Dhan Gopal Mukerji (1890-1936) as a man is one of different sorts, a fictionist, a translator, a poet, a children’s writer, a rebel and so on, all combined in one. After having received his education at Duff School (now Scottish Church Collegiate School, Calcutta), Duff College, under Calcutta Univ., he studied at the Univ. of Tokyo, the Univ. of California Berkeley and Stanford Univ. An Indian American, he used to live in New York. A recipient of Newbery Medal, 1928 for Go Neck, the Story of a Pigeon, he accomplished what many would not have then. But disillusionment with life, its situations and circumstances impelled to cut it short unnaturally.

David Starr Jordan, Chancellor, Leland Jr. Stanford Univ., 1916,  in his Introduction to Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s Rajani, Songs of The Night, published by Paul Elder & Company, San Francisco writes:

“In this little volume a young Hindu scholar has tried to express in English “free verse” something of the dream-poetry of his native Bengal. The little poems are not translations, nor imitations. They are fancies of the night, “Rajani,” suggestions and hints of the emotions which the darkness awakens in the mind of a mystical scholar. In the first of the series, “

“Bhikshu” (mendicant), the poet, feels himself awakening as a suppliant for reality in the light of Oriental thought. With the dawn, he hails the Lotus, “Om Moni Padme Om,” as the symbol of the source whence flows the “nectar of sustenance,”  the life-impulse which vivifies all living creatures.

“Rajani,” the world of baffling dreams, showers down its strange sensations, but with all these goes the hidden sense of lack of reality. Through the morning dew comes the song of the “Bhikshu,” the lute-player who has lost his scroll and makes his plea for reality.”

A bhikshuk at the door saying, Om Moni Padme Om, tells a lot about Buddha and Buddhism, the gospels and sermons of the master advocating peace, peace of mind and spirit and peace around and putting before us an image of Avalokiteshwara Buddha and so many connected forms. Where to drift, where to go to, this is but samsara, of the chakra of dukkha and sukhha, how to be absolved of?

The bhikshuk keeps wandering, a singer of songs, telling of the hidden secrets and realities. Detaching from this samsara, he sings of sorrow, pain and suffering as this the way of the world. We don’t know how light is hidden from us , but we fail to see it. Though he is not like him the poet asks the bhikshuk to guide him.

Om Moni Padme Om, I in the jewel lotus, how to mean it the unmeant? What is the meaning of the secret mantra? The jewel is in the lotus, a lotus view of life, so serene, calm and sedate dream you aspire you to be endowed with.

My boat is laden with life. Let it go floating, drifting to reach the shore of light. Awaken you the kundalini. Know your navel. Om opens the inner doors.

The lotus is within us, and we need to realize it. Om contains in the primordial sound and here lies it the genesis. The bhikshuk who came and hummed the song, approached the door cast an impact of his own. There is no home for him. His dukkha, the dukkha of manna and soul how to take to? How to understand it? But to feel the lotus is the main thing.

Bhikshu’s Song

A Bhikshu* at the door,
Om Moni Padme Om !
A lute-player without a scroll;
A boatswain without his toll.
My barque is laden with life,
Bound for the shore of light;
Let it drift with the stream
To its destination of dream!
 
A Bhikshu at the door,
Om Moni Padme Om !
A singer that sings of sorrow;
Whose night knows no tomorrow;
My song finds its source
In its moonless immensity
Bound with the girdle of sleep;
Love’s Nirvana, the only pearl in its deep.
 
Bhikshu, singer, sorrower,
I see the face of thy star;
Om Moni Padme Om !
A barque of life with love,
O, guide thou from above,
With thy star-music’s silver tone,
Om Moni Padme Om!
 
* Buddhist monks are called Bhikshus.