Last night I saw
In a dream orchard
Hanging from the branches of the trees
In place of fruit
Clusters of golden finger cymbals
Which tingled in the breezes
As if they were thousands of tiny frozen lotus flowers
Shimmering and tingling;
and flocks of devotees in streaming yellow robes
danced up and down between the rows of trees
with upraised arms that looked like the curved necks
of swans
and heads tilted and eyes that looked lost
because they had found
bliss
which only Krishna can bestow
to His pure devotees;
and beneath one of the trees sat Swamiji
as if enthroned
beating His drum intently
smiling, placed
and chanting
HARE KRISHNA
While all the yellow-robed marionettes swirrled about him
Chanting
HARE KRISHNA
And the timbriled trees tingled from each breath of Krishna
Oh Krishna, if in my next thousand births
This dream is all You reveal to me of Your Kingdom
Then it would be enough.
Brahmananda Das Brahmachary
(Bruce Scharf)