The merit in the association with saints
Repeat the seed word for thousand years,
Observe austerities for equal years,
And move into association with the sages divine,
for a single moment,
Å¡an+kara discerns, the merit greater (1)
Austerity removes the sickness,
Association with saint, duality,
Service to the guru, the sorrow of life,
sankara discerns, the sorrows of life (2)
Have faith and obey as a slave,
Give up the hope of help from the world,
Associate with saints ; do not waver
Sankara says, detachment will emerge (3)
Associate yourself with the saints divine,
You will be blessed with the knowledge supreme,
sit in solitude, sankar counsels,
meditate - contemplate on your self and feel fulfilled (4)
In association with saints,
An insect becomes a bee with wings,
A lump of iron, shining gold
A rock becomes an image of beauty - the association great (5)
Dedicate your body, mind and speech,
To the service of the saints,
Sankara counsels - delink yourself
With the world and achieve riddance of sickness (6)
In the hands of an oilman
Sesaum becomes oil for use
In the hands of a perfumer,
It assumes a unique state (7)
The truth of attachment
Or of detachment
A fool, Sankara says, cannot envisage.
In association with saints
knowledge emerges
Out of ignorance, never otherwise (8)
The vital breath, a pearl in the sea, that body is,
The association with saints opens it up
To glimmer with lustre
Out of the darkness of past karma. (9)
Association with saints
Crushes the sorrow ;
Sankara declares,
Life is wasted, if not with saints. (10)