The light that busts the darkness

Pranava Pravaaham – The Surge of Aum - Verse 6

Tamil poem by Kavignar Perumal Rasu

English rendering by Vamanan

I wrestled with it, I railed at it, I boxed it and even tried calling it names.

It wouldn’t leave, the engulfing darkness.

Darkness at noon. Darkness in a crowd. Darkness alone.  Only darkness.

Then light dawned all of a sudden. A glowing candle in my hands. Who lit it? Whence came the light? I didn’t know. But the darkness retreated. The gloom was gone.  The night had taken to its heels.

Like light quelling darkness, there is a radiance whose very presence puts darkness to flight. A light that abhors worry and weakness, fear and diffidence, anger and greed.

I can’t seek the light anywhere else, My Lord. I can’t afford to be turned away in darkness from any door.

I seek your sanctum alone, I seek the source of all light.

Lift the veil and let the light shine

Pranava Pravaham – The Surge of Aum

By Kavingnar Perumal Rasu

Rendered in English by Vamanan

The sky turns blue, the world turns bright, and all the creatures of the earth feel fresh life tingling in their nerves.

The sun is the wonder of our lives, but just a man’s palm can hide it from his sight!

How petty the notions that blind me from the all-pervading presence of the Divine!

Thought, coming in pairs of good and bad, high and low shuts me away from the engulfing skies of  endless light.

Give me the vision of your vastness, O Lord, rend asunder the veils of ignorance that hide  the horizons of my being!

The darkness of light and the light of darkness

Pranava Pravaaham  - The Surge of Aum 

By Kavingnar Perumal Rasu

Rendered in English by Vamanan

Light, I thought, My Lord, illumines things.

Then the light came adazzling, and I could not see a thing.

At dawn, I welcomed the sun with a glad heart as it drove away the darkness, but lo! along with the darkness were gone all the stars.

The sun which dissipates the darkness also draws the blinds on the many worlds of the heavens.

There is darkness in light and there is light in darkness. My Lord, it is you who give eyes to light, and it is you who give sight to darkness. The Light of all lights, the true light of consciousness…Shine thee in my heart!