The golden words from Saint Poet Vemana ........III

GOLDEN WORDS FROM SAINT POET VEMANA.............III

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.

 

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A man being proud does not care for death

Neither he would realize inner light

He becomes a slave to the vices and forgets God

Thus spoke Vemana day and night

15

 

Wind is spread all round in the sky unseen

And fire is hidden in the forests and they make presence felt to all

God in similar way manifests everywhere mightily bright

Thus spoke Vemana to men around in his call

16

 

Ignorant men differentiate between Shiva and Vishnu

Some wise men claim God to be inside the body shell

And yet consider the bodies to be taken care of well and sound

Thus spoke Vemana and truth he had to tell

17

 

Men carve statues from stones and worship them as Gods

Yet all these men after death have finally disappeared into mother earth

If they knew truth would have seen Gods in the raw stones itself

And thus spoke Vemana to ignorant for whom there was no dearth

 

18

Men go around holy places in search of God

And do not realize that God manifests everywhere

They would become penniless wanderers but not those realized

Thus spoke Vemana the truth threadbare

 

 

 

 

 

Continued