Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

Khara, Dushana, and all the others were enchanted when they beheld Rama;
they fought not from personal desire but from their conception of warriorhood.

Even Sita was enchanted on seeing Raghubar, the treasury of beauty.
If one could find anything equal to him, only then might that too be recorded as exceedingly wondrous.

Uma, Rama, and Brahmani forever serve within Sita’s palace,
while clever, discerning Sharada continually sings of the Couple’s deeds.

As in Awadh and Mithila, so here are happiness, beauty, and maryādā.
Hold these forever within the heart, abandoning every harmful dispute.

The true form of the jīva is distinct from Prakriti and all her principles.
Forgetting its relationship with the Lord, it has fallen into the dark well of delusion.

Then, keeping company with rasikas, it attains accurate knowledge
and recognises its own true nature in its relationship with Sita and Raghunanda.

Male servant, female servant, female companion, or male friend—choose among these according to your own taste.
Establish that relationship with Sita-Rama and serve with discerning devotional feeling.

Holi, the rāsa, the swing festival, the palace, and the royal hunt:
contemplate these divine plays in accordance with your own devotional identity.

Live in Awadh or Mithila, abandoning every other hope.
Hold the firm conviction: “Sita and Raghunanda will meet me.”

Do not worship a multitude of gods, and do not depend upon rites of injunction and prohibition.
One firm reliance upon refuge alone is the dharma of surrender.

This is further described as threefold: practice, devotional feeling, and love.
Know practice to be that stage in which many disciplines are observed.

Faith, trusting intimacy, the company of those of one’s own disposition,
a method of bhajana, sustained contemplation, steadfastness, and unbroken taste;

and then the abandonment of every impediment—bring these characteristics into the heart.
First comes devotion in practice; after it, devotional feeling is described.

At the very commencement of the discipline, joy arises in the heart;
one bears the sorrows arising from worldly objects and is not caught in the noose of expectation.

The wise call these three the consequent signs of faith.
When the treasure of faith enters the house of the heart, longing for the true object arises.