Golden words from Saint Poet Vemana.....IV

GOLDEN WORDS FROM SAINT POET VEMANA.....IV

Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao Vemana a saint poet is believed to have lived in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India during 17-18 centuries. He enjoyed worldly pleasures and company of women in his youth without a check and is believed to have renounced the world at a later stage much disillusioned with the way of world. His poems are popular with common men and he spelt out his poems in simple Telugu poetey that could be very easily understood. His poems reflect the social and political conditions of that age and ills in the society. The European officer C Brown of British Government who was an officer in the related district where Vemana roamed and lived has done a great amount of research work. Some of his Telugu poems are presented as translated English poems that send an universal message to the people of the world.

Men remember God when in misery

And they claim credit for themselves while in pleasure

Men claiming mutual association with God shall have peace

And thus spoke Vemana the words of golden treasure

In the past a tribal Tinnadu gained bliss by devotional worship

Although the worship was most foolish and primitive as dubbed by some

Know! it is not worship but the dedication that gets one bliss

And Vemana thus spoke the truth as a simple sum

(Tinnadu was a tribal hunter in a forest in yore)

Some go around with a stone Lingam* tied to their neck

Know! One would attain bliss only by knowing inner soul

External show off would lead one no where