With palms together, I pray to Thee,
Oh Lord, grant these kind blessings to me:

To be with the sages, their darshan to enjoy,
And to have a pure heart filled with love and joy.

O Lord, have pity on me –
I am caught in a raging sea.

Its crashing waves will wash me away –
Please Lord, save me from its sway.

How to sin I know too well;
My selfish thoughts are hard to quell.

Only the Lord can help me regain
Freedom from wickedness, suffering, and pain.

Lord, assist this sinner some way;
Save me from evil’s powerful play.

Nothing is mine;
All this is Thine.

I surrender all to thee;
Nothing more is left of me.

So many selfish acts I have done,
So little progress have I won.

I surrender Lord to Thee;
I’ll do all you ask of me.

Punish or forgive me, I submit;
With me, do as You see fit.

The love of the Lord doesn’t grow in the ground;
For sale in the market, it never is found.

All are entitled, the poor and the kings.
Surrender to God gives the lover’s heart wings.

Within the body the Lord does reside
But you constantly look for Him outside.

In churches, in temples, in holy sites you look;
So you think you’ll find him in a book?

Those who seek to know the Lord
Will find serenity restored.

Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from the book – The Mystical Poems of Kabir, pp. 106-108, by Swami Rama and Robert B. Regli, published in 2015 by the Himalayan Institute India.

The original poem has been composed by Saint Kabir in the 15th Century in ‘vernacular Hindi’, with Braj and Awadhi dialects. Swami Rama and Robert B. Regli translated some of these poems of Saint Kabir in their book titled – The Mystical Poems of Kabir – in English language.