Set Course for God

"Mother! Mother! My boat is sinking, here in the ocean of this world;
Fiercely the hurricane of delusion rages on every side!

Clumsy is my helmsman, the mind; stubborn my six oarsmen, the passions;
Into a pitiless wind I sailed my boat, and now it is sinking!
Split is the rudder of devotion; tattered is the sail of faith;

Into my boat the waters are pouring! Tell me, what shall I do?
For with my failing eyes, alas! Nothing but darkness do I see.
Here in the waves I will swim O Mother, and cling to the raft of Thy name!”.

- Sri Ramakrishna

Of Yachts and Rowboats

Lecture by Swami Chidbrahmananda

Set sail on spiritual life 
For a coarse of sincerity and earnestness, 
Pure love and devotion for God. 
Grab hold to the hem of his skirt 
As he spins the truth of eternal peace. 
Sail on the ocean of bliss, 
Past vain helpless ego, 
Towards strong currants of abiding truth. 
On meaningful logs of love let me cross 
This turbulent storm of impermanence 
Spun in turbulent eddies thrown ashore, 
Let the moment that is be the present pure 
Newness reborn afresh as divine truth.

The winds of God's grace are always blowing, 

it is for us to raise our sails. 

-Sri Ramakrishna

The Dreamboat

by Sri Aurobindo

Who was it that came to me in a boat made of dream-fire,

With his flame brow and his sun-gold body?

Melted was the silence into a sweet secret murmur,

'Do you come now? Is the heart's fire ready?'

Hidden in the recesses of the heart something shuddered,

It recalled all that the life's joy cherished,

Imaged the felicity it must leave lost forever,

And the boat passed and the gold god vanished.

Now within the hollowness of the world's breast inhabits -

For the love died and the old joy ended -

Void of a felicity that has fled, gone for ever,

And the gold god and the dream boat come not.