Amit Majmudar is an American novelist and poet, born 1979. In 2015, he was named the first Poet Laureate of Ohio. Majmudar, a son of Indian immigrants, grew up in the Cleveland area. He earned a BS at the University of Akron and an MD at Northeast Ohio Medical University. He is a diagnostic radiologist specializing in nuclear medicine practicing full-time in Columbus, Ohio, where he lives with his wife Ami and his twin sons,
These lines from Amit Majmudar’s Godsong, a verse translation of the Bhagavad-Gita, fall at the end of Session 12, when Prince Arjuna is asking his teacher, Lord Krishna, about the highest form of devotion. As Majmudar explains in his helpful “listening guide” to this passage, “Krishna’s answer epitomizes the multiplicities of the Gita. He understands that different people have different temperaments; some like singing together in a crowd, others like ladling out soup for the homeless, while still others like reading (and translating) ancient scripture.” Majmudar notes that, unlike other scriptures that spend their time praising the divine, the Gita spends its words more often on the qualities of the ideal devotee, who will be able to change her life through yoga practice, working for just causes, or pure focus on Krishna’s ideals. As Krishna concludes his lesson, Majmudar tips his hat to Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, borrowing the phrase “With malice toward none,” and connecting disparate cultures across time in his search for the healing word.
from GODSONG, “Session 12”
Amit Majmudar
With malice toward none,
Friendly and compassionate,
Neither selfish nor self-serving,
The same in pain and pleasure, patient,
A yogi constantly content
Is self-controlled and rooted in resolve.
His mind and intellect to me entrusted,
My devotee is dear to me.
The world does not repulse him,
And he does not repulse the world.
Freed of glee and pique, of fright
And worry, he is dear to me.
Expecting nothing, pure, adroit,
Sitting apart, his trembling gone
And all initiatives relinquished,
My devotee is dear to me.
He doesn’t rejoice, he doesn’t hate,
He doesn’t mourn, he doesn’t yearn.
Letting go of good and bad,
Full of devotion, he is dear to me.
The same to enemy and friend,
The same in honor and dishonor,
In heat and cold and pain and pleasure
The same, free of attachment,
Alike when praised or censured, silent,
Content with anything at all, at home
Anywhere, steady-minded: Such a man,
Full of devotion, is dear to me.
I speak this sweet, immortalizing
Dharma. Those who honor it,
Offering faith, exalting me—
They are extremely dear to me.