Forests whisper Thy lush leafiness. Mountains testify to Thy majesty. Restless rivers rush to Thy unguarded sea Where Thy grave hand marks their madness.
O Divine Effulgence, We bow before Thy Beauty! O Divine Effulgence, We humbly bow to Thy Bounty!
Servers serve for Thy pleasure! Lovers love only through Thy treasure! Mourners mourn for Thee alone, Thee alone! Only Thy pure-hearted ones know Thy bliss!
Only Thy saints and yogis approach Thy bliss!
O Divine Effulgence, We bow before Thy Beauty! O Divine Effulgence, We humbly bow to Thy Bounty!
Human beings have a persistent tendency to classify themselves, often believing that such classifications clarify identity and improve understanding. Yet, when examined closely, many of these categories—whether rooted in physical identity, behavior, or personality—can obscure deeper truths about human nature.
Human Being: A Soul with a Body
While classification can offer a sense of order, it can also encourage individuals to identify too strongly with external labels, neglecting the deeper dimensions of consciousness, character, and inner development that define human experience.
According to Paramahansa Yogananda, the human being is essentially a soul who has a body. The human essence cannot be quantified, qualified, and classified. Any attempt to do so, simply limits the true nature of humanity to materialistic standards that remain incapable of distinguishing truth from fiction.
At the core of this argument is the distinction between essence and expression. The human being may be understood not merely as a physical organism, but as a conscious entity whose identity transcends bodily and social categories. When individuals define themselves primarily through classifications such as sex, race, or nationality, they risk losing sight of this deeper identity.
These classifications, though often fixed and socially reinforced, are ultimately temporary conditions of embodiment. For example, a person born in the United States, identified as female, and categorized within a particular racial group may spend much of her life navigating those labels. Yet none of these descriptors addresses her inner consciousness, moral capacity, or spiritual awareness.
A similar issue arises with psychological classifications such as “introvert” and “extrovert.” While these terms can describe tendencies, they often become limiting identities. Modern psychology acknowledges that personality exists on a spectrum, with most individuals exhibiting both introverted and extroverted traits depending on context [1].
For instance, a person who identifies as introverted may still display extroverted behavior when speaking on a subject of passion or when among trusted friends. Conversely, an extroverted individual may crave solitude after prolonged social interaction. These examples illustrate that such classifications are not fixed identities but fluctuating expressions of a more complex mind.
The broader philosophical concern is that classification often mistakes behavior for being. Actions, preferences, and tendencies are sometimes elevated to defining characteristics of the self, when in fact they represent only partial aspects of a person’s existence.
A person who prefers solitude is more than the label “introvert,” just as a person who engages in particular patterns of behavior cannot be reduced to those behaviors alone. Human identity encompasses thought, intention, awareness, and the capacity for change—qualities that resist rigid categorization.
Real-world examples further illustrate the limitations of classification. Consider the workplace: employees are often categorized as “team players” (extroverted) or “independent workers” (introverted).
While these distinctions can help with task allocation, they can also restrict growth. An employee labeled as introverted may be overlooked for leadership roles, despite possessing strong decision-making skills and emotional intelligence.
Research in organizational psychology shows that introverted leaders can be highly effective, particularly in environments that require careful listening and thoughtful strategy [2]. This demonstrates how labels, when taken too rigidly, can hinder both individual development and institutional success.
Another example arises in education. Students are frequently grouped by learning styles or personality traits, which can influence teacher expectations. A quiet student may be assumed disengaged, while a talkative student may be seen as more capable.
However, studies indicate that quieter students often process information deeply and may excel in written or reflective tasks [3]. Here again, classification simplifies what is actually a nuanced interplay of cognitive and emotional factors.
From a more reflective perspective, the danger of classification becomes even more pronounced when individuals neglect inner development. Practices such as meditation, contemplation, or prayer, which cultivate self-awareness and depth of understanding, often require stepping beyond labels altogether.
The inward turn associated with such practices resembles what is commonly labeled “introversion,” yet it is not a personality type so much as a universal human capacity. Even highly social individuals benefit from periods of silence and reflection, suggesting that the introvert-extrovert dichotomy reflects tendencies rather than fixed identities.
While classification can serve practical purposes, it becomes problematic when it is mistaken for essence. Both physical and psychological labels risk reducing the human being to partial truths, ignoring the deeper, unifying reality of human consciousness.
By recognizing that traits such as sociability, behavior, and identity categories are fluid and secondary, individuals can move toward a more integrated understanding of themselves. Such an understanding not only aligns with psychological evidence but also supports the broader view that the essence of the human being transcends all classification.
Image: Emily Dickinson – Amherst College – Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 – likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet
Emily Dickinson’s “Adrift! A little boat adrift!”
In Emily Dickinson’s skilled employment of paradox and metaphor in her poem “Adrift! A little boat adrift!,” the speaker offers a complex drama played out seemingly on an earthly ocean but actually performed on the mystical sea, where life remains immortal and eternal.
Introduction and Text of “Adrift! A little boat adrift!”
Emily Dickinson enjoyed the riddle essence of poetry. She often employed that riddle essence in which she implies or directly asks a question. Other times, she simply offers her rather detailed description and allows the reader to answer. In this little drama, she elides the physical universe with the spiritual universe.
Metaphorically comparing the human being to a “little boat” floating without a guide on the sea of life, she deliberately sinks that boat before resurrecting that drowned life through the agency of the human soul, which cannot be drowned but which possesses all the power of its Creator to demolish all human suffering.
Adrift! A little boat adrift!
Adrift! A little boat adrift! And night is coming down! Will no one guide a little boat Unto the nearest town?
So Sailors say – on yesterday – Just as the dusk was brown One little boat gave up its strife And gurgled down and down.
So angels say – on yesterday – Just as the dawn was red One little boat – o’erspent with gales – Retrimmed its masts – redecked its sails – And shot – exultant on!
Commentary on “Adrift! A little boat adrift!”
This little drama offers a useful example of Dickinson’s most intense style, featuring her use of the riddle and her mystic appraisal of the human mind and heart, influenced by the human soul, whose guidance may seem rudderless, until that guidance becomes crucial.
First Stanza: Report of Danger
Adrift! A little boat adrift! And night is coming down! Will no one guide a little boat Unto the nearest town?
The speaker begins with an exclamation revealing that danger is on the horizon in the form of a small watercraft floating about unguided by a knowing pilot. Such a situation alerts the reader/listener that all sorts of calamity could ensue.
To make matters worse, nightfall is fast approaching. An unguided vessel drifting into the nighttime brings down a veil of fright and concern. Again the speaker is exclaiming for again she places the exclamation mark at the end of her brief outcry!
The speaker then cries for assistance for the little drifting sea craft, but instead of a command, she frames the cry as a question with a negative emphasis, “[w]ill no one . . . ?” She demonstrates that she suspects there is no one who will chaperone and usher this little vessel to a safe harbor, such as to “the nearest town.”
The painful negativity suggested by the speaker early on in her little drama foreshadows the ultimate outcome in her conclusion. She alerts her listeners that a likely catastrophe is on the horizon.
But truly alert readers/listeners will suspend judgment until the conclusion is revealed, for Emily Dickinson can be as tricky as any poet writing. She can out-trick Robert Frost by miles and miles.
Second Stanza: Disaster
So Sailors say – on yesterday – Just as the dusk was brown One little boat gave up its strife And gurgled down and down.
The speaker continues her report of the disastrous fate of this “little boat.” It has been reported by “Sailors,” those who would know, that this little sea vessel that so valiantly struggled nevertheless gave up the ghost and let the sea take it down into its depths.
The time of this sinking was dusk when the color of sunset spread its brown, saddening haze upon the land and sea. The sailors have reported that the vessel simply “gave up” because it could not overcome its “strife.”
It gave up its life, its cargo, all that was precious within it. It gave up and then went down with gurgling sounds–the sound of a living throat taking on water that will ultimately drown it.
The speaker has created a scenario of such pain and suffering that can only be assuaged with extraordinary finesse. The sinking of a little boat remains a sorrowful image, and the speaker has seared that painful image into the inner sight of her listeners/readers. She has dramatized the events surrounding that image in such a way as to heighten the pain and anguish experienced by her audience.
Third Stanza: Safety at Last
So angels say – on yesterday – Just as the dawn was red One little boat – o’erspent with gales – Retrimmed its masts – redecked its sails – And shot – exultant on!
Finally, the speaker quickly pulls the readers/listeners minds from the earthly tragedy on the physical level of existence on which the sinking of a sea craft causes pain and suffering. Despite what the “Sailors” have reported, there is another report by higher beings that will impart a different engagement, a different outcome of this earthly event.
Now, the report is brought by “angels.” The higher, mystical beings are reporting that this event happened the same day as the earthly report “yesterday.” But the time was early morning when “dawn was red,” setting up a dichotomy from yesterday when “dusk was brown.”
Instead of merely going down “gurgl[ing],” this little vessel when faced with ferocious “gales,” fought valiantly: it transformed itself by reshaping it “masts” and reinstalling stronger and better sea-worthy “sails.”
And after it completed those repairs, it sped past all earthy danger and triumphantly entered into the realm of mystic life (Christians call it “Heaven”) where no water can drown, no storm can toss, and no pain and suffering can stifle.
Paradox and Metaphor
Upon first encounter, the reader will detect what seems to be a contradiction or impossibility because of a reversal of two time periods. In the second stanza, it is reported that the little boat sank yesterday at “dusk.” But then in the third stanza, it is reported that the little boat encountered its difficulty yesterday at “dawn.”
The resolution of this paradox is accomplished through the realization that on the spiritual, mystical level of being, time remains eminently malleable. At the time the “little boat” experienced it difficulty, it realized its immortal, eternal aspect.
It became aware that it is, in fact, a spark of the Eternal, and therefore nothing can harm it. It realized that stature at dawn, thus by the time dusk had arrived to take its physical form, its mystic/spiritual form–or soul–had moved on.
This poem may be considered one of Emily Dickinson’s riddle poems. Although it does not seem to call for answering a riddle question, readers cannot fail to grasp that the “little boat” is a metaphor for a human being.
This metaphor becomes obvious, however, only after the angels offer their report. The “little boat” then is revealed to possess the human ability to realize its special power, its mystical spark, and its ability to transcend earthly trials and tribulations.
Image: Emily Dickinson – Amherst College – Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 – likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet
Emily Dickinson’s “If those I loved were lost”
The speaker in Emily Dickinson’s “If those I loved were lost” is emphasizing the value she places on her loved ones. She likens their importance to significant events from the community level to the world stage, where bells ring to announce important happenings.
Introduction and Text of “If those I loved were lost”
Emily Dickinson’s “If those I loved were lost” features two stanzas, each with two movements. The speaker’s musing targets how the speaker would react to both losing and finding loved ones. Her emotions and behaviors signal the importance of those loved ones to her. The value she places on these individuals can only be suggested and not directly stated.
If those I loved were lost
If those I loved were lost The Crier’s voice would tell me – If those I loved were found The bells of Ghent would ring –
Did those I loved repose The Daisy would impel me. Philip – when bewildered Bore his riddle in!
Commentary on “If those I loved were lost”
This highly allusive poem takes readers from life in a small village to the world stage, on which famous bells herald momentous events. The allusions emphasize the significance the speaker places on those to whom she refers.
First Movement: An Important Announcement
If those I loved were lost The Crier’s voice would tell me –
The speaker is speculating about her emotions and behaviors after having lost a loved one, and then she adds a speculative note about those emotions and behavior as she suddenly has found a beloved.
The first movement finds the speaker claiming that the loss of a loved one would herald a “Crier” to announce the event. In earlier times, a “town crier” was employed to spread local news events on the streets of small villages.
The town crier’s position was noticeable because of his manner and elaborate dress: such a crier might be adorned in bright colors, a coat of red and gold with white pants, a three-cornered hat (tricon), and black boots. He usually carried a bell that he would ring to attract attention of the citizens. He often would begin his announcement with the cry, “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!”
By making this simple claim that a “crier” would be letting her know about the loss of a loved one, the speaker is elevating the importance of everyone she loves to the status of a noted official or famous name in the community.
Second Movement: The Significance of Loss
If those I loved were found The bells of Ghent would ring –
The speaker then alludes to the famous Ghent Belfry, whose construction began in 1313 with ringing bells to announce religious events, later employed to signal other important occurrences.
The inscription on the belfry tower indicates the historical and legendary important of the construction: “My name is Roland. When I toll there is fire. / When I ring there is victory in the land.”
Dickinson was likely aware of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s lines, “Till the bell of Ghent responded o’er lagoon and dike of sand, I am Roland! I am Roland! there is victory in the land!”
Because the famous bells ring to herald important events, the speaker assigns great importance to the fact that she has found a loved one. Thus the speaker has molded her losing and finding those she loves into great and momentous events.
Third Movement: Daisy and Death
Did those I loved repose The Daisy would impel me.
The speaker then speculates about her reaction to the death of her loved ones. She refers to the flower, the “Daisy,” stating that it would “impel her.” The employment of the Daisy is likely prompted by the flower’s association with growing on graves as in Keats’ reference in the following excerpt from one of his letter to a friend:
I shall soon be laid in the quiet grave – thank God for the quiet grave – O! I can feel the cold earth upon me – the daisies growing over me – O for this quiet – it will be my first.
And, too, there is the old expression, “pushing up daisies,” of which Dickinson was, no doubt, aware. The flower would drive her to some of kind reaction which she fails to describe but only hints at. Although she simply suggests her reaction, she leaves a significant clue in the next movement, as she alludes again to Ghent, this time the leader named Philip.
Fourth Movement: The Riddle of Loss
Philip – when bewildered Bore his riddle in!
The speaker is then alluding to Philip van Artevelde (1340–82), who was a popular Flemish leader. He led a successful battle against the count of Flanders, but later met defeat and death. The Dickinson household library contained a book with a play that featured Philip’s last words before dying, “What have I done? Why such a death? Why thus?”
Thus the speaker makes it known that she would have many questions as she struggles with the death of a loved one. She would, like Philip, be overcome, having to bear such a “riddle.”
The speaker has shown how important and necessary her loved ones are to her, and she has also demonstrated that their loss would be devastating, and she has done all this through suggestions and hints, without any direct statement of pain and anguish. All of the sorrow is merely suggested by the high level of importance she is assigning to her loved ones.
Image: Emily Dickinson – Amherst College – Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 – likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet
Emily Dickinson’s “So has a Daisy vanished”
The speaker in Emily Dickinson’s “So has a Daisy vanished” wonders if the dead Daisy and other departing plant creatures of the field have gone off to be “with God.”
Introduction and Text of “So has a Daisy vanished”
The speaker of Emily Dickinson’s “So has a Daisy vanished,” who has a keen ability to observe her natural surroundings, has been moved to wonder about the soul of “a Daisy” and many other “slipper[s]” who have given up their physical encasements of beautiful blooms and glorious green stems and simply vanished. She wonders where they went, as she dramatizes their final days of earthly glory.
So has a Daisy vanished
So has a Daisy vanished From the fields today – So tiptoed many a slipper To Paradise away –
Oozed so in crimson bubbles Day’s departing tide – Blooming – tripping – flowing Are ye then with God?
Commentary on “So has a Daisy vanished”
The speaker in this brief drama wonders if the dead Daisy and other departing plant creatures of the field have gone off to be “with God.”
First Stanza: A Flower in Heaven
So has a Daisy vanished From the fields today – So tiptoed many a slipper To Paradise away –
The speaker begins with a statement informing her readers and listeners that a lovely flower has gone, disappeared “from the fields today.” She begins with the conjunctive adverb “so,” seeming to indicate that she is merely taking up a thought that began somewhere else and at an earlier interval.
Then again employing the telling “so,” the speaker adds that many other flowers have also tripped off to “Paradise.” Along with the lovely “Daisy,” the other “slipper[s]” have all gone missing, but the speaker suggests that they have metaphorically died and gone to Heaven. While the “Daisy” has rather generically “vanished,” the others have “tiptoed” off “to Paradise.”
The speaker is playing with the language of loss, which almost always produces a melancholy in the very sensitive hearts of keen observers. Instead of merely dying, the flowers vanish from the fields and tiptoe away.
That they all have metaphorically gone on to “Paradise” demonstrates that the faith and courage of the sensitive heart of this deep observer are fully operational. That the speaker allows that these creatures of nature have gone to Heaven or Paradise shows that she has a firm grasp on the existence of the soul as a permanent life force that plants as well as animals possess.
This speaker understands that all life is divinely endowed. The flowers leave behind their physical encasements, but they take their soul encasement and then scurry off to the astral world, from where they will likely return to the Earth or some other planet to continue working out their karma–an eventuality that informs the procedure for the animal kingdom as well.
Second Stanza: To Be with the Divine Creator
Oozed so in crimson bubbles Day’s departing tide – Blooming – tripping – flowing Are ye then with God?
While the speaker remains aware that plant life force is as eternal as that of the animal kingdom, she is not so sure about where each individual plant goes after its demise. Thus she wonders if they are “with God.”
Likely influenced by the Christian concepts of Heaven and Hell, the speaker no doubt wonders if plant behavior while on Earth may require a reckoning that leads to Heaven or Hell. That she asks in the more affirmative mood demonstrates her optimistic sensitivity.
Paramahansa Yogananda has likened life on Earth to vanishing bubbles. He has explained that many deep thinking philosophers, sages, and poets have realized that the things of this world are like bubbles in the ocean; those individual things such as stars, flowers, animals, and people suddenly appear, experience a life only for a brief period of time, and then they disappear as swiftly as they appeared.
In his poem, “Vanishing Bubbles,” the great yogi dramatizes that brief earthly sojourn of the myriad life forms, as he unearths the solution for those sensitive minds and hearts that grieve after the loss of those individuals whom they had loved and who yet must vanish like bubbles.
And that solution is the simple knowledge that although the physical encasement of each individual has indeed vanished, the soul of each individual continues to exist; therefore, there is no actual vanishing or death.
The speaker in Dickinson’s poem is suggesting that she is aware of the eternal, everlasting nature of the soul. After the lovely bloom has been maneuvered into the world on “crimson bubbles,” it will live its brief life, prancing about with the breeze, and then with the “departing tide,” its day will come to an end, but only for its physical encasement, which it will leave behind.
The speaker knows that its soul–its life force–will continue, and she wonders if those souls of all those lovely flowers she has been enjoying will then be “with God.” That she would ask hints that she believes the answer is yes.
Image: Created by ChatGPT inspired by “Naughty Child”
The Naughty Child
—after “Divine Mother’s Song to the Devotee”
Divine Mother: O my child, what do you want now?
Naughty Child: O dear Mother Divine, I want nothing but Thy love and care!
Divine Mother: But dear child of mine, I cannot give those to you; I would lose myself in your little ways.
Naughty Child: O Mother Divine, what may I ask from Thee, then?
Divine Mother: Ask me to save you from your little cares. Ask me for salvation, but don’t ask me for my love and devotion. I would become poor without them.
Naughty Child: O Mother Divine! I already have your salvation! Do not play Thy games of tit for tat, this for that. Thou canst not save me lest Thou lovest me.
Divine Mother: Funny little child of mine. You are beginning to understand. Let’s sit and watch the Eternal Sun in the East, and you will know and feel all you wish, all your little heart’s desires will be fulfilled.
Naughty Child: O Mother Divine! I bow at Thy feet again and again. Set Thy blue lotus feet upon my brow as Thou wilt. Aum! Peace! Amen!
Image: Emily Dickinson – Amherst College – Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 – likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet
Emily Dickinson’s “Morns like these – we parted”
Emily Dickinson loved nature, and birds appear often in her poems, her spiritual garden. She also was quite fond of mystery and riddles. This poem offers an accumulation of evidence that she has observed a bird and then poof! one human act and the bird takes wing!
Introduction and Text of “Morns like these – we parted”
Emily Dickinson’s speaker in her riddle-poem, “Morns like these – we parted,” is creating a drama from the act of bird-watching, as the act covers a single day from the time of morning when one bird and she parted company to the act of evening drawing the curtains, simultaneously hearing the bird fly off to its own abode or to wherever it may be taking for its destination.
The mental gymnastics of the speaker reveals a special gift of qualifying the experience of the human mind, intrigued by the bird’s ability to fly in the freedom of the open skies, indicating that this drama has often played out in the speaker’s mind.
Morns like these – we parted
Morns like these – we parted – Noons like these – she rose – Fluttering first – then firmer To her fair repose.
Never did she lisp it – It was not for me– She – was mute from transport – I – from agony –
Till – the evening nearing One the curtains drew – Quick! A sharper rustling! And this linnet flew!
Commentary on “Morns like these – we parted”
Emily Dickinson’s “Morns like these – we parted” offers an accumulation of evidence that the speaker has observed a bird and then poof! one human act and the bird takes wing!
First Stanza: Observing a Bird
Morns like these – we parted – Noons like these – she rose – Fluttering first – then firmer To her fair repose.
Observing the behavior of feathered friends, the speaker reports that on certain mornings she has watched as a bird makes its way heavenward, leaving her earthbound but astounded by the ability of an earth creature to fly through the sky.
In addition to morning flights, she has experienced the magic also around noontime. The creature with wings first may seem to merely “flutter[ ],” but then suddenly with more determined gait glided to its chosen destination.
Second Stanza: Experiencing Awe
Never did she lisp it – It was not for me– She – was mute from transport – I – from agony –
As the bird begins its magical journey, it does not communicate vocally in song or chirp to the speaker’s presence. Having nothing to impart to its observer, it merely begins its flight. The speaker assumes that the bird’s silence is caused merely by her “transport” of the felicity of light.
The speaker remains “mute” merely from “agony”—the sudden awareness that one will remain earthbound while this marvelous creature will ascend and vanish skyward. The earth-bound creatures can only watch, think, muse, and then attempt to recreate the feathered, flying creatures actions in a written composition.
Third Stanza: The Close of a Drama
Till – the evening nearing One the curtains drew – Quick! A sharper rustling! And this linnet flew!
All of this drama of observation and bird flight goes on from morning to evening, nigh to which someone in the home closes the curtains at the window. From without comes the “rustling” sound, which is quick and sharp, as the bird—now identified as a “linnet” flies off to parts unknown to the speaker/observer, but likely known well to the bird.
The speaker’s attention has been suddenly snipped by this final sudden movement of the flying creature which she has so patiently watched in wonder. The speaker’s mind has flown with the bird, waited as the bird waited, now drops its object as the bird has rustled its feathers for the last time that day and flown off to God only knows whither.
My soul goes on spreading across this land. Across the sea, my boundless soul goes on Expanding beyond this earth, Beyond the moon and sun— Frolicking from planet to planet Nipping off rays from heavenly bodies, Sipping dew-drops of celestial wine From the myriad goblet-stars.
Across the sky, my soul melts and stretches, Frozen no more in this little body, Frozen no more in this caged mind, Frozen no more, this soul expands Throughout Infinity, throughout Eternity In Bliss! Bliss! Ever more Bliss!
A slightly different version of this poem appears in my collection Singing in Soul Silence: Voices of Faith. The original last line was “In joy, joy, ever more joy!”
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