Ramprasad Sen - A Serious Grievance

I have a serious grievance to settle

with the Mother of the Universe.

Even while apparently awake,

with you as my all-protecting Mother,

the house of mind and body

is ransacked by robbers,

my countless egocentric impulses.

Every day I resolve to repeat your name

as the most powerful defense,

but forget my good intention

just as the intruders arrive.

I have caught on to the playfulness,

0 Mother, by which you elude my willful grasp.

You bestow no power of inward prayer upon this child,

so you receive no consistent devotion from me.

I no longer regard this as my fault.

Only what you give me can I return to you

as the sweet offering of divine remembrance.

Fame and infamy, good and bad tastes of life,

all phenomena are your graceful play.

Yet as you dance in ecstasy,

we are thrown into quandary.

0 Goddess, lead us on your wisdom way.

This poet dares to sing her secret:

'Mother Mahamaya places a twist in every mind,

making it perceive the ashes of egocentricity

as an abundance of candy,

which it tastes with constant disappointment

and shocked surprise.

Awaken now and be free.'

[Translated by Lex Hixon from 'Mother of the Universe']

Ramprasad Sen was a Shakta poet of eighteenth century Bengal. His bhakti
poems, known as Ramprasadi, are still popular in Bengal—they are usually
addressed to the Hindu goddess Kali and written in Bengali.