In this heartfelt composition, Goswami Tulsidas pours out the anguish of a devotee living in the dark age of Kaliyuga. The verses are not merely poetry; they are a soul’s cry, timeless, universal, and deeply relevant even today.
Waiting for Divine Grace
नाथ! कृपाहीको पंथ चितवत दीन हौं दिनराति।
होइ धौं केहि काल दीनदयालु! जानि न जाति ॥ १ ॥
Nātha! kṛpāhī ko pantha citavata dīna hauṁ dina-rāti.
Hoi dhauṁ kehi kāla dīnadayālu! jāni na jāti ॥ 1 ॥
“O Lord! Day and night, I gaze upon the path of Your mercy.
O Compassionate One! I do not know when Your grace will finally descend upon me.”
This is the voice of surrender. The devotee does not demand or complain; he waits. His only hope is divine compassion. The uncertainty of when grace will arrive reflects the human condition, faith mixed with longing, patience mixed with pain. He positions himself as utterly dependent, acknowledging his helplessness and placing his complete trust in divine mercy. This is surrender in its purest form.
The Flight of Virtue in Kaliyuga
सुगुन, ग्यान-बिराग-भगति, सु-साधननिकी पाँति।
भजे बिकल बिलोकि कलि अघ-अवगुननिकी थाति ॥ २ ॥
Suguṇa, gyāna-birāga-bhagati, su-sādhanan kī pāṁti.
Bhaje bikala biloki kali agha-avagunan kī thāti ॥ 2 ॥
“Virtues, knowledge, renunciation, devotion, and noble spiritual practices—
Seeing the state of Kaliyuga, they fled in distress, leaving behind only heaps of sins and vices.”
Here, Tulsidas ji captures a universal human experience across ages. Kaliyuga is not just a cosmic era but a lived reality. Every generation has felt itself to be living in declining times, where righteousness seems to retreat and moral corruption advances. Values that once sustained human life, truth, wisdom, and devotion, seem to have disappeared. What remains is a heavy atmosphere of moral decay. This observation feels strikingly contemporary, as many today echo the same concern about the loss of ethics and spirituality.
A World Without Refuge
अति अनीति-कुरीति भइ भुइँ तरनि हू ते ताति।
जाउँ कहँ ? बलि जाउँ, कहूँ न ठाउँ, मति अकुलाति ॥ ३ ॥
Ati anīti-kurīti bhai bhuin̐ tarani hū te tāti.
Jāu kaha? bali jāu, kahū na ṭhāu, mati akulāti ॥ 3 ॥
“Injustice and corruption have become so intense that the earth burns hotter than the Sun. Where should I go? I have no place to turn. My mind is utterly restless.”
This metaphor is extraordinarily powerful. The earth burning hotter than the sun suggests a world where natural order has been inverted, where human wickedness has created conditions more unbearable than nature’s harshest elements. In such circumstances, the poet’s question, “Where shall I go?” echoes through the centuries.
This is existential despair. When injustice becomes normalized, the world itself feels uninhabitable. Tulsidas ji expresses complete helplessness; there is no external refuge left, no stable ground for the mind.
Total Surrender to the Lord
आप सहित न आपनो कोउ, बाप! कठिन कुभाँति।
स्यामघन! सींचिये तुलसी, सालि सफल सुखाति ॥ ४ ॥
Āpa sahita na āpano kou, bāpa! kaṭhina kubhāti.
Syāmaghana! sīṁciye Tulasī, sāli saphala sukhāti ॥ 4 ॥
“O Father! Together with this body, no one is truly my own. All appear to be harsh and corrupt. O Dark-clouded One (Shri Ram)! This Tulsi, like a field of ripened paddy, is withering. Please, become the cloud and drench it with the rain of Your grace.”
The agricultural metaphor is profound. Tulsidas compares himself to a paddy field that has grown and ripened but now faces drought. All the hard work of cultivation will be wasted without the final blessing of rain. Similarly, whatever spiritual progress he has made will wither without divine grace.
The address “Shyam Ghan” (dark cloud) is wonderful; it invokes Shyam(Shri Ram or Shri Krishna), while simultaneously referring to him as the rain-bearing cloud, the source of life-giving water.
Tulsidas’s words transcend time. They speak to anyone who has felt:
- Spiritually exhausted
- Disillusioned by society
- Alone despite being surrounded by people
- Dependent solely on divine mercy
This is not a prayer of strength but of helplessness, and that is precisely its power. In admitting his weakness, the devotee opens himself fully to grace.
In an age where all strength often fails, this prayer reminds us that true refuge lies in surrender. Even when virtue seems lost, and the world feels unbearably harsh, a single heartfelt plea can still rise to the Divine.
