To our Readers

(IN CONCLUSION OF VOLUME XXVII)

From SREE SAJJANA-TOSHANI
THE HARMONIST
May 1930

The Harmonist has tried to serve the Vox Dei in the measure of the light vouchsafed to her, by walking in the footsteps of Sajjana-toshani founded by Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode.

The Harmonist or Sajjanatoshani is, as her names imply, opposed to discord, being given to the service of the devotees of the Source of unmixed harmony. She has experienced the necessity of appealing to all pure souls, whose servant she tries to be, against misrepresentation of the function by pseudo-competitors. She has tried to follow the ideal of spiritual patience in preaching the Word of God in a polemical Age. The time has arrived when it is possible for her to extend the comparative method of exposition to meet the requirements of the increasing body of her readers. She relies on the good wishes of all persons sincerely inclined to listen to the voice of God and hopes to succeed in pleasing them by being true to the same herself.

Those who think it to be their duty to serve the Vox Populi, without clear and continuous subordination to the Vox Dei, create only discord by their seemingly well-meant efforts. The seekers of mundane facilities for avowed gratification of sensuous appetites may pause, if they like, even in the midst of their precipitate progress over the edge of the falls of Niagra, to catch the sound of the Vox Dei who saves from all danger. In order to do so it is only necessary to plug our ears against the fatal song of the Sirens sometimes dubbed by its victims as the Vox Populi.

The song of worldliness need not by any stretch of the imagination be mistaken for the voice of God. If one cannot extricate himself from the rapids that are dragging him irresistibly over the edge of the Niagra he need not suppose it to be derogatory to the principle of his free initiative to put forth his hand to grasp the line thrown to him by people from the dry shore, even if those who struggle in the current maliciously advise him to refuse all succor not devised by himself.

The voice of God is likely to sound dis-harmonious to the ear that is accustomed to worship at the shrine of oracles occupied with predicting one's swift progress over the edge of the Niagra. One who has deliberately committed himself to the tender mercies of the rushing Niagra bethinks himself instinctively of the appalling difficulty of any attempt of regaining the shore, even if he can believe in the reality of his desperate position.

The Harmonist is by no means a pessimist applying herself to the barren performance of advising a person regarding the hopelessness of his condition and having no real help to offer, like the oracles of this world who are themselves in the grip of the fell current and are not in the position either to help themselves or others. Those who trust their hold on straw for being rescued from the rushing flood are necessarily chary of jeopardizing their hypothetical and doubtful safety by offering to share the same with an impossibly large number of clamorous and desperate people.

The Harmonist as exponent of the voice of God possesses a sufficient length of perfectly sound cable for effecting the rescue of any number of drowning people who are willing to be saved. In order to perform this duty she has to avoid all methods that may expose her to the risk of loosening her own hold of the rope. This caution need not be foolishly suspected or maliciously misrepresented as a piece of selfish treachery.

The help that is offered by the Harmonist is nothing short of the real Divine guidance. The mercy of Godhead alone can rescue us from the fell current of the worldly Niagra. Those who are at all prepared to admit the necessity of such aid, or, in other words, are disposed to recognise the active existence of the merciful Saviour, should find nothing fundamentally wrong in lending their ear to one who is engaged in expounding the word of Godhead from an intelligible transcendental platform, although to the limited empiric logic the claim may seem at first sight to be well-nigh self-contradictory. It is the Voice of God that can alone enlighten our darkened understanding both as regards the method and object of the quest of the real Truth. The Harmonist implores all persons to lend a patient hearing to the message that has come to her for being loyally delivered to all who may care to listen without prejudice.