
