Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

Sri Rama’s words to Sita

I swear to you, beloved of my life, upon my own heart:
nothing is as dear to me as you.
Even if I obtained millions of universes, I would know no such bliss
as when I drink the honey of your lotus face.
You dwell in my ears, eyes, and mind; nothing else delights me.
I sacrifice every happiness for your loving glance.
Beloved, you alone are the source of my heart’s bliss,
the flame of its life and the very life of my breath.
Beholding the beauty of your lotus face, I do not like even to blink.
I count myself blessed to have gained such treasure as you.
I shall remain forever subject to the company of your maidservants;
seeing myself humbled thus, I count no state as poverty.

Hearing her Beloved’s love-filled words, the Lady smiles sweetly. She offers her ornaments in homage to his words and draws the beloved boy to her breast.

The play of rasa

The colourful beloved boy and colour-filled darling girl
sport with wide eyes among companions saturated with colour.
Upon a bed composed of many fragrant flowers, soft as milk foam,
these companions of Love arrange the very abode of Love.
They approach the flower chamber filled with enchantment
and recline upon the bed, immersed in rasa beyond mind and speech.
Wearing lovely garments filled with blue and yellow radiance,
the Couple seem to touch one another’s limbs in embodied form.
The beauty of the fresh blue and yellow garments mingles into a single colour;
“Look, companions,” the women cry, “Sita and her Beloved have assumed one body!”
Longing to behold the Beloved delighting in rasa through the night,
Chandrakala gazes upon her moon while softly playing the sweet instrument.
They recline in blissful sleep, becoming as one form, half woman;
it seems a trance of love—the companion alone knows that happiness.