केसव! कहि न जाइ का कहिये। देखत तव रचना बिचित्र हरि! समुझि मनहिं मन रहिये॥ १॥ सून्य भीति पर चित्र, रंग नहिं, तनु बिनु लिखा चितेरे। धोये मिटइ न मरइ भीति, दुख पाइय एहि तनु हेरे॥ २॥ रबिकर-नीर बसे अति दारुन मकर रूप तेहि माहीं। बदन-हीन सो ग्रसै चराचर, पान करन जे जाहीं॥ ३॥ कोउ कह सत्य, झूठ कह कोऊ, जुगल प्रबल कोउ मानै। तुलसिदास परिहरै तीन भ्रम, सो आपन पहिचानै॥ ४॥
Keshava, it cannot be told—what can one say? Seeing your wondrous creation, Hari, one can only understand inwardly and remain silent. (1) A picture appears on an empty wall: there are no pigments, and a bodiless painter has painted it. Washing does not erase it, nor does the wall die; gazing upon this body, one suffers pain. (2) In water that appears within the sun’s rays dwells a most terrible crocodile; though without a mouth, it devours every moving and unmoving being that goes to drink. (3) One calls it real, another calls it false, and another forcefully accepts both together. Tulsidas says: the one who abandons all three delusions recognizes his own true self. (4)