Songs of the Soul

Songs dear to Sri Ramakrishna

Sri Ramakrishna loved songs. There probably was no normal day when he did not sing some songs. His conversations with devotees were interspersed with songs that drove home the point of discussion and intensified the spiritual mood of the gathering. The Sri Ramakrishner Priyo Sangeet is a collection of songs that were sung by Sri Ramakrishna or sung in his presence by others. In this section we serialise these songs giving the English and Devanagari transliteration of the Bengali song, along with its English translation. Most of the songs were sung on more than one occasion. And Sri Ramakrishna in his ecstatic devotion sometimes altered the lyrics of the original songs. The settings of these occasions, the songs, and their original text are presented here.

The Song

What More Adornment!

हृदय् परोश्मोनि आमार्-

(भूषन् बाकि कि आछे रे!)

(जगोत्-चन्द्रो-हार् पोरेछि!)

Hridoy poroshmoni aamaar –

(Bhushan baaki ki aachhe re!)

(Jogot-chandro-haar porechhi!)

O touchstone of my heart – / (What is left by which I can adorn myself?) / (I have put on the garland of the Lord who is the moon of the world!)