Khandana Bhava Bandhana [Breaker of this World’s Chain] By Swami Vivekananda

Khandana Bhava Bandhana [Breaker of this World’s Chain] 

By Swami Vivekananda

Poetic trans­la­tion by Swami Prab­ha­vananda and Christo­pher Isherwood

Breaker of this world’s chain,
We adore Thee, whom all men love.
Spot­less, tak­ing man’s form, O Puri­fier,
Thou art above the gunas three,
Knowl­edge divine, not flesh;
Thou whom the cos­mos wears,
A dia­mond at its heart.

Let us look deep in Thine eyes;
They are bright with the wis­dom of God,
That can wake us from Maya’s spell.
Let us hold fast to Thy feet,
Tread­ing the waves of the world to safety.
Oh, drunk with love, God-drunken Lover,
In Thee all paths of all yogas meet.

Lord of the worlds, Thou art ours,
Who wert born a child of our time;
Easy of access to us.
O Mer­ci­ful, if we take any hold
Upon God in our prayer,
It is by Thy grace alone,
Since all Thine aus­ter­i­ties
Were prac­ticed for our sake.

How great was Thy sac­ri­fice,
Freely choos­ing Thy birth,
In this prison, our Iron Age,
To unchain us and set us free.
Per­fect, whom lust could not taint,
Nor pas­sion nor gold draw near,
O Mas­ter of all who renounce,
Fill our hearts full of love for Thee.

Thou hast fin­ished with fear and with doubt,
Stand­ing firm in the vision of God;
Refuge to all who have cast
Fame, for­tune, and friends away.
With­out ques­tion Thou shel­ter­est us,
And the world’s great sea in its wrath
Seems shrunk to the pud­dle
That fills the hoof­print in the clay.

Speech can­not hold Thee, nor mind,
Yet with­out Thee we think not nor speak.
Love, who art par­tial to none,
We are equal before Thy sight.
Taker-away of our pain,
We salute Thee, though we are blind.
Come to the heart’s black cave, and illu­mine,
Thou light of the light.