O fool!
Sing the song of the divine.
Sing the song of the divine,
Sing the song of the divine,
Because at the time of death
The memorization of grammar will not save you.
Oh fool!
Drop the desire of accumulating wealth,
Awaken right understanding,
Make the mind desireless,
And be contented and happy
With whatsoever you gain through your own labour.
Do not be infatuated
By the beauty, the breasts, the navel
And the waistline of a woman.
These are nothing
But contortions of flesh and fat
---contemplate this again and again.
Life is as transient and unstable
As a droplet on the lotus leaf.
Understand it well that the world
is suffering from the disease of the ego
And is wounded by sorrow.
The family takes interest in you
Only as long as you are capable of earning money.
As old age comes and the body becomes decrepit,
No one in the house even bothers about you.
Only as long as there is life in the body
Do the people in the family care for you.
The life gone out, the body fallen lifeless,
even one’s own wife is afraid of it.
A child is obsessed with playing games,
A young man is obsessed with n women,
The old are obsessed with worries.
Man never turns towards the divine.
Who is your wife? Who is your son?
This world is very strange.
Whose are you? Who are you?
From where have you come?
Do think over these essential questions.
From Satsang comes aloneness,
From aloneness comes non-attachment,
Because of non-attachment mind becomes stable
And because of a stable and unwavering mind
Liberation is attained.
What is sexual desire once old age has set in?
What is a pond once its water is dry?
Who is the family once your wealth is finished?
Where is the world after self-realization?
Do not be proud of wealth, people and youth,
Because death takes them all away
Within a moment.
Dropping all these illusory matters,
know the divine and enter into it.
Day and night, evening and morning,
Winter and spring come and go again and again.
Thus the play of time goes on and one’s life is over.
And yet the breeze of hope
Does not leave one alone.
Oh, you madman!
Why are you caught up in worries
About your wife and your wealth?
Don’t you know
That even a moment’s company with good people
Is the only boat there is to take you
Across the ocean of this mundane world?
One who has long hair on his head,
One who has pulled his hair from the roots,
One who is wearing ochre robes,
Or is dressed up in a variety of ways,
That fool, in spite of having eyes, is blind.
Just for the sake of his stomach
He dresses up in different ways.
All limbs have become infirm,
All hair has turned white,
There is not a single tooth in the mouth anymore
-such an old man walks with the help of a stick;
even then he is bound down with the mass of hope.
Struck by the cold,
In the morning he warms himself by keeping the fire in front of him
Or by keeping his back towards the sun.
At night, he sleeps with his chin between his knees,
He takes alms in his hands and lives under a tree;
Even then he does not drop the bondage of hope.
He may undertake the journey
To the Ganges or the Ocean,
He may undertake many austerities and fasts,
He may give away in charity,
But if he does not have self-knowledge
He will not be liberated
Even in hundred of lifetimes.
One may be residing in the temple of God
Or under a tree, the earth may be his only bed,
Deerskin may be his only robe,
He may have dropped all kinds of
Possessions and indulgences
-who would not be blissful
by such a renunciation?
He may be absorbed in enjoyment of the senses
Or in yoga, he may be engrossed
In somebody’s company or he may be alone,
But if his heart dwells in the divine,
then it is he who is blissful,
It is he who is blissful,
It is he alone who is blissful.
One who has read even a little of the Gita,
has drunk even one drop of Ganges water
and has worshipped God even a little,
Yama, the god of death, cannot destroy him.
Oh God, protect me from this troublesome world
where one has to be born again and again,
die again and again,
and fall into the womb of a mother again and again,
and take me to the other shore.
He who has made his robe
out of rags from the roadside,
whose path is free of the thought of sin and virtue,
who is engrossed in yoga,
such a yogi sometimes plays like a child
and sometimes like a madman.
Who are you? Who am I?
From where have I come?
Who is my mother? Who is my father?
Contemplate over these questions,
then you will find that the world
and its worry is meaningless and dreamlike,
and you will become free of this bad dream.
The same divine resides in you,
In me and everywhere else.
By becoming intolerant towards me
You are getting angry in vain.
So, dropping this ignorance
Of discrimination in everything,
See only yourself in all.
Do not waste your energy over such matters,
As enemy and friend, son and brother,
War and treaty. If you want to attain to the
feet of the divine soon, maintain equanimity
In everything everywhere.
Dropping sex, anger, greed and attachment,
Meditate upon yourself: Who am I?
Because fools without self-realization
Suffer the anguish of deep hell here.
Only the Gita and the Sahastranam
-the one thousand names of God-
are worth singing;
only the form of Vishnu
is worth meditating upon incessantly.
One should always seek
The company of good people,
One should give money to the poor only.
One indulges with woman for pleasure,
But what a pity that in the end
One only has a worn-out body.
Although death is the only certainty in this world,
People do not stop sinning.
Money is disaster – always contemplate over it.
The truth is that there is
No happiness in money at all.
It has been seen everywhere that the rich man
Is afraid even of his own sons.
Pranayam and pratyhar,
Intelligent discrimination between transient and intransient,
Disciplining of samadhi with japa-
Discipline all these with caution,
With great caution.
Totally surrendered
To the lotus feet of the master,
Free from the bondages of the world,
Having disciplines the mind along with the senses,
you will be able to see the divine within your heart.
Oh fool,
Sing the song of the Divine!
Sing the song of the divine!
Sing the song of the divine!
