LORD

O Lord, how glorious is Thy potent name!
It speaks of Thy might and extols Thy fame.
O Lord, how kind, merciful and just!
Carest for all who place in Thee full trust.
O Lord, how grand majestic is Thy form!
In wind and rain Thou livest in storm.
— Swami Ramdas

How I understand it:

With the use of the catchy rhyme scheme of couplets — AA, BB, CC — in this poem, Beloved Papa has explained the attributes of the Divine.

Beloved Papa never tired of extolling the power and glory of the Divine Name, he said: “Just as staff is to one who walks up a steep hill, just as a fence is to a tender plant, just as milk is to a hungry babe, so is the Divine Name given by the Guru to the devotee.  It sustains, nourishes, strengthens and in every way envelops the devotee like an amour. The power of the Name is simply inexpressible. It is sweeter than the sweetest. To taste it is to taste immortality. It is the giver of endless joy and peace. Death has no terror for him who has the Name on his lips. Life becomes a round of bliss when it is permeated with the Name. God is a miracle and wonder, and His Name is perhaps a greater miracle, and wonder.”

Beloved Papa further ascribes the attributes of kindness, mercy, justness and protectiveness to the Divine. There is also another aspect subtly expressed in this couplet, that is, the devotee should have unquestioning trust in the Lord! By one’s complete dedication of the Divine, the devotee is ever assured of being in the protective custody of the Lord who is kind, merciful and just.

The next couplet delineates the grandeur and majesty of the form of the Lord which is the entire manifestation — including the so-called “good” and so-called “bad”! Beloved Papa indicates that we need to see the Divine not only in HIS splendour and pageantry, but also in things, beings and situations that are difficult to accept, therefore he wrote: “In wind and rain Thou livest in storm”!

Prem Sudha:

The Marathi translation of this poem, as enshrined in the collection called Prem Sudha, is given below:

प्रभु  
दिव्य सुमंगल सर्व शक्तिमान नाम तुझे श्रीराम
तव सत्तेचें, तव कीर्तीचे गान करी अविराम  ।।ध्रु ।।
किती दयाळू किती कृपाळू नयशाली श्रीराम
श्रद्धा ठेवी त्या भक्ताचे वाही चिंता काम.
किती  भव्य हें किती मनोहर रूप तुझें श्रीराम
पवनामाजी, वर्षामाजी, प्रकंपनीं तव धाम.


Comments

  1. PravinMay 27, 2021 at 9:44 PM

    Thank you for posting Papa's poems with the Marathi translation, the MP3 and your interpretation. How sublime His words.

    Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram.

    ReplyDelete

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