Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

Your beloved’s cakora-like heart remains forever captivated,
Drinking through its eyes the nectar of your sweetness.

O dark maker of happiness,
Lovely Shyama Lal!
Remain forever caught
Within the doe-eyed lady’s net of beauty.

O appreciator of virtue and treasury of love,
Repose of the world’s living beings!
Siyaraman, mansion of beauty,
Supremely fortunate abode of bliss!

O life-giving root of the rasikas,
Full moon through age after age!
Never waxing and never waning,
Eternally Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss!

Self-Introduction

Know Chandrakanti as my mother and father, and Shatrujit as the king.
Charushila is my elder sister; regard me as her attendant.

The one called Jna embodies the secret rasa—know this with certainty in the heart.
Having taken refuge in her, I am known as Gyanali.

Sita possesses eight principal companions, and among them is Gyana.
Her attendant, her second embodied form, is Gyanali.

Gyana knows nothing of learned knowledge and has cast away all negation.
Taking refuge solely in Siyavar, she becomes skilled in contemplating him.

The indivisible, beginningless, unborn Consciousness is the beloved of Janaka’s daughter.
Joined to him without fear, Gyana becomes Sita’s companion.

Excellent Sri Rama is unborn and indivisible, the embodied dwelling of the universe.
By the guru’s grace she was joined to him, and the light of Gyana’s knowledge arose.

Regarding Sri Mithila as my parental home and Awadh as my husband’s household,
I shall live happily and freely in both homes, wherever my heart desires.