(Evening Prayer)
A hymn to Ramakrishna
Bengali original by Swami Vivekananda
Translation by Christopher Isherwood
Revised by William Schindler
Breaker of this world's chain, I adore you whom all men love.
Spotless, taking man's form, O Purifier, you are above the guna's[1] three.
Knowledge Divine, not flesh, you whom the cosmos wears,
A Diamond at its heart.
Let me look deep in your eyes;
They are bright with the Wisdom of God that can wake me from Maya's spell.
Let me hold fast to your feet, treading the waves of the world to safety.
O drunk with love, God-drunken Lover, in you all paths of all yogas meet.
Lord of the worlds, you are mine,
Who were born a child of my time, easy of access to me.
O Merciful, if I take any hold upon God in my prayer,
It is by your grace alone, since all your austerities were practiced for my sake.
How great was your sacrifice, freely choosing your birth,
In the prison our Iron Age[2] to unchain me and set me free.
Perfect, whom lust could not taint, nor passion nor gold draw near;
O Master of all who renounce, fill my heart full of love for you.
You have finished with fear and with doubt, standing firm in the vision of God,
Refuge to all who have cast fame, fortune, and friends away.
Without question you shelter me, and the world's great sea in its wrath
Seems shrunk to the puddle that fills the hoof print in the clay.
Speech cannot hold you nor mind, yet without you I think not nor speak.
Love, who are partial to none, we are equal before your sight.
Taker away of my pain, I salute you, though I am blind.
Come to the heart's black cave and illumine,
You Light of the light.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] The three gunas, sattva, rajas, and tamas, are considered the constituents of the material world in several systems of Hindu philosophy
[2] Kaliyuga, the fourth great age said to be full of spiritual darkness yet during which it becomes easier to become enlightened.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------