You may control a mad elephant; You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger; Ride the lion and play with the cobra; By alchemy you may earn your livelihood; You may wander through the universe incognito; Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful; You may walk on water and live in fire; But control of the mind is better and more difficult.
Now you worship His Form, you repeat His name; ignoring His orders. Without practicing the discipline laid down by Rama to purify the mind, all else is mere show, empty rituals.
Of winter’s lifeless world each tree now seems a perfect part; Yet each one holds summer’s secret deep down within its heart.
These are times when anger, fear and hatred are giving rise to devastating problems throughout the world. But I believe we have a valuable opportunity to make progress in dealing with them, through collaboration between religion and science.
