“Was it only for this that they said it was
the day of the Coming?”
“Yes, this was why they said there was music
in the air and light in the sky.”
“And did they claim all the earth only for this?”
“Yes,” came the answer. “Mind,
you build walls to imprison yourself. Your servants
toil to enslave themselves; but the whole earth and
infinite space are for the child, for the New Life.”
“What does that child bring you?”
“Hope for all the world and its joy.”
Mind asked me, “Poet, do you understand?”
“I lay my work aside,” I said, “for
I must have time to understand.”
22
VAISHNAVA SONGS
1
Oh Sakhi,[1] my sorrow knows no bounds.
[Footnote 1: The woman friend of a woman.]
August comes laden with rain clouds and my house is
desolate.
The stormy sky growls, the earth is flooded with rain,
my love is far away, and my heart is torn with anguish.
The peacocks dance, for the clouds rumble and frogs
croak.
The night brims with darkness flicked with lightning.
Vidyapati[2] asks, “Maiden, how are you to spend
your days and nights without your lord?”
[Footnote 2: The name of the poet.]
2
Lucky was my awakening this morning, for I saw my
beloved.
The sky was one piece of joy, and my life and youth
were fulfilled.
To-day my house becomes my house in truth, and my
body my body.
Fortune has proved a friend, and my doubts are dispelled.
Birds, sing your best; moon, shed your fairest light!
Let fly your darts, Love-God, in millions!
I wait for the moment when my body will grow golden
at his touch.
Vidyapati says, “Immense is your good fortune,
and blessed is your love.”
3
I feel my body vanishing into the dust whereon my
beloved walks.
I feel one with the water of the lake where he bathes.
Oh Sakhi, my love crosses death’s boundary when
I meet him.
My heart melts in the light and merges in the mirror
whereby he views his face.
I move with the air to kiss him when he waves his
fan, and wherever he wanders I enclose him like the
sky.
Govindadas says, “You are the gold-setting,
fair maiden, he is the emerald.”
4
My love, I will keep you hidden in my eyes; I will
thread your image like a gem on my joy and hang it
on my bosom.
You have been in my heart ever since I was a child,
throughout my youth, throughout my life, even through
all my dreams.
You dwell in my being when I sleep and when I wake.
Know that I am a woman, and bear with me when you
find me wanting.
For I have thought and thought and know for certain
that all that is left for me in this world is your
love, and if I lose you for a moment I die.
