Verses of
Yogi Vemana
Translated from the Telugu by
C.P. Brown
[1829]
YOGI VEMANA
Translated from the Telugu Verses
The Divinity Himself became the universe. and was born when he hungers he shall eat this universe with desire (lit, its noble juice), In contradiction to his former acts he shall devour and destroy it. Alas! what do they call this?
1051
The Deity became man, he became woman leaving sorrow and having those desires that never relinquish in each age he is born. O ye wise! behold this noble object of meditation.
1052
In the various tribes of animals the deity was repeatedly reborn; like as if confused he roamed and roved; were we to call this body eternal? Would not the deity laugh?
1053
Who is the living man? Who is he who bore him? Who is the dead? No one knows this course! He that is, who produceth, who dieth, is one divinity.
1054
United with every living creature, manifest is the deity within them. Consider this deity carefully, whether it is female or male?
1055
Born, he existeth, unborn he existeth not, awhile he dieth; awhile lives again, This is the mere diceplay of Brahma! Nothing is stable!
1056
Why first are we born? Why die at last? Why troubled by reason of the ruthless Yama? Restrain thy mind from longing for birth.
1057
However great he be, to let the great sinner duly attain salvation there is one expedient at the time of death; let him give up all his desires, and think on God. Thus shall he become beatified.
1058
Though you impress his image on thee or name thyself his son, or eat his betel spittle serving him abjectly, shall any thing be attained by thee beyond thy destiny?
1059
Entangled in vain desires, observing the lives of consanguinity, a man becomes mad and roams the world. Where are our fathers and mothers? What are they? and what do they for us? (lit. why they to us?)
1060
The hill monkey has (if you look) the monkey for a (pērantālu) wife; a banda (a poor king) for a minister; (Banda--a beggar who tortures himself to extort alms from fools). Look at the Banda; villainous slanderers are his kin.
1061
Ignorant of the term set to the expenditure of life, it is fit for no one to write or cause to write at any time or in any place never write.
(This folly signifies that what is rendered permanent by writing may become false.)
1062
He who duly reverences Bramins and the Gods, who justly governs the earth, and thus gains wealth, which he spends in liberality, he, thus looking to the path to the beatitude, and has love to God. This is a king!
1063
Consider the spittle (leavings) of flies, of courtesans--they are acceptable to men and gods. Then why is our own spittle unacceptable to us?
1064
All wealth that is buried falls to the share of the earth; all that is out falls into the hands of others; all that we eat is the gain merely of straining inner system; what is bestowed alone remains ours.
1065
Give or not give, hope will bestow; however unsuccessful we still hope. Give or not give, it gives the world. Examine and see this. In this there are no free agents.
1066
Becoming a foetus it will remain in the womb for a few days. Thereafter it will surely not remain. The foetus is born in the earth; the foetus is the protection of the spirit in the earth, O Vema!
1067
Foulness in the belly, masses of flesh, bones--if you view it there is but a filthy skin over it. What manner of dwelling is this? What manner of comfort is this?
1068
If we eat not food, the fire in the belly devours the impurities of the belly. Thus if he abstain from food, he who fasteth devoureth impurity.
1069
If the Carnam be a low fellow, the farmers will all join and tell him to bow down whenever they have a mind. But if the Carnam be firm, we are your children, say they.
1070
A cat that listens a squeak is annoyed, if while eating its food it sees one of its own species (caste). He that hath no caste is considered a god in the world (as impartial).
1071
A fellow on one leg is no saint. If one carries cow-dung she is no slut, if one sees either of these he is merely astonished (his eyes redden).
1072
In the Linga sect, a set of hypocrites has arisen and these having handsomely reviled one another are all turned to dust by the Turk tribe to whom their discussion render them easy converts.
1073
A man is distinguished in the world, and becoming himself a great somayaji is born, a brother to the village god Potarazu. But you may consider him as merely the vile goddess of death to the rams that are sacrificed.
1074
He who saith this (external) figure is thy form and beholdeth in his internal image, Him that is worthy to be wore slipped of all worlds. In that form in which he himself exists shall he behold the Lord.
1075
He that hath not subdued (slain) his mind as we still further consider, is lower than a pariar, O man! death (naraka) shall befall (lit. come to) him after death.
1076
The chariot has five linch-pins; when the charioteer propels, the car proceeds. The car of thy body has five linch pins the senses); seek him who evidently guides it.
1077
Those wretches (lives) that artfully destroy animals while either sleeping, drinking waters or standing still and singing shall at the end in the same manner perish.
1078
Becoming free thinkers and ruined just like crows roaming the land wandering without understanding in them, they devour dung and urine; they die and become a part of earth.
1079
That house that we call the body do we daily sweep, smear with cow-dung, plaster, and order; at last we quit it and depart, so deceitful (or fleeting) is the soul.
1080
To what end is all this reading, to what end are all these disputations? If thou wouldest remain of one mind, thou shouldest become an accomplished sage and attaining absorptions become thyself, the Universe.
1081
Surely these vile tenets (Veda) are mere contention. The words of Vemana are knowledge (Veda). Verify none can show you any good. Though good were taught, you would not do it. If a man did well this would be the perfect man.
is a vocative plural of which 
is the singular. )1082
Like as camphor, burnt in fire loses its fine smelt. Thus the fragrance of wisdom in the debased can attain no nobility.
1083
He who knows the truth knows the Divinity and this will enable him to slay all his lust (literally vigours). Will he who has swallowed a delicious plantain swallow venom?
1084
Wonderful is it that the millions of animated beings should behold the great spirit, if thou consider in thy heart.
1085
Sorrow originates in impurity of heart. Like as the sun shines on all nature, pure water is in the sanctified body.
1086
Ye who first drove away all your original Gods, ye who drove away the succeeding deities, smite with the slipper your present paltry divinities.
1087
He who has beheld all the glory that is concealed within the veil, and has also fixed his mind on the divinity, that mighty saint who existeth in exalted holiness, at where shall we seek him?
1088
To know myself is to know thee How should he who knoweth not himself know thee. Let us learn from Boya Caannappa the prayer that teaches a knowledge of ourselves and thee (easy and useful in grammatical construction).
1089
That deity that alone comprehendeth the scriptures is found by constant seeking The Lord seeketh the man that seeketh him. Are there any who are wise and have learnt to seek him?
1090
If we love him, he will love us. If we love not him he will not love us (in the world). All our gorgeous apparel any our devils are all of no avail in the world.
1091
Without self possession the mere favour of learning will never remove the doubts of the aspirant. No more than darkness will be dissipated by a painted flame.
1092
By gentleness every object is pleasantly attained. It is a true victory; by it our vows are performed, I will lay you any bet. How great were the difficulties that Dharmaraj conquered by means of gentleness? (admirable and easy),
1093
When the men of this world see the exalted saint they will censure him but cannot comprehend him. What difference can the hand perceive between nectar and any other taste.
1094
From his birth onwards how many diverse evil thoughts the sinner entertains. Like to a lame dog that is in imagination eating meat.
1095
If he have learnt to speak prudently (lit. knowing abstracts), why should we consider his youth or age? May not a letter written by a child be respectable?
1096
Continuing to live and see (as in houses), listening to modes contrary to sense, do men pass away like an old song, listening to this they go on and go on and become a tale.
1097
As they who have lost their eyes or legs seek each others aid, and as the beggar unites with beggar alone. Thus wealth and poverty associate together.
1098
Is not the dying of some of our kin before our eyes an evidence/to us? Can we look upon our frail lives as eternal?
1099
Like as the lamp of the sun enters into water, thus does the eye behold the deity. Like as the glistening of the soil of the desert in the mirage.
1100
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