Kirtans of Saint Suradasji continued..

[Guest guest]

Jaya Sri Radhey! Namaste.

 

"Time after time I've deceived myself.

 

Instinctively clawed after sensual carrion

and squandered the jewel of Hari within,

Like a deer in a desert chasing a mirage,

who aggravates his thirst with every assault.

 

Birth after birth I have acted and acted

and acting, entangled, imprisoned myself

Like the parrot who nurtures the silk-cotton bud,

stalking it constantly, obstinate, vigilant,

Till one fine day he pecks the ripe fruit

and it's empty: like cotton it flies in his face;

 

Like the monkey the minstrel-magician has leashed

so he'll dance for crumbs at each neighborhood market-

 

SUr DAs says, sing to the Lord, sing or else

you're feeding your tail to the viper of time."

 

(S 326)

 

-'Pada' of the Rasik Saint Sura das, from the book 'Surdas, Poet,

Singer, Saint' by John S. Hawley

 

 

Jaya Sri Radhey!

[Guest guest]

Jaya Sri Radhey! Namaste all.

 

This poem seems more explicit than any of the others: it begins with

the words 'aj hO andh', "Now I am blind," and gives special attention

to the eyes throughout. Yet context makes it clear once again that

the defect is essentially SPIRITUAL.

 

The poet's complaints about old age may be regarded similarly as

reflexes of spiritual decrepitude, and in the end even death seems to

appear on the scene to fill a VACCUM that has been created by the

ABSENCE OF FAITH.

 

"Now I am blind; I have shunned Hari's Name.

 

My hair has turned white with illusions and delusions

that have wrung me through till nothing makes sense.

Skin shriveled, posture bent, teeth gone;

my eyes emit a stream of tears;

my friends, a stream of blame.

 

Those eyes once ranged as free as cat's,

but failed to measure the play of Time

Like a false-eyed scarecrow failing to scatter

the deer from the field of the mind.

 

SUr DAs says, to carry on without a song for God

is courting Death; his sledge stands poised

above your waiting head."

 

---------------

 

"Now I have danced too much, Gopal.

 

Dressed in anger and lust, and garlanded

with a necklace of passion at the throat;

 

girded with the ankle-bells of sham and delusion

(how sweet their slanderous sound),

I am bound at the waist with a sash of illusion,

and a beauty mark of greed crowns my brow.

 

Cravings roar inside my body

in a clash of competing rhythms

And my mind, a drum dusted with confusion,

beats to a dessonant pulse.

 

I've marshaled and flaunted every artful step

and filled my sinful net:

 

Sur's learned his ignorance well, Nandalal-

take it, take it all."

 

 

- An excerpt along with the 'Padas' of the Rasik Saint Sura das, from

the book 'Surdas, Poet, Singer, Saint' by John S. Hawley

 

Adi Jagadguru Sri Shankara Bhagavatpada's "Bhaja Govindam" also

teaches:

 

dinayaaminyau saayaM praataH

shishiravasantau punaraayaataH .

kaalaH kriiDati gachchhatyaayuH

tadapi na muJNcatyaashaavaayuH .. 12..

 

Day and night...and the dawn and the dusk,

Winter and spring come and go round and round,

Time plays on and the life ebbs out,

But the gust of lust, know, leaves not one! (12)

 

aN^gaM galitaM palitaM muNDaM

dashanavihiinaM jataM tuNDam.h .

vR^iddho yaati gR^ihiitvaa daNDaM

tadapi na muJNcatyaashaapiNDam.h .. 15..

 

Body worn out, and hairs turned silver white,

Teeth gone, mouth gaping round like hollow cave!

The old man totters with a stick in hand,

Even he leaves not the bundle of his desires! (15)

 

agre vahniH pR^ishhThebhaanuH

raatrau chubukasamarpitajaanuH .

karatalabhikshastarutalavaasaH

tadapi na muJNcatyaashaapaashaH .. 16..

 

Fire in front and the sun at the back,

The chin clasped to his knees on a chilly night,

Gathering ALMS in hollow-of-palm, and living under a tree

Yet even he, know, leaves not the ROPE-OF-DESIRE that BINDS! (16)

 

bhajagovindaM bhajagovindaM

govindaM bhajamuuDhamate .

saMpraapte sannihite kaale

nahi nahi rakshati DukR^iJNkaraNe .. 1..

 

Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda. Oh fool !

Rules of Grammar will not save you at the time of your death.

 

Jaya Sri Radhey!