Today's Beautiful Gem: `The Lotus' dedicated to M. K. Gandhi
by Sarojini Naidu

"O mystic Lotus, sacred and sublime,
In myriad-petalled grace inviolate,
Supreme o'er transient storms of tragic Fate,
Deep-rooted in the waters of all Time,
What legions loosed from many a far-off clime
Of wild-bee hordes with lips insatiate,
And hungry winds with wings of hope or hate,
Have thronged and pressed round thy miraculous prime,
To devastate thy loveliness, to drain
The midmost rapture of thy glorious heart...
But who could win thy secret, who attain
Thine ageless beauty born of Brahma's breath,
Or pluck thine immortality, who art
Coeval with the Lords of Life and Death?"

Note: Oct 2, 1994 (Sunday) marks the 125th birth anniversary
of Mahatma Gandhi. It was the Mahatma who affectionately named
Mrs Naidu the nightingale of India. Both were imprisoned in
the Aga Khan Palace in Poona during the period of the `Quit
India' movement.

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