10-28-2004, 02:04 AM
Sri Ramprasad (1720-1791) was a great Shakta master, a worshipper of Kali. He wrote according to legend 100,000 songs. Only about 250 songs survive and these songs are still sung in Bengal by Kali worshippers. I give below three of his songs in English translation:
Song 1:
How are you trying, O my mind, to know the nature of God?
You are groping like a madman locked in a dark room.
He is grasped through ecstatic love, how can you fathom Him without it?
Only through affirmation, never negation can you know Him;
Neither through Veda nor through Tantra nor the six Darshanas.
It is in love's elixir only that he delights, O mind;
He dwells in the body's inmost depths, in everlasting joy.
And for that love, the mighty yogis practice yoga from age to age;
When love awakens, the Lord like a magnet draws to Him the soul.
He it is says Ramprasad, that I approach as Mother;
But must I give away the secret, here in the market place?
From the hints I have given, O mind, guess what that being is!
Song 2:
Who is there that can understand what Mother Kali is?
Even the six Darshanas are powerless to reveal Her.
It is She, the scriptures say, that is the Inner Self
of the yogis; who in Self discovers all his joys:
She, that of Her own sweet will, inhabits every living being.
The macrocosm and microcosm rest in the Mother's womb;
Now do you see how vast it is? In the Muladhara
the yogi meditates on Her, and in the Sahasrara:
who but Shiva has beheld Her as She really is?
Within the lotus wilderness She Sports beside Her Mate, the Swan.
When man aspires to understand Her, Ramprasad must smile;
To think of knowing Her, he says, is quite laughable
As to imagine one can swim across the boundless sea.
But while my mind has understood, alas! my heart has not:
Though but a dwarf, it still would strive to make a captive of the
moon.
Song 3:
Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood.
From one who knows it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava(spiritual
mood).
A man has come to me from a country where there is no night,
And now I can not distinguish day from night any longer:
Rituals and Devotions have all grown profitless for me.
My sleep is broken: how can I sleep any more?
For now I am wide awake in the sleeplessness of Yoga.
O Divine Mother, made one with thee in yoga-sleep at last,
My slumber I have lulled asleep evermore.
I bow my head, says Prasad, before desire and liberation;
Knowing the secret that Kali is one with the highest Brahman,
I have discarded, once for all both righteousness and sin.
Song 1:
How are you trying, O my mind, to know the nature of God?
You are groping like a madman locked in a dark room.
He is grasped through ecstatic love, how can you fathom Him without it?
Only through affirmation, never negation can you know Him;
Neither through Veda nor through Tantra nor the six Darshanas.
It is in love's elixir only that he delights, O mind;
He dwells in the body's inmost depths, in everlasting joy.
And for that love, the mighty yogis practice yoga from age to age;
When love awakens, the Lord like a magnet draws to Him the soul.
He it is says Ramprasad, that I approach as Mother;
But must I give away the secret, here in the market place?
From the hints I have given, O mind, guess what that being is!
Song 2:
Who is there that can understand what Mother Kali is?
Even the six Darshanas are powerless to reveal Her.
It is She, the scriptures say, that is the Inner Self
of the yogis; who in Self discovers all his joys:
She, that of Her own sweet will, inhabits every living being.
The macrocosm and microcosm rest in the Mother's womb;
Now do you see how vast it is? In the Muladhara
the yogi meditates on Her, and in the Sahasrara:
who but Shiva has beheld Her as She really is?
Within the lotus wilderness She Sports beside Her Mate, the Swan.
When man aspires to understand Her, Ramprasad must smile;
To think of knowing Her, he says, is quite laughable
As to imagine one can swim across the boundless sea.
But while my mind has understood, alas! my heart has not:
Though but a dwarf, it still would strive to make a captive of the
moon.
Song 3:
Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood.
From one who knows it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava(spiritual
mood).
A man has come to me from a country where there is no night,
And now I can not distinguish day from night any longer:
Rituals and Devotions have all grown profitless for me.
My sleep is broken: how can I sleep any more?
For now I am wide awake in the sleeplessness of Yoga.
O Divine Mother, made one with thee in yoga-sleep at last,
My slumber I have lulled asleep evermore.
I bow my head, says Prasad, before desire and liberation;
Knowing the secret that Kali is one with the highest Brahman,
I have discarded, once for all both righteousness and sin.