Let me have Devotion

Utpaladeva was an enlightened master of the Tantric tradition in Kashmir. His work "Shivastotravali"  is a collection of ecstatic devotional songs and reflects Utpaladeva's philosophy, known as Pratyabhijna - the splendor of Self-recognition. It is a fragment from the Sixteenth Song "Breaking out of the Fetters".

What indeed is there in the world
That does not conceal you?
Yet nothing exists that can conceal
You from the devotees.

Attained by so many disciples
And with so many attributes
You appear at all times to the devotees
In your true form, O Lord.

Triumphant, they laugh,
And vanquished, they laugh even more --
Leaving behind not only base powers,
But liberation itself.

In the same way that it arose in me,
Allow this love of devotion
Previously unknown to me
To grow greater still, O Lord.

Truly, I have no other entreaty but this:
Let me for all time, O Lord,
Be consumed with unending devotion.

Let me be enraged and yet
Compassionate toward the world.
And thus in the madness of devotion
May I laugh and weep and chant
Shiva, thunderously.

What is called liberation
Is simply the ripeness of devotion, O Lord.
Having taken the first steps toward that,
We are even now almost liberated.

Here in this world
Another world exists
That bears as fruit joyousness
For your devotees.

May there be devotion to you
As the Secret One, as the Transcendent One,
As Lord of the Universe,
As Shambhu, as Shiva,
As the Celestial One.
Ah, how indeed could I ever express it?

Devotion, devotion, devotion
To the Transcendent One.
Ardent devotion!
This is why I cry and clamor!
Let me have ardent devotion for you,
Only you.

Translation by Constantina Rhodes Bailly