Today we honor the appearance day of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur with a half day fast, and songs composed by the great pioneer of Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan movement. The following is one of the many devotional songs written by Srila Bhaktivinode.

Gopinatha
by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura
translated from Bengali by Acyutananda Svami

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura is one of the most important spiritual masters in the Krsna consciousness line of disciplic succession. His devotional songs and poems express the perfectional emotions of a pure devotee of Lord Krsna (Gopinatha).

O Gopinatha, Lord of the gopis, please hear my prayer. I am a materialistic rascal, always full of lust. I have no good qualifications.

O Gopinatha! You are my only resort. As Your eternal servant, I take shelter of Your lotus feet.

O Gopinatha! How can I uplift myself? I don’t know anything regarding devotional service. I am weak-minded and have fallen into a pit of illusion.

O Gopinatha! Everything here is but Your illusory energy. I have no power or pure knowledge, and and I am bound by a material body.

O Gopinatha! I desire to remain always at Your lotus feet. Please take this sinner, weeping and weeping, and show me Your mercy.

O Gopinatha! You can do anything. You have purified the most wicked by Your power, but who is more wicked than me?

O Gopinatha! You are the vessel of kindness. You enter into this mundane world and display Your sublime pastimes for the sake of the fallen souls.

O Gopinatha! I am the sinner of sinners. Yet I sit waiting for You to take me, for many demons have attained Your lotus feet.

O Gopinatha! Destroy the miseries of this world! I am strung on a necklace of births and deaths and cannot bear the kicking of maya.

O Gopinatha! I am a servant of lust, entangled in the net of material desire which has sprung up in my heart.

O Gopinatha! When will I wake up and cast this enemy of lust far from me? Then only will You be revealed to me in my heart.

O Gopinatha! I am Your own. By leaving Your lotus feet, forgetting Your treasures, I have served only maya.

O Gopinatha! You know everything. Take me to Your lotus feet and punish Your servant.

O Gopinatha! Is it to Your liking to reject me and not show me Your kindness?

O Gopinatha! I am the greatest fool. I don’t at all know what is good for me. I cannot understand anything. This is my fate.

O Gopinatha! You are the greatest intellect. Not considering that I am Your servant, judge me without bias.

O Gopinatha! I have no means of benefiting myself. By Your mercy and kindness, please pick me up from this miserable world and take me to You.

O Gopinatha! I have fallen into this dark world. Bound by wealth, wife and sons, I am feeling the pain of lust.

O Gopinatha! I am going mad! Never caring for spiritual practices, I am always unconscious and deeply sunk in the muck of sense gratification.

O Gopinatha! I surrender unto You. All my endeavors are a useless waste of time. Now I surrender unto You.

O Gopinatha! How shall I reach the goal? My mind is overwhelmed by the powerful senses. I cannot shake off attachment to worldly pleasures.

O Gopinatha! Please reside in my heart. Destroy these dangerous obstacles, correct my mind and guide me to Your own true path.

O Gopinatha! Please let Your glance fall on me. I am helpless, but You are Hrsikesa, the Lord of the senses. Please control my senses and pull me out of this world of dangers.

Bhaktivinoda Thakura prays: O Gopinatha! My voice is faltering. I must throw off these shackles and catch hold of Your mercy.