Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 6

Songs of Ramprasad

( I )

SAY what does it mean:

the eyes drip with tears (when one takes the name of Kali) ?

You have seen much, your. wisdom is great,

say for certain what it is.

One sense I make out: the body is but a sunken log!

The name Kali is a fire burning .on the tongue,

a fire that is flowing water, flooding water.

I meditate also upon the Lord and close my eyes

and wait for sleep to descend.

The Lord carries the Ganges on his head and

it is her clear stream.

The Guru commands, the holy spot between the eye-brows

is a place of pilgrimage surpassing others –­

It is the fruit that the confluent Ganga and Yamuna

bear together.

Prasad says, 0 my mind, this much I beg of you,

May I find a place near you on the bank of the confluence.

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( II )

I HAVE brooded over it

and I am utterly confused;

She in whose name one defies dark Time,

she at whose feet lies low the Supreme

in his pure whiteness,

why should she herself be black?

Many are the forms of blackness,

but here is a very marvel of blackness.

If you hold it in your heart,

the lotus there shall bloom and illumine all ­

Oh, she is dark and her name is Mother Darkness:

she is blacker than blackness.

But one who has seen that beauty is lost for good,

he will have no eye for any other beauty.

Amused and curious Prasad says: where was She,

such a lass!

Never saw her, only heard of her and yet the mind

has shot out and stuck into Her!

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