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Ravidas – from the Adi Granth 04
Identifier
017184
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Ravidas – from the Adi Granth 4
[extracted from Songs of the Saints of India – translated by Professor John Stratton Hawley and Professor Mark Juergensmeyer]
This bodily world is a difficult road – hilly, overgrown -
and I've only this worthless bullock to rely on.
This request I make of Ram:
protect my wealth as I go along.
Who is a Peddler for Ram?
My daily pack is loaded-
I am a peddler for Ram;
I traffic in his easy ecstasy:
I've loaded myself with the wealth of Ram’s name
while the world is loaded down with poison.
You who know both shores of the sea,
chart my course through heaven and hell
So Death will not ambush me with his stick
nor trap me in his snare.
The world’s a fading yellow dye, says the tanner Ravidas,
but Ram is an indelible red.