We Prasansa We Samidunta

Praise be, praise be to the Lord
singing these songs, playing the veena, let us fly, seeking the Lord
singing songs of thanks like this, wiping our tears away, let us be, smiling
Praise be, praise be to the Lord

It is a song on the road of love and of joy,
the one I sing, and what you hear is the rhythm that soothes the whole world
Praise be, praise be to the Lord

Pain and accusations are the beat of life,
I do not turn away, I do not cast it off, I sing the song, it is love
Praise be, praise be to the Lord

This is a hymn of pure, resolute praise, the kind of song that decides to worship no matter what life brings, and it makes a fitting doxology to close a collection of hymns. It opens with an outburst of joy, “praise be, praise be to the Lord,” and imagines worship as a kind of flight: “singing these songs, playing the veena, let us fly, seeking the Lord.” Praise here is not heavy duty but lightness, a soaring toward God, and it carries a healing purpose, “wiping our tears away, let us be, smiling.”

The middle verse describes the song the singer sings as belonging to “the road of love and of joy,” and makes a lovely claim about it, that “what you hear is the rhythm that soothes the whole world.” Genuine praise is not just self-expression; it has a calming, gladdening power that reaches beyond the singer to everyone within earshot. Worship, at its best, quiets the world.

The final verse is where the hymn shows its backbone. It admits plainly that life is not all joy, “pain and accusations are the beat of life,” the steady, unwelcome rhythm underneath everything. But the singer refuses to let that rhythm silence his song: “I do not turn away, I do not cast it off, I sing the song, it is love.” He chooses to keep praising through the pain, because the song itself is love. What the listener is left with is the mature, defiant gladness of true worship, a heart that knows life has its griefs and injustices and decides to lift up praise anyway, soaring toward God, soothing the world, and singing love straight through the hard beat of living.