Appendix A: Mahāvāṇī

—“O simple-hearted Lord, the clever women plead: grant us that union, O Rama.
Without the beloved, every blink passes like an age; how can anyone live in the world, O Rama?
Our one true reliance is the true guru’s gift; all other practices are low, O Rama.
Yugal Viharini says: remove the constraint of separation, Hari; grant the joy of vision for one moment, O Rama.”

“The Playful Couple Sit with Arms around Each Other”

The playful Couple sit, companion, with arms around each other’s necks.
The beloved gives a folded betel leaf to his darling’s mouth, and the darling gives one to his.
Eating betel, they converse together, laugh, and arrange one another’s curls.
Sometimes they kiss one another’s mouths, drink there, and then wipe the nectar from the lips.
Sometimes the beloved bends over his darling, and sometimes dear Sita bends over him.
Sometimes they encircle one another, while the companions avert the evil eye with mustard seed and salt.
Beholding this delight of rasa gives happiness day and night; even for a blink, they are not apart.

The Flower Bungalow

The two sit splendidly at the centre of the flower bungalow: Shyama and Shyam.
Crimson garments shine upon the darling’s body, and brilliant yellow upon her beloved.
Jasmine, jūhī, graceful camelī, and threefold garlands attend them.
Rose-water fountains fall jham-jham upon cloud-dark Ghanashyam.
Beholding his darling’s incomparable beauty, the beloved assumes an ever-new, captivating form.
Tell me, companion—what can be said? These two are the very source of Love’s own power.
Seeing his darling’s beauty, the beloved says inwardly, “Rama!
I am forever sold into her hands, without so much as a price.”
May the two remain together in mutual bliss: Sri Janakivar is the abode of happiness.

Adorn the ever-new beauty of the youthful Couple.
Upon a cool bed beneath the moonlight, decked in lovely flowers, they wear flower-turbans upon their heads.
Their robes are flowers, their sandals flowers, and flower-wreaths coil about their necks.
Bodice, veil, hair-parting, and every ornament are fashioned of flowers.
The two shine entwined at the neck, giving the light of ten million moons.
It seems that Rati and Manoja are playing as radiant stars within an ocean of flowers.
Seeing the beloved Couple’s flower adornment, the companions forget their very lives.
Sri Janakivar’s Bhuri Sanjivani cries again and again, “Wonderful! Blessed indeed!”