Grant me the boat of your remembrance to cross the ocean of material turbulence

prasīda prabho duḥkha-jālābdhi-magnam

Be merciful, Lord, I’m drowned in pain,
In sorrow’s sea I cry in vain.
O master, lift me from despair,
And keep me safe within your care.

(Damodarashtakam — Verse 6, Line 2)

My dear Lord, help me realize that pain is inevitable in any life directed toward anything but you. The cause of that pain lies not merely in the mortal nature of this world—which makes life an inescapable sentence—but also in the uncertainty and anxiety that precede it.

Please, O supreme guru, let the false promises of worldly pleasure no longer fill me with hope, for they lead only to deeper entrapment and endless suffering. Let me see such pleasures for what they are—treacherous baits that keep me adrift in the ocean of misery, battered and broken by the waves of worldly existence.

I need your mercy, O unfailing Lord, to turn my heart wholly toward you. The more I become attached to and absorbed in you, the more I realize that the greatest ocean of suffering is not material existence itself, but the forgetfulness of you that defines it. I seek protection not from the pains of this world, but from the far greater danger of forgetting you—whether in pleasure or in pain.

Grant me, O merciful Lord, the constant remembrance of you—an unshakeable boat that will not only protect me from this ocean’s waves but also carry me steadily toward you, into the eternal, ever-expanding ocean of your supreme love and joy.