THE LOST AND THE FOUND – this is the stuff of the stories we’ve heard and we’ve lived from our earliest infancy. And all that we’ve “lost” terrifies and sickens us. And we somehow forget all the “found” that, remembered, we might be healed by. Such are the constraints of TIME. But not forever. Not forever. Over all there is “the deepest silence of the night” and a smiling there, and a whispering. And perhaps a somehow familiar song on the wind: “rejoice with me! – for that which was lost is found”. Again and again and again … whispering, smiling …
When the creation was new and all the stars shone in their first splendour, the gods held their assembly in the sky and sang ‘Oh, the picture of perfection! the joy unalloyed!’
But one cried of a sudden – ‘It seems that somewhere there is a break in the chain of light and one of the stars has been lost.’
The golden string of the harp snapped, their song stopped, and they cried in dismay – ‘Yes, that lost star was the best, she was the glory of all heavens!’
From that day the search is unceasing for her, and the cry goes on from one to the other that in her the world has lost its one joy!
Only in the deepest silence of the night the stars smile and whisper among themselves – ‘Vain is this seeking! Unbroken perfection is over all!’
Rabindranath Tagore
Gitanjali – the 78th Song Offering
