Vegetarian Prayer of Thanksgiving

The Vegetarian Prayer of Thanksgiving

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This is a Coptic Gnostic prayer from one
of the Gnostic gospels found in Egypt included
in the Nag Hammadi Library:
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/prat.html
Translated by James Brashler,
Peter A. Dirkse and Douglas M. Parrott

This the prayer that they spoke:

"We give thanks to You!
Every soul and heart is lifted up to You,
undisturbed name, honored with the name 'God'
and praised with the name 'Father',
for to everyone and everything (comes) the fatherly kindness
and affection and love,
and any teaching there may be that is sweet and plain,
giving us mind, speech, (and) knowledge:
mind, so that we may understand You,
speech, so that we may expound You,
knowledge, so that we may know You.
We rejoice, having been illuminated by Your knowledge.
We rejoice because You have shown us Yourself.
We rejoice because while we are in (the) body,
You have made us divine through Your knowledge.

"The thanksgiving of the man who attains to You is one thing:
that we know You.
We have known You, intellectual Light.
Life of life, we have known You.
Womb of every creature, we have known You.
Womb pregnant with the nature of the Father,
we have known You.
Eternal permanence of the begetting Father,
thus have we worshiped Your goodness.

There is one petition that we ask:
we would be preserved in knowledge.
And there is one protection that we desire:
that we not stumble in this kind of life."

When they had said these things in the prayer, they embraced each
other and they went to eat their holy food, which has no blood in it.*

* A vegetarian meal. This passage is also found in the Epilogue of Asclepius, in "HERMETICA," translated by Sir Walter Scott:

"Having prayed thus, let us betake ourselves to a meal unpolluted by flesh [animalia] of living things."

The G.R.S. Mead translation of the same passage says: "With this desire we now betake us to our pure and fleshless meal."

"With such hopes we turn to a pure meal that includes no living thing." (Asclepius, translated in "Hermetica", Brian Copenhaver, Cambridge University Press)

New Book: Kabir Bhajan Amritam - Devotional Bhajans of Kabir

New Book: Kabir Bhajan Amritam - Devotional Bhajans of Kabir

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KABIR:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KABIR

The New Book: Kabir Bhajan Amritam -- Devotional Bhajans of Satguru Kabir,
translated by Dr. Jagessar Das:
email address: dasj@shaw.ca
published by:
The Kabir Association of Canada: http://www.kabir.ca





Dharam Das:

O my Satguru! I have become exhausted searching for you, but I have not found you.
I searched in the holy places of
Rameshwar; Jagdish, Dwarka, Badrinath,
Kedarnath, Kashi, Mathura, and Ayodhya. I even searched the Girnar mountain.
I searched East, West, North and South and wandered in the world.
I searched the sixty-eight places of pilgrimage trying to find you, and could not.
I have done prayers, austerities and fasting many times, and have practiced discipline and righteous living.
But I have not seen you even in my dreams, 0 Master! What sort of luck I have!
I do not have happiness in the day and can't sleep at night.
My whole body has become restless.
Please now give your Darshan [Vision] to
your servant Dharam Das and take him across this worldly ocean of rebirths.

Satguru Kabir:

0 my dear devotee, where are you searching for me? I am already with you.
I am not in the places of pilgrimage or in deities, or in an isolated dwelling.
I am not in the temples and mosques, and I am not in the holy city of Kashi or Mount Kailash.
I am not in the recitation of prayers or in austerities, or in ritual fasting.
I do not dwell in rituals or in yoga, or in renunciation.
I am not in the breath or in the material body, or in the expanse of space.
I am not in the cave of the trikuti, but I am in the breath of the breath.
If you search for me you'll find me immediately, even in a moment.
Kabir says, 'Dear brothers, listen to me! I dwell in your faith."


Four Other Translations of Kabir's Famous Poem: "Are You Searching for Me?"

"The Kabir Book -- Forty-Four of the Ecstatic Poems of Kabir", Robert Bly

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but
vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly --
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.


"Kabir -- Songs of the Divine"
Jagessar Das

Seeker! Why do you seek me?
I am already with you.
You will not find me in pilgrimages or idols,
Nor in isolated retreats and withdrawals.
You will not find me in temple or mosque,
Nor in what you call holy cities and sacred mountains.
You will not find me in recitations or austerities,
Nor in the observances of fasts and deprivations.
You will not find me in rites and rituals,
Nor in yoga and renunciations.
You will not find me in air or matter,
Nor in the vast expanse of space.
You will not find me,
Inside the void of meditation.
You will find me,
In the breath within all breaths.
Seek me there,
And you will find me instantly,
As immediately as the blink of an eye.
Kabir says, "Friends listen!
I am wherever you are."


This one is from "Says Kabir...
A Collection of One Hundred and Ten Poems of Kabir," Sushila Mahajan

Where do you look for me, dear?
I am closer than close to you.

Neither in temple-mosque am I,
nor in Kaba-Kailash,
nor in rituals, nor in yoga-ways.

Neither in goat-sheep am I,
nor in axe-knife,
nor in skin-tail,
nor in flesh and bone.

He who yearns, finds at once,
far from the crowd,
I live in a quiet refuge.

Listen to me in the void, says Kabir,
in between all the breaths.


"Songs of Kabir",
Rabindranath Tagore

O SERVANT, where dost thou seek Me?
Lo! I am beside thee.
I am neither in temple nor in mosque:
I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash:
Neither am I in rites and ceremonies,
nor in Yoga and renunciation.
If thou art a true seeker,
thou shalt at once see Me:
thou shalt meet Me in a moment of time.
Kabîr says, "O Sadhu! God is the breath of all breath."