My India by Paramahansa Yogananda

My India
Not where the musk of happiness blows
Nor where darkness and fears never tread
Not in the homes of perpetual smiles
Nor in the heaven of a land of prosperity
Would I be born,If I must put on mortal garb once more
Dread famine may prowl and tear my flesh
Yet would I love to be again in my India
A million thieves of disease May try to steal the body's fleeting health
And clouds of fate May shower scalding drops of searing sorrow
Yet would I there, in India, Love to reappear!
Is this love of mine blind sentiment that sees not the pathways of reason?
Ah, no! I love India,
For there I learned first to love God and all things beautiful
Some teach to seize the fickle dewdrop life
Sliding down the lotus leaf of time
Stubborn hopes are built
Around the gilded, brittle body-bubble
But India taught me to love
The soul of deathless beauty in the dewdrop
and the bubble
Not their fragile frames
Her sages taught me to find my Self......