1. With a rope of loose-spun thread am I towing
my boat upon the sea.
Would that God heard my prayer
and brought me safe across!
Like water in cups of unbaked clay
I run to waste.
Would God I were to reach my home!
2. I will weep and weep for you, O Mind;
(my Soul) The world hath caught you in its spell.
Though you cling to them with the anchor of steel,
Not even the shadow of the things you love Will go with you when you are dead.
Why then have you forgot your own true Self ?
3. There is a yawning pit underneath you,
and you are dancing overhead.
Pray, Sir, how can you bring yourself to dance ?
See, the riches you are amassing here,
nothing of them will go with you.
Pray, Sir, how can you relish your food and drink ?
4. A wooden bow and rush grass for an arrow:
A carpenter unskilled and a palace to build:
A shop unlocked in a busy bazaar:
A body uncleansed by waters holy-
Oh dear ! who knows what hath befallen me ?
5. By the highway I came,
But by the highway I return not.
And so I find me still on the embarkment,
not having gone even half the way,
And the day is done, the light has failed.
I search my pockets but not a cowrie find:
What shall I pay for the ferry fee ?
6. Ah me! the Five (Bhuta-s), the ten (Indriya-s),
And the Eleventh, their lord the mind,
scraped this pot and went away.
Had all together pulled on the rope,
Why should the Eleventh have lost the cow ?
(Why should the soul have gone astray?)
7. For ever we come, for ever we go;
For ever, day and night, we are on the move.
Whence we come, thither we go,
For ever in the round of birth and death,
From nothingness to nothingness.
But sure, a mystery here abides,
A Something is there for us to know.
(It cannot all be meaningless).
8. Whence I have come and by which way,
I do not know.
Wither I shall go and by which way,
I do not know.
Were I to know the end of it all
And gain the knowledge of the truth,
(it would be well, for otherwise)
Life here is but an empty breath.
9. I have seen a learned man die of hunger,
A sere leaf drop in winter wind;
I have seen an utter fool beat his cook
(who could not make a toothsome dish).
Since then I, Lalla, anxiously await
The day when the lure of the world will fall away.
10. Now I saw a stream flowing;
Now neither bank nor bridge was seen.
Now I saw a bush in bloom;
Now neither rose nor thorn was seen.
11. Now I saw the hearth ablaze,
Now I saw not fire nor smoke.
Now I saw the Pandava Mother,
Now she was but a potters’ aunt
12. A royal fly-whisk, sunshade, chariot and throne, Merry revels,
pleasures of the theater, a bed of cotton down
Which of these, you think, will go with you when you are dead ?
How then can you dispel the fear of death ?
13. Why have you sunk deep in the sea
of the illusory pleasures of the world ?
Why have you pulled down the high-banked road
which could have led you safe across ?
The dense darkness of tamas surrounds you now,
and, at the appointed time,
Yama’s apparitors prepare to drag
your body bleeding to death.
Who can dispel your fear of death ?
14. Why do you dote upon someone, my Soul,
who is not your true love ?
Why have you taken the false for the true?
Why can’t you understand, why can’t you know?
It is ignorance that binds you to the false,
To the ever-recurring wheel of birth and death, this coming and going.
15. O man, why do you twist a rope of sand?
You cannot tow your boat with it.
What God has written "in karma’s line"
Cannot be altered or reversed.
16. What was it you had sown which should have borne a rich harvest?
You had but tanned a carcass hide,
shaped and stretched it taut on pegs,
(Your only care your own body which you pegged to the bonds of desire).
But counsel to a fool is labour lost,
Like a ball thrown at a big-sized pillar,
rebounding but not hitting the mark;
Or fruitless as feeding a tawny bullock on sweet molasses,
And expect a yield of milk from him.
17. In your mother’s womb you vowed
not to be born again. [
1]
When will you recall the vow ?
And die, even while alive
(to all desire, and be released from birth and death);
Great honor will be yours in this life and greater honor after death.
18. Impart not esoteric truth to fools,
Nor on molasses feed an ass.
Do not sow seed in sandy beds,
Nor waste your oil on cakes of bran.
19. I might disperse the southern clouds,
I might drain out the sea,
I might cure the incurable sick,
But I cannot convince a fool.
20. What is bitter at first is sweet in the end,
What is sweet at first is poison in the end.
(To everyone is given the choice)
It all depends on the effort put in,
and the unflagging determined will;
For whoever strives must soon arrive at the city of his choice.
21. My Guru gave me but one percept :
"From without withdraw your gaze within And fix it on the Inmost Self."
Taking to heart this one percept,
Naked I began to roam.
22. He who wields the sword a kingdom gains;
Paradise is gained by penance and alms.
Follow the Guru’s word and gain
True knowledge of the Self within.
Of his own virtue and his sin
Man himself surely reaps the fruits.
23. The sling of my candy load has gone loose, (and it galls my back);
My body has bent double under its weight;
how shall I carry the load ?
The word of my Guru (that I must lose the world to gain my soul),
Has been a painful ’loss-blister’ for me.
I am become a shepherdless flock, ah me !
24. A thousand times my Guru I asked:
’How shall the Nameless be defined?’
I asked and asked but all in vain.
The Nameless Unknown, it seems to me,
Is the source of the something that we see.
25. In life I sought neither wealth nor power,
Nor ran after the pleasures of sense.
Moderate in food and drink, I lived a controlled life,
And loved my God.
26. I came straight,
And straight I shall return.
How can the crooked lead me astray?
Surely, no harm can come to me:
He knows me from the beginning of time,
And loves me.
27. By pandering to your appetites,
you get nowhere;
By penance and fasting,
you get conceit.
Be moderate in food and drink
and live a moderate life,
The gates of Heaven will surely be
thrown open wide for you.
28. Patience to endure lightning and thunder,
Patience to face darkness at noon,
Patience to go through a grinding-mill —
Be patient whatever befalls, doubting not
that He will surely come to you.
29. Have no fear, O restless mind,
The Eternal One takes thought for you.
He knows how to fulfil your wants.
Then cry to Him alone for help,
His Name will lead you safe across.
30. The joys of palate and fine apparel
bring man no lasting peace.
They who give up false hopes and don’t
put trust in the things of the world,
Ascend, unafraid of Death’s terrors
by scriptures told;
For having lived contented lives,
they are not debtors of Desire.
