PRAYER (A Prose Poem)

R.S. Murty

Ye up from bed, it is prayer time

Pure in mind, raise your voice in His praise,

Is it one god or many

Is it one shape or many shapes

Or is it shapeless

Or is it female form

Makes no difference to the devotees

As each form touches deep chords of devotion

Each has regal splendour of its own

And makes you feel equally at home

Instils in you high moral virtues

Of love, sympathy and forgiveness

Lays claim to govern the moral order

The cosmic phenomena

While being part there of

To sustain it, to keep it going,

Each endowed with enormous power

To subdue mind, to thwart evil,

To make you feel humble to flush out all impurities

(As no prayer is worthwhile with mind remaining impure)

And allow peace to reign while the prayer goes on.

Ye up from bed last you miss the prayer

For there is no better way to cleanse the mind

Prayer the only escape route for the woes of man

To provide the grip to lift yourself up from the quagmire

To develop detachment to things ephemeral

To rouse the divine lament in you

Or bring you near to the divine

And aspire to become part of the great Reality.

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