Light of life

(755)  Kajala rate meghamandrete

On a pitch-black night, clouds rumbling,
Acquaintance I made with Thee;
I'd realized Your identity.
The story of that stormy night,
Indelibly it's writ upon my mind.

The stars were concealed, hiding behind the clouds;
The moon sat not on that dark night's brow.
But for the drumbeat of the rain, all was serene;
You were standing by my side, the Lord of psyche.

In darkness You visited;
In darkness we got acquainted.
With lamp in hand You'd appeared,
And so You came into my grasp,
In that bright light, oh my Lord of beauty.

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Springcoming

(754)  Se ek ajana pathik eseche

One unknown traveler has appeared...
He appeared, He appeared, He appeared.
With fruits and flowers, He's infused greenery.

Oh how sweetly blows the fragrant vernal breeze;
The moon confers ambrosial light-beams lavishly.
Now earth abounds in the laughter of its blossoms;
All barriers, their bondage is broken.

Those of you who've remained slumbering,
Right this minute, get yourselves up, quickly!
He has come, everyone's most favorite,
With Him He has brought a basket of delightful treats.

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A step in the right direction

(753)  Ganer tarii bhasiye dilum surer sagare

I floated a raft of songs
On the sea of melody.
Now nothing is far away;
Everything's in reach.

The boat full of divers shapes and colors;
For long, would it not be moored.
Today, it came into my fold
Within melody's clamor.

The song that wasn't ever rehearsed,
Never composed on a lyre's strings,
Today, that song, on its very own,
To me it told:
"With sweet wizardry I am secluded...
Don't you recognize Me?"

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Purusottam

(752)  Esecho purusottam esecho

You have come, Purusottam,^[1] You have come;
You have brought a fountain of streaming effulgence.
Today, a river of bliss speeds along, capering,
Flooding both banks with the song it sings.
It delights everybody, it delights everybody,
Flowing toward infinity with various dance beats.
Oh my, what have You done, what have You done...
You've conquered the heart and mind of everyone.

Today, effusive hearts heed no injunction;
Surging waves are unaware of any obstruction.
You have carried us away, away we've been carried;
You have drawn both known and unknown near to Thee.

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Unprepared

(751)  Tumi na bale ele prabhu na bale gele

Lord, You arrived and left without giving any notice;
What is this fog You've thrust me in?
Why came You, delighting mind with rhythm and beat,
Only to leave my entranced heart so lonely.

On my throat was a floral necklace...
It became lackluster from the dust.
Have You forgot the garland that's been crushed?

The tune that was never sung,
The love that's yet to be earned...
Why did You neglect her form and color?

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Journey's end

(750)  Esechi ami esechi

I've arrived, yes, I've arrived,
Having crossed roads that are thorny.
I have yielded everything of mine,
Discharging it at Your feet.

The journey has been finished;
The song has been forgotten.
Just their dust and melody
I have come here carrying.

The pollen that was honeycoated,
The tunes once held within my heart...
Their drunken euphoria...
Even now it lingers on.

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Limitless

(749)  Puspe puspe tomar madhurii

In every flower is Your sweetness;
With Your honey, the earth is replete.
Shame and fear can't stand before Your blessing;
From Your songs, ambrosia's dripping.

Intimately near are the once distant strangers;
Your own heart You sprinkled in everyone.
Those reticent by nature, they got stirred,
Bearing Your love-current.

With wisdom and intuition eyes You opened;
Onto Your own lap You lifted everyone.
You diffused Yourself throughout the universe,
Dismissing all rigid restrictions.

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No limit

(748)  Tumi bhulo na more

Please don't neglect me...
Stay always in the lotus of my mind,
Having brightened it upon all sides.

The sun goes down behind a western mountain;^[1]
And yet above an eastern mountain it comes back again.
The flower fallen beneath a plant,
Still in the air does circulate its fragrance.

The night once come goes far away,
But in Your mind it has remained.
In both effulgence and its absence Your sport operates;
You've kept me ringed, having given light and shade.

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Total surrender

(747)  Tumi amar hrday majhe eso go priya

Dearly Beloved, enter my heart,
Coating it with Your sweetness.
Make all my filth disappear,
Wrapping it in the umbra of Your love.

The seven realms^[1] are not outside of Thee;
So You know my each and every merit and demerit.
Today, I've resigned myself completely;
May Your eyes be kind, I beg a shred of mercy.

I've passed many lives, neglecting the path;
Seeing my mistake, I've mended ways at last.
My every motive, my every act...
I've ceded to You, keeping nothing back.

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Evergreen

(746)  Nijere photayecho tumi

You have expressed Yourself
With unfamiliar color and form.
Waves of light You have emitted
Inside the abyss of utter darkness.

With such import You jolted heaven,
Its mere light-motes made earth oblivious.
Inside collective heart You engendered jingling;
In new kadamba blooms^[1] You were revealed.

The stream of compassion, now it's spilled over;
Therefrom our mortal minds have been inundated.
You endowed with speech mouths foolish and mute;
With incense and lamps, they warmly welcomed You.

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Upon my sleepless eyelids

(745)  Jhatikar rate tumi esechile

On a stormy night You'd arrived,
Upon my sleepless eyelids.
You sent away my sense of fear,
You told me: "Don't worry... with you am I;
With You I have lingered."

You opened the door that was closed...
With Your own hand, drew back the bolt.
Spreading Your seat, You came to stay,
On that wild and dangerous night.

Set aquiver was my throbbing heart;
The feeling was most enchanting.
And in my mind, I felt the moment...
Beyond time's limit should it persist;
By no means should it finish.

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The sacred journey

(744)  Ashani ulka upeksa kari

Disregarding thunderbolts and meteors,
Let's travel to the holy sea of light.
We will not fear the pathway's thorns;
Uprooting brambles, we'll cast them aside.

On our footpath many worms are there;
Many spirits dance in nook and cranny.
To those who concentrate on the goal,
Only their object of meditation is close.
No matter how hard the path may be,
We will press on, crushing all difficulties.

Along this path have trod ancient scholars,
Leaving behind a stream of bliss.
On that very pathstream, sailing are we,
Always proclaiming the message of novelty.

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One of us must budge

(743)  Durera sakha mor

My distant confidant,^[1]
Please come close.
Why do You stay remote?
You are all alone.

Yours are the victory drums that rumble,
Steadily proclaiming You belong to all.
Night and day, I watch for Your arrival;
This enduring pain cannot be sustained.

Clouds travel, floating over mountain peaks,
Far, far away – far off from the sea.
As the rainwater, they journey back
To the ocean deeps.
And You also, distant do not keep;
Come back please, close at hand...
Let me start to see You near.

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Paramount

(742)  Cinechi tomare cinechi ami

I've recognized, I've recognized Thee.
On far-distant heaven's stream,
In a chariot of bright light
You've come riding.

A wave You've awakened on the other bank of ignorance;^[1]
You have sung with perfect intuition's jingling sound.
Flowers You've made blossom with Your heart's emanation;
Upon the earth You came down.

Without sense of mine or thine,
To 'high' or 'low' You pay no heed.
In Thee no meanness do I find;
So I kneel forever 'neath Your feet.

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Antithesis of selfishness

(741)  Jalbhara meghe bijali haniya

With clouds full of rain, the lightning flashing,
You had arrived at dark midnight.^[1]
With hearty expectation and affection,
You had smiled in the mirror of my mind.

I was looking within the material world
To find bliss through objects inert.
Not once did I gaze at Your face;
I did not see that You'd returned.

Mad was I, with my own self obsessed,
Just liking to think of personal interest.
I did not consider Your resolute aim,
The very quintessence of Your existence.

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Dreamworld

(740)  Tomar madhur hasi vishvabhuvane bhasi

Afloat throughout the universe is Your lovely smile;
It races with essence of nectar toward some paradise.
In heaven You've given a jolt, and earth became preoccupied;
On watch unblinking, the stars, what do they want to find?

Heedless in all directions, the day and night glide;
Within every heart and mind, aquiver they transpire.

With all creation floating in orbit on an azure sky,
Imposed upon my every thought, a dulcet song sing I.

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Enough

(739)  Tomake bhalobese jai je bhese

Loving You, floating I go
Into that sphere unknown.
Alas, today, with Your joys and with Your griefs,
I've had my fill in but a courtyard of melodies.

With sleep-deprived and anxious eyes
That view Thee day and night,
Inside Your realm without an end,
At what remote spot are those eyes beaten?

Come, please come nigh;
Lovingly, sit by my side.
Or, if You like, go on neglecting me;
Just don't forget that I'm in love with Thee.

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Workaholism

(738)  Dure thaka bandhu amar

My Abiding Friend from afar,
Have you forgotten me?
Getting defeated is my heart,
In constant search of somebody.

The bulbul never enters my rose garden;
No bee alights upon my flower garland.
Still, I am waiting with a hope forlorn
That, making a jingling sound, You will call.

You keep busy night and day;
Ever enamored with work You remain.
Only amid work is Your love achieved;
Therefore in work I am seeking Thee.

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His majesty

(737)  Tumi eso eso mor ghare baso

Come You, enter my home and take Your seat,
Illuminating everything.
Only by Your touch, swept far away would be
All my amassed impurities.

When the light shines over eastern purple mountains,^[1]
Your kindness smiles upon both sea and land.
With Your boundless love descending,
My heart and mind get filled up to the brim.

In my heart-sky^[2] unfolded completely,
When I behold Thee in sweet ecstasy,
My narrowness and my defects,
They caper round Your greatness.

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Rapture

(736)  Tumi je dekecho amay

As I have been summoned by You,
Now, staying home is hard to do.
What magic exists in Your melodies?
That I simply cannot conceive.

Abed, dreaming, asleep, or awake,
In mind's abode always a flute plays.
I wanted to forget, but how can I?
Seated in my heart, oh, You reside.

All I know of music's scale
Is above it, Lord, You remain.
With Your rhythmic songs, Your blissful strains,
It lifts me up, beyond the mundane.

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Filling holes

(735)  Dur alakar alo go

You are the light of distant heaven;
More than everyone, You are excellent.
Oozing ambrosia's essence, full of affection;
You remove darkness and sin.

On topmost peak of magnanimity,
In the rustle of gentle geniality,
On the far shore of pitch-black night,
Ever unique and lively is Your light.

You are the tidings of hope in broken hearts...
In the mouths of red-faced babes, the pacifier.
On every profligate or needy bosom,
You confer the pleasure of acquisition.

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Light and love

(734)  Aji tomari parashe tomari harase

Now with Your touch and Your delight,
The earth began to smile.
In Your rhythm and Your bliss,
The world uttered warm feelings...
"I'm in love with You only."

With the shower of Your Grace, with Your benison,
The darkness of pitch-black fog lifted at once.
That which tended to douse Your light,
Where went that bundle of crimes?

Those thoughts entombed within the bloom of resolution,
Today, they sank into humanity's bosom.
With seven spheres^[1] in harmony, on earth our lamp ablaze,
In one and the same tune all flutes played.

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Blunder no more

(733)  Tomare cahite giya bhul kare

On my way to ask for You, in error
Your grant of a boon have I implored.
On my way to get the sea, one drop
Of mere saltwater have I got.

I did not know the difference twixt matter and consciousness;
I'd not learned which gives mundane pleasure and which, eternal bliss.
Relinquishing the giant tree and getting a fruit only,
I considered that to be intellectuality.

Whatever You gave with the right hand,
With the left hand You have taken back.
When all asking and getting are finished,
I've noticed the final tally, it is nil.
"Make no demand, and know that I'm now with"...
Upon Your flute is played this message.

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His temple

(732)  Tumi aso kena jadi jabe cale

Why come if You but mean to leave;
In my shrine what is Your grief?
Have mercy and explain that to me.

On the lotus of my mind, an altar have I built;
With my pollen's color I have painted it.
Dressed in affection's sweetness are my articles of worship;
I sit waiting... the lamp of love is lit.

Only the thought of You is my sweet scent;
The fragrance imbues all I sense.
The mud smeared on stalk of this lotus,
Sandalpaste it will be, upon Your arrival.

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Safe and secure

(731)  Sharada prate man matate

One autumn morning, my mind to stimulate,
You came into my heart with jasmine^[1] scent...
In my life, in that river half-dead,
To raise high tide, to motivate.

With unlimited pollen, You infused shivers of bliss
In morning's crimson, laden with sweetness.
Packing dense devotion into sapless emotion,
Repeatedly You came to me in song.

For getting lost there is no threat,
And there's not any scope for death.
Contemplating such events, I have no dread;
To time's stream, there would be an end.

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No not far

(730)  Tumi dur nao go

Oh, You are not at all remote,
This very mind, this very song; in flower groves full of life,
In the core of everyone, You speak out with a smile.

Star and planet, sun and moon, they hold fast to Your path;
On the stream of Your name, the stars sway in the heavens.
In every evolved manifestation, ever You dance.

In bowers and in sweet conceptions,
In river currents and in spring winds,
You look on, a gentle smile upon Your face.

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Archaeology

(728)  Jiivan sarita mor bahiya jay

Ever onward flows my life-stream,
Drawn to Thee, Lord, drawn to Thee.
In varied rhythms and waves it dances along
To Your song, Lord, to Your song.

Hitting many hard rocks, many pebbles and stones,
Thorn-filled forests aplenty I've walked across.
My trek is unceasing, no end do I view,
Bound toward You, Lord, bound toward You.

Many life stories quite ordinary,
The ancient hearts' anxieties...
They reconstruct a hamlet's loquacity,
Smashing its market's hushed peace.
Desperate bosoms' innermost grief,
Funeral-pyre ashes' granular history...
With all I proceed, and I speak;
I pursue an expedition of Your love.

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Far and near

(727)  Ke go geye jay sandhyataray

On Evening Star,^[1] Who is singing,
Naming me, issuing a summons
Full of love, coated with honey?
Dancing rapidly, He bids no response;
But at afar He remains, anticipating.

With rain clouds in the skies of autumn
And with sluggish winds He keeps company.
Through deep feelings and best of intentions,
The negligent cannot detect Him.

In pre-winter's frosty atmosphere,
In winter's inertia, in the breeze of spring...
In summer storms, on a mango branch,
With floral fragrance, bearing nectar He is there.

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The unanswered question

(726)  Tomar kache amar prashna

Lord, to You these are my queries;
Indifferent One, hear me please.
Why do living beings come in tears,
When they survive only by smiling?

Why is the flower eaten by worms
And honey consumed by black bees?
Why aren't smiles sold at market
When babies cry perpetually?
Some can't scrape together a grain of wheat,
While others eat, scrapping a sea of kheer.

When evening colors have beckoned me,
Why then is the dark of night so deep?
Why does the mind wander astray
When You are present ever and always?

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Hearing the call

(725)  E path geche konkhane

This road, does it lead somewhere...
That, who knows, oh who knows.
Who knows that, who knows,
Who knows, oh who knows?
This cab, does it traverse the psyche...
That, the driver knows.

A floral breeze has given a jolt
In some remote nook of the mind.
It hunts for my own misspent life,
Squandered wandering grove to grove.

I crave the One I do not find,
Who's constantly in heart invoked.
The mind cannot abide at home;
My days go by just counting time.

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