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Ravidas – from the Adi Granth 13
Identifier
017179
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Ravidas – from the Adi Granth 13
[extracted from Songs of the Saints of India – translated by Professor John Stratton Hawley and Professor Mark Juergensmeyer]
Mother, she asks, with what can I worship?
All the pure is impure. Can I offer milk?
The calf has dirtied it in sucking its mother’s teat.
Water, the fish have muddied; flowers, the bees -
No other flowers could be offered than these.
The sandalwood tree, where the snake has coiled, is spoiled.
The same act formed both nectar and poison.
Everything’s tainted – candles, incense, rice -
But still I can worship with my body and my mind
and I have the guru’s grace to find the formless Lord.
Rituals and offerings – I can’t do any of these.
What, says Ravidas, will you do with me?