Ultimate Prayers Of A Devotee ~ Swami Vivekananda Quotes

This is a very special article of this website. After reading the article title, the first question you should/might ask me, "What do you mean by "Ultimate prayers"? Is this another article on Swami Vivekananda's quotes on prayer?"
—✘ Well, no, this is not.

Like many of you, I have also read The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. In the Complete Works, some prayers of/mentioned by Swami Vivekananda deeply touched my mind.

✔ These prayers were direct.
✔ These prayers were uttered from the depths of the heart.
✔ These prayers were emotional.
✔ These prayers were true.

I felt, these prayers were "extra-ordinary", showed "ultimate" love and respect of a person towards the object he loves/respects (might be "God", might be "someone else"). That's why I have named this article "Ultimate Prayers of a Devotee." (Ignore "Title Case", Google is badly indexing this site's content, that's why I have been suggested to use "Title Case").

✌ Expectation: I do hope, at least some readers will like this article.

☞ All of these are either prayed by Swami Vivekananda or these are directly mentioned in his Complete Works.

Prayer 1

You'll find this prayer in Swamiji's book Para-Bhakti or Supreme Devotion. An e-book is available at our "Books" page. The prayer goes like this—^[Source]

Lord, they build high temples in Your name; they make large gifts in Your name; I am poor; I have nothing; so I take this body of mine and place it at Your feet. Do not give me up, O Lord.

If you can read Bengali, here is the Bengali quotation too—

প্রভু লোকে তোমার নামে বড় বড় মন্দির নির্মাণ করে, তোমার নামে কত দান করে; আমি দরিদ্র, আমার কিছু নাই, তাই আমার এই দেহ তোমার পাদপদ্মে সমর্পণ করিলাম। প্রভু, আমায় ত্যাগ করিও না।

Prayer 2

The following prayer is similar to the last one. Swamiji wrote this in a letter in 1894—^[Source]

Sweet One! Many people offer to You many things, I am poor — but I have the body, mind, and soul. I give them over to You. Deign to accept, Lord of the Universe, and refuse them not.

The Bengali quote goes likethis—

হে মাধব, অনেকে তোমায় অনেক জিনিস দেয়—আমি গরীব—আমার আর কিছু নেই, কেবল এই শরীর মন ও আত্মা আছে—এইগুলি সব তোমার পাদপদ্মে সমর্পণ করলাম—হে জগদ‍্‍ব্রহ্মাণ্ডের' অধীশ্বর, দয়া ক'রে এইগুলি গ্রহণ করতেই হবে—নিতে অস্বীকার করলে চলবে না।

[For the readers who can not read Bengali, it is just the translation of the English quote.]

Prayer 3

From another letter of Swami Vivekananda, written to Swami Brahmananda, dated 12 March 1900—^[Source]

Victory to the Guru! Victory to the Guru! You are my only refuge — you are my only refuge.

Prayer 4

This is not actually a Swami Vivekananda's prayer. It is from Thomas à Kempis's Imitation of Christ. Imitation of Christ was Swami Vivekananda's very favourite book. Between 1888—1893, when he was travelling all over India as a wandering monk, he had only two books with him, one is Bhagavad Gita and the second one is Imitation of Christ. Later he translated first few chapters of the book to Bengali. I'll include this quote too.

From Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 3 The Doctrine of Truth—^[Source]

O God, You Who are the truth, make me one with You in love everlasting. I am often wearied by the many things I hear and read, but in You is all that I long for. Let the learned be still, let all creatures be silent before You; You alone speak to me.