‘God Is Visiting You’

Derailment

When cinders rain down,
Be like the water.
When in the water deluge,
Be like the wind.
When in the great deluge,
Be like the sky.
When in the cosmic deluge,
Give yourself up,
Become Gogeshwara himself.

(Allama Prabhu: H. S. Shivaprakash)

That which smoulders, burns itself out.
The extinguished can never reignite.
Those in love will blaze again, Rahim
each time you snuff them out.

(Rahim: Mustansir Dalvi)

When I board the boat of the mind
and strike out with the oars of my wit,
when I load the cargo of anger,
and row into the deep sea
when, dashing against the rocks of lust,
the boat capsizes,
then, as my reason fails,
give me the consciousness
that will make me think of you,
O king of Orriyur!

(Appar: Indira Viswanathan Peterson)

What have I gained
Saying Krishna and Krishna.
My heart is bruised raw,
Life simply sizzles
And I am dying of the fire of my mind.
In Gokula, the town of the cowherds,
Nothing is forbidden!
They act as they wish.
The girls full of youth
Are ladies of homes.
Only Radha is the scandalous one!

Since the cruel god that created love
Made it dependent on the other’s response
I have no wish to live.
And I beg you not to name a girl Radha again.

(Chandidas: Deben Bhattacharya)

When He comes
Out of the blue
A meteorite
Shattering your home
Be sure
God is visiting you

When a catastrophe
Wipes you out
And nothing remains
But God and you
God is visiting you

When your language
Is stripped naked
Never to be clothed
In falsehood again
Be sure
God is visiting you

When your humanness
Is rent and riven
Never to be pieced
Together again
Be sure
God is visiting you

When you are
Beyond all hope
When you call
Nothing your own
Be sure God is visiting you

When you are robbed
Of the whole world
And your voice
Becomes eloquent
Be sure
God is visiting you.

See how God has
Grabbed the whole of him!
Tuka is raging
Like God Himself!

(Tukaram: Dilip Chitre)