Long before I met Richard Eggenberger, whom the Mother named Narad, I had heard much in appreciation of him from many elder sadhaks of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and already knew of him as one who has dedicated all his life and being in service to the Divine Mother and Sri Aurobindo. My subsequent contact with him over the years has only confirmed and elucidated the many facets of his personality and the diverse fields of life in which the Mother has realised her work through him. His friends have been witness to his masterful skills as a botanist, gardener, musician, photographer, artist, poet, and above all a connoisseur and lover of beauty and perfection in all things. Shining through all his work is the soft light of a mystic continuing his journey across lives, cultures and climes. The deeper dimensions of Narad's personality are subtly revealed in his visionary poems in this first of two volumes. Reading through this collection, one can feel the psychic and spiritual influence of the soul sustained and developing across the years. We find here diverse occult and spiritual experiences, descriptions of higher worlds, glimpses of past lives and visions of the future, milestones in the spiritual journey, insights in yoga theory and practice, miracles, narratives of occult forces and their action behind the ordinary-seeming events of life; the struggle through life, joy and grief, tragedy and pain, to rise, to hope, but always to turn and open oneself to the Divine. -Sraddhalu Ranade