The Description of Various Deities

1. Salutations to Lord Ganesha. Your greatness cannot be fathomed. It is you who gives knowledge to the intellect of the people, young and old.
(Note: In stanzas 1 through 15 Samartha Ramdas is giving praise to various manifestations of God before going on to say that they are all only aspects of the one Self.)
2. Salutations to Goddess Saraswati. From you arises the inspiration for all of the four types of speech. Very few know your true form.
3. Blessed is the four-faced Brahma who has created the universe and manifested the Vedas and other scriptures.
4. Blessed is Lord Vishnu who protects and sustains all living beings with just a small fraction of himself. Residing in all living beings, he cultivates and sustains life. It is Vishnu who gives knowledge and understanding to all.
5. Blessed is Lord Shiva who gives without limits. He is continuously repeating the name of Lord Rama.
6. Blessed is Lord Indra, who is the king of all the gods. How can the magnificence of his domain be described!
7. Blessed is Lord Yama, the deity of death and the upholder of religion. He is the knower of all the righteous and non-righteous ways of living beings.
8. Great is the majesty of Lord Venkatesha (a form of Vishnu who is the destroyer of sins) who stands as he eats the food offered by devotees. He enjoys many delicious foods with great delight.
9. Blessed is Lord Shankara (a form of Shiva). He takes great delight in eating many vegetable dishes.
10. Blessed is Hanuman (son of the wind; considered an incarnation of Shiva), the monkey god with a tail like a cow who is adorned with a garland of vadas (small fried cakes made from pulse flour). When people eat these cakes after they have been offered to him, they feel satisfied.
11. Blessed is the great God Khandoba (a form of Shiva), who becomes all yellow with the turmeric powder. He is ready to eat the onions and raita (curd salad) with thick rotis (baked flat bread) offered by devotees.
12. Blessed is the Goddess Telajabhavani (a form of Parvati, the wife of Shiva), who is pleased with her devotees among the people. She has so many glorious qualities, who can count them!
13. Blessed is Panduranga (a form of Krishna also called Vitthala and Vithoba), who is always in the mood for celebrations with narrations, bhajans, and many songs and stories.
14. Blessed is Kshetrapala (the defender of God). Because of him people adore God. Devotion to him with deep feeling gives the devotee the fruits of devotion without delay.
15. There are many incarnations of God, such as Lord Rama, Lord Krishna and others. Because of their greatness many people have become eager to worship God.
16. Understand that the origin of all gods, is the one Inner-Self alone. He alone is the receiver of all the enjoyments on the earth.
17. He has established himself as many Gods and has become manifest as the form of many types of power. He alone is the enjoyer of all prosperity.
18. Through investigation and thoughtfulness see that the entire expanse of the universe has spread out because of him. Many Gods and men appear and pass away. How many of them can be told?
19. Everything such as fame and blame, criticism and praise, and all the other enjoyments of everyone, are received by the Inner-Self alone.
20. Everything done by the body, and all that is enjoyed or suffered is only his enjoyment or suffering. He alone is the enjoyer, the one who renounces, and the state of detachment from both enjoyment and renunciation.
21. Living beings forget the Self because of pride. Seeing only the body, they have forgotten the primary thing, which is the Self within.
22. Oh! Who is there on this earth that sees all of the activity of the Inner-Self? It is very rare to find one who with immense virtue remains in continual awareness of the Self.
23. In that continuous awareness of the Self, all wrongful acts are completely burnt up. The Jnani who remains fixed as the Self sees and understands the meaning of this.
24. Those who are firmly seated in the Self are ferried across this world illusion while those who stray from the Self are drowned in it. They are carried away by their fascination with the objective world and appearances.