THE SONG OF PRAYER

THE SONG OF PRAYER

Ye up from bed, it is prayer time,

Pure in mind, raise your voice in His praise,

It is One God or many

Is it one shape or many shapes

Or is it shapeless

Or is it female form

Makes no difference to the devotee

As each form touches deep chords of devotion

Each has regal splendor of its own

And makes you feel equally at home

Instils in you high moral virtues

Of love, sympathy, and forgiveness

Lays claim to govern the moral order

The cosmic phenomena

While being part thereof

To sustain it, to keep it going,

Each endowed with enormous power

To subdue the mind, to thwart evil,

To make you feel humble, to flush out all impurities

And allow peace to reign while the prayer goes on.

2. Ye up from bed to sing the Song of Prayer

Each prayer an offering to Almighty

A garland of pearls offered in love

To seek pardon for sins committed

In thought, word or deed,

The list can be long, as the mind can never be stable,

Mind, a cauldron, grilled in many ways,

Victim of tempests rising inside

No escape route to avoid committing sin

Each act planned in the silence of the chamber

With doors closed

To grab a larger slice of material riches

Or satisfy lustful cravings

To which the body succumbs so very easily

Or get at power by the back door methods

Or by wading through a pool of blood

Prayer the biggest antidote to mitigate sin

And to escape it’s after effects

While achievement sought grooved in sin

Is a life condemned

Acts marking success circumventing sin

Will tank among the best of prayers.

3. Ye up from bed lest you miss the prayer

For there is no better way to cleanse the mind

Prayer the only escape route for the woes of man

To provide the grip to lift yourself up from the quagmire

To rouse the divine in you

Or bring you near to the divine

To bid goodbye to all that is ephemeral

And aspire to become part of the great Reality.

R. Suryanarayanamurty,

Hyderabad – 500 007

August 04, 1997.