Photo Essay

Saundarya Lahari: Waves of beauty

DYUTIMAN MUKHOPADHYAY PHOTOGRAPHY

Let my rambles in stupor recur to your name—

Let quotidian rituals be my gesture of prayer—

Let my gait be a circumambulation of you—

Let devouring be oblation to your sacred fire—

Let my prostration be my submission—  

Let my pleasance be my immersion—

Let my desire be my devotion.

—A sense-for-sense translation of verse 27 of Saundarya Lahari  (Waves of Beauty)—a collection of hundred and three poetic verses in Sanskrit attributed largely to Adi Shankaracharya (8th c. CE)—the Indian Vedic scholar-monk, philosopher, and founder of Advaita Vedanta.

—Translated by Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay; January 10, 2026; Bangalore, India.

—Photographs by Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay; December 28, 2025; Mandarmani, West Bengal, India.

—Camera: Canon 60D.