Observations placeholder

Ravidas – from the Adi Granth 23

[extracted from Songs of the Saints of India – translated by Professor  John Stratton Hawley and Professor Mark Juergensmeyer]

Your name; the act of worship
with the lifted lamp, Murari;
without the name of Hari all the universe is a lie.

Your name; the throne on which
the deity sits, your name the grinding stone,
the saffron that is ground and daubed upon the gods.

Your name; the holy water,
your name the sandal for sandal wood paste.
Grinding, chanting, I take that name and offer it to you.

Your name; the little lamp, the cruse,
your name the wick.
Your name is the oil that I pour into the ritual lamp.

Lighting your name;
the flame in the lamp
brings the glow that lightens all the corners of the house

Your name; the garland;
your name the string, the flowers.
Beside them wither all the blossoms of the wilds.

Your handiwork; the world;
what could I offer more?
I can only wave your name like the whisk before the gods.

The world contains the vessels
for your sacred rites -
The scriptures, the direction points and all the sacred sites –

But your name, says Ravidas,
is the lifting of the lamp;
your true name, O Hari, your food.