Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
Translated from the original Sanskrit
Invocation
That is perfect
this is perfect
This perfect comes
from that perfect
Take this perfect
from that perfect
What’s left
is perfect
1.
God lives in all this
whatever lives moves
this living moving world
Enjoy it by giving it up
Don’t grab at another’s fortune
2.
Doing what you’re doing you may well wish
to live to be a hundred
The rule is this and only this
Don’t get stuck
with what you’ve been doing
3.
Demon-haunted we call those sunless worlds
that are blinded by the dark
Those who’ve killed their true selves
go there
4.
That unmoving one swifter than the mind
the gods cannot reach it as it courses ahead
Anchored it overtakes
those who swim ahead
Into it fire’s breath pours the waters of life
5.
It moves it does not move
it is far it is at hand
It is inside everything
it is of everything outside
6.
Whoever is one with all that lives
sees clearly
From that self of all that lives
he does not hide
7.
Whoever is one with all who have learned to know
and be the self
why would he be confused why wounded
by his own oneness?
8.
He has circled around burning bright no body
no scars no sinews pure unpierced by wrong
He is poet he is thinker
he is everywhere he is born of himself
he has set all things in their proper order for ever
9.
Into blind darkness enter those
who worship unknowing
Into greater darkness those
who revel in knowledge
10.
What springs from knowledge is something else
What springs from unknowing is something else
So we heard from the constant ones
who shone it in our eyes
11.
Knowledge and unknowing
Whoever knows them both
crosses beyond death with unknowing
with knowledge arrives at the undying
12.
Into blind darkness enter those
who worship what isn’t created
Into greater darkness those
who revel in what is
13.
What springs from what is created is something else
What springs from what isn’t is something else
So we heard from the constant ones
who shone it in our eyes
14.
Creation and destruction
Whoever knows them both
crosses beyond death with destruction
with creation arrives at the undying
15.
The golden disc covers
the face of the real
That real – Nourisher – reveal
so we may see
the true way
16.
Nourisher! Inspired Poet! Judge!
Sun! Life-force!
Arrange your light web focus your radiance
Your finest form that I see
that Source of the World that
I
17.
This air we breathe will never die
Now it ends in ashes
this body
Mind remember what was done remember
Mind remember what was done remember
18.
Fire lead us by the best trail to fortune
god who knows all the world’s byways
Drive away from us all that is twisted
To you we chant to you we offer
our most abundant sacrifice