HUNDRED STANZAS ON THE NAME SHREE HARI
Ramesh Mukhopadhyaya
We die ten thousand times
Before our death
The name of Shree Hari
Is the elixir to sustain our breath.
II
Joys and sorrow come in waves
To shake our miserable tent
The name Shree Hari always saves
The mind from the world earthquake rent.
III
Viruses of anger jealousy and self pity
Have their cell-divisions in the mind
The name Shree Hari – the simple ditty
Kills all their kind.
IV
Beauty, wealth, fame and power
Are Time’s temporal dower
The name Shree Hari alone
Can priceless gifts shower.
V
The waters encroach upon the land
The land conquers the seas
The cruel march of Time’s brigand
With the name Shree Hari cease.
VI
No, not eventhe sun will burn ever
The expanding universe must contract
The name Shree Hari will extinguish never
It is nothing abstract.
VII
The deathless flora of the Vedas
Fountain of ceaseless flow of Hippocrene
Puts forth in its excess
The name of Shree Hari serene.
VIII
The seed of the Vedas in Aum
Made of the three phonemes
Has had its origin in the sunbeams
Of the Name that shines beyond the gloam.
IX
The sages chant the Gayatri
And invoke the Name supernal
That sets the soul free
From Cerberus eternal.
X
The Puranas and the Tantras
The Vedas and the mantras
Court Shree Hari
As the theme of their story.
XI
Just as the rivers rush to the seas
So do the names whatever of gods and deities
Give themselves up in jollity
To the hallowed name Shree Hari.
XII
In the Waste Land
Of deciduous plant
The name Shree Hari
Is the evergreen tree.
XIII
The name Shree Hari alone
Batters the life of worldly pleasure
And shatters every pleasure
To quiet human groan.
XIV
The Christians and the Jews
The Buddhists and the Jains
Whatever sect or creed there might be
Sing the Name, in different forms only.
XV
This playhouse with wife and children
Life & family
Is but the evanescent backdrop
Of the undying name Shree Hari.
XVI
Every act of love &kindness
Every act of worship & praise
Lead on unknowingly
To the name Shree Hari.
XVII
Every act of knowledge &offering
Every act of meditation & cleansing
Bring the humanity closer to the name Shree Hari
Away from the daily world which is gory.
XVIII
The wisest among the sages
Have no worldly bond
Still do they wander
In every haunt
Singing the name Shree Hari
In joy &ecstasy.
XIX
The wise cull the flower
Of the name Shree Hari
In whatever they hear
And whatever they see.
XX
Stronger than the strength itself
The name Shree Hari
Is the poor man’s only help
In life’s journey.
XXI
In this friendless glen of ours
The name of Shree Hari is always a friend
In times of prosperity they flock around us
In times of adversity they disperse
Alone the name of Shree Hari persists with us
In weal &woe, joy & sorrow.
XXII
Those who seek freedom from the prison house
To excelsior into the skies of bliss
Sing the heavenly name of Shree Hari
In love and peace.
XXIIa
Lo the lark singing the Name
Leaps up from the Earth
And burns its mortal frame
And joy’s own self has its birth.
XXIII
The Name of Shree Hari alone
Teaches all that books &Nature ever part
Let Satan and his hapless crew mourn
It cleanses every human heart.
XXIV
A learned man who does not know the Name
Is not learned enough
A human being who does not know the Name
Is not human enough
XXIVa
Scholarship that knows not the Name
Revels in sensuous riots
No phantom of Helen
Saves him from funeral faggots.
XXV
In this desert area of darkness
Where enemies lie in wait
And thieves furtively tread
The name Shree Hari brings light & grace.
`XXVI
Fear itself is afraid
Desire itself is enamoured
Greed itself is engrossed
When with the Name the heart is wrought.
XXVII
With the name of Shree Hari alone
All the wealth of this world is borne
That meditation, worship prayer
Can hardly yield together.
XXVIII
The Name could be heard always
The Name could be chanted always
The Name could be remembered always
To live ever in grace.
XXIX
Each of the five senses
Has its own love
The Name is the Beloved
Whom all of them serve.
XXX
There is no disease
There is no misery
That has no remedy
In the name Shree Hari.
XXXI
The Name is the best offering to the gods
The Name is the best food for the dead fathers
The Name is the manna for mortal souls
The Name is the grain that a wise man gathers.
XXXII
In this pathless woods of worldly life
Infested with beasts in strife
The name Shree Hari is the heaven
That summons every night-foundered sea-caravan.
XXXIII
Repitition robs any worldly name of its glory
Unless it is the name of Shree Hari.
XXXIV
To chant the Name
Is the crown sacrifice
It is the finest device
The sages proclaim.
XXXV
Every kind of ritual is observed
Through chanting the Name
Every kind of duty is performed
Through repeating the Name.
XXXVI
The lover gets his beloved
The merchant gets his gold
The pious gets his accolade
When in the heart the Nature they hold.
XXXVII
The station & duties
As determined by Providence
Attain their crowning beauties
In the Nature’s effulgence.
XXXVIII
From the throne of Jupiter
To the blade of grass
Everything is transitory & dross
But the name Shree Hari is for ever.
XXXIX
The wise churn the show of things
With the wand of wisdom
Only to discern the Nature
That holds the world on its fulcrum.
XL
The wise do everything whatever
That the world asks for
At heart they are however
Plunged in the name Shree Hari.
XLI
Medicine, if any,
For the snake-bite of mortality
Bides in the name Shree Hari
The love of Aphrodite.
XLII
The poisoned chalice
Aheart with malice
Turn into honey
When they chant the name Shree Hari.
XLIII
Always a friend
Untold wealth
Inexhaustible
And indescribable
Is the name Shree Hari.
XLIV
Even the highest heaven
Full of abundance and abandon
Without the leaven
Of the name Shree Hari is Abaddon.
XLV
The name Shree Hari
Is the chocolate-cream for the hungry
It is the clear and cool stream
For the thirsty.
XLVI
Even the blackest devil
Sheds its evil
And joins the whitehouse of the holy
At the sound of name Shree Hari.
XLVII
This World is the Babel of sounds
Full of disputes among quarrelling hounds
The sage reads in that a symphony
Singing the name of Shree Hari.
XLVIII
The name Shree Hari
Phosphorescent with consciousness
Excels everything else
Earthly or heavenly.
XLIX
There are gods everywhere
To reward the strong and the holy
The name Shree Hari is the shelter
For the meek and the lowly
L
He who breathes his last
Chanting the name of Shree Hari
Outruns every one
And reaches the Almighty.
LI
So the meritorious people
Adore the name of Shree Hari
Since their infancy.
LII
As long as the tongue obeys one’s self
As long as life burns in the body
One surely sings the name Shree Hari.
LIII
One cannot trust one’s breath
It can stop any time
So the wise sing the Name
From childhood in nursery rhyme.
LIV
Death does not tarry for a while
It does not listen to any request
Hence by chanting the Name, beguile the Time
And make use of the life best.
LV
This age of Decadence
Has the Gorgon’s eyes.
With the name Shree Hari
They are blinded & the devil dies
The name slays Death itself
And souls to Elysian field rise.
LVI
So, the Sun is past meridian
The wine of life is running out
Fill, fill the cup with the Name
Sinking every doubt.
LVII
Could we then sing the name Shree Hari
Sitting, standing, walking & sleeping
In love & piety!
LVIII
There is no way out
From the waste of the world
Unless one is stout
To hold the Name unfurled.
LIX
He who has the Name
Hemmed in his body
Stamped in his heart
And stuffed in his tongue
Treads upon the Earth
In blessed mirth.
LX
Better to be a beast
And chant the Name Shree Hari
Better to be an yeast
And mutter the name Shree Hari.
LXI
Whatever misfortune befalls
Let us play our part
And whistle the name Shree Hari
At the bottom of our heart.
LXII
Much of our life is wasted
We do not know how long we have to stay
Let us sing the name Shree Hari
As long as it is day.
LXIII
Procrastination has stolen away
Much of our time
May there be no more delay
Let us sing the Name to the life’s chime.
LXIV
My family is not me
My fortunes are not me
My body is not me
Imust be saved by the name Shree Hari.
LXV
Even the conquest of the kingdom of heaven
Does not blow off desire
It is the name of Shree Hari
That quenches the fire.
LXVI
As flowers are to the bee
So is the name Shree Hari to me.
LXVII
The Lord Shree Hari stays
Whatever they sing His name in choir
Vision of Valhalla arise
Say the sages and the voyeur.
LXVIII
Wherever they sing his Name
Gods dance in glee unseen
And angels play on their violin.
LXIX
The father’s joys know no bound
When they hear the sound
Of the name Shree Hari.
LXX
Even a life of few seconds would do
If the name Shree Hari were at my heart
It is essence where existence had its start.
LXXI
Whatever is there on Earth
Wears out with use
The name of Shree Hari alone
Is the minstrel’s immortal Muse.
LXXII
Those who know what is profitable
And what is not
Buy the name of Shree Hari
At body’s cost.
LXXIII
There is no point in lamenting one’s lot
The winter garment of repentance is rot.
LXXIV
I wish, I were a gleeman
Living on my begging bowl
Chanting the name of Shree Hari
In every village, every town
And the World will be paradise to me.
LXXV
Alas! It is me who betrayed me
And kept me away
From the name of Shree Hari!
LXXVI
I wasted my prime
In foolish pastime
Seeking tinsel
Ignoring the Name.
LXXVII
It is Shree Hari Himself
Who turned into the ascetic
To chant his own name
Amidst ashes in the filthy air, upon the ...
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