આવડા રૂપાળા તે કોણે કરીયા, ખી [TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE.] Gallant Lord! If you tarry a while, I'll tell you a tale. On your account, I have wasted my body: Since meeting at Vranda, I have been suffering from anxious longing and hankering; Bewildered do I roam in the woods; I do not feel a moment's rest day or night; How can I express adequately my agony? My heart burns with a longing and hankering desire; Constant echo runs in my ears; Our souls are threaded together. I cannot express the uneasiness of my mind; How long shall I suffer from such eagerness? Thou-the gem of [my] forehead, adept in all secrets, What shall I say to thee? As thou hast loved me, now fulfil thy pledge; The sound of any one pleases me not: My eyes being enticed, now where can I go? From top to toe you are full of beauty and perfection. Who could have made thee so beautiful? Thou smilest sweetly, glancing aside; Thy wink as a dagger wounded my heart, Other diseases are nothing when compared with this. ઉભા રહોતો કહું એક વાત મારા વાહલા | વચન દીધું તે પાલીયું નથી કે વાહલા || મારી અરજ સુણો તો કહું એક મારા વાહલા હું વહુ વાર્ બાલે વેરા મારા વાહલા માટે ટાહડું નાખ્યુંછે તક વીનારે વાહલા || હું ઢાંકી ધીકું છું રાત દીવસ મારા વાહલા ।। બીજી કસરતો કાંઈ નથીરે વાહાલા || મનડુંરે મારૂ ના કહ્યું જાય રેજી || પણ તે તો માવી છે તક ઞાજ માહરા વાહલા || મારી નણદી વળાવી માજ સામરે રે વાહલા ।। સંગે સખા ન કોઈ લાવો રે વાહલા ।। [TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE.] If you stop a while, I'll tell you a tale. Why do you turn your face from me? I have not fulfilled the word I gave, And this I believe has offended you: I'll offer an apology, should you listen to it: In my appearance I am a young married girl; My married one would not, if I go out, but follow me; My companions are in crowd with me. Therefore, I have delayed for want of an opportunity: Do not think I am proud of my beauty; It's nothing when compared with yours. Since we have exchanged glances, I have dedicated to you my body and mind; I cannot relish food at dinner, Nor can I get sleep when I lie down; My heart burns within itself day and night; . . જ I have no rest on account of your separation: There is no other fault but this. If an opportunity occurs happy we shall be ; All the day this is the only thought engaging my mind. But opportunity offers itself to-day; My husband leaves for a foreign town; My husband's sister is sent back to the house of her husband to-day; To dispose of the products of the dairy is my important business. Come, therefore, early at sunset, To the grove of Bansibatt, where we shall meet; Take no companion with you, And I too will not bring any. Thus they both met And sported to their complete satisfaction: And conquered the unconquerable cupid. It is the fatal result of the gross and indecent religion thus inculcated and practised by the Vallabhácháryans, that females are rendered callous to the moral degradation into which they are betrayed by their religious preceptors. These preceptors imbue their teachings with the idea that all emanates from the highest source of spiritual inspiration, they themselves being absolutely its full impersonation upon earth; and their doctrines impressively inculcating that they are even superior to the Divinity himself, because, although ostensibly the mere medium of communication between him and the worshippers, they can save when it is beyond the power of the god, and can grant absolution and ensure pardon to the positive certainty of their votaries eventually enjoying the delights of paradise. The moral nature of the devotees being thus controlled and subjugated, they succumb slavishly to the infatuation, unconscious of the foul snare into which they fall; and under the supposition that they obtain honour and spiritual exaltation by immoral contact with these incarnations of deity, lend themselves willingly to minister to their corrupt pleasures. The Maháráj is invited to the houses of the Vaishnavas when they are sick or on the point of death: in the latter case, he puts his foot on the breast of the dying person, with a view to free him from sin, and receives, in return for the blessings he thus confers, from ten to a thousand rupees. In Bombay alone there are from forty to fifty thousand Vallabhácháryans. We may therefore form some conception of the manner in which the depravity of which we have spoken percolates through this community, which, as we have before seen, consists of the most wealthy and most intelligent inhabitants; and to how much greater an extent it may indirectly corrupt society by its contaminating influence. The Vaishnavas are strictly prohibited from showing to the followers of other sects the book containing the amorous poetry, and, indeed, all the books issued by the Mahárájas. The preliminary initiation of the Vallabhácháryans commences very early in life. The first instruction takes place at the age of two, three, or four years. The child is then taken to the Maháráj, who repeats to it the "Astákshar Mantra," or formula of eight letters, viz., : VCŮ AA (Śri Krishna sharnaṇam mama), that is, "Śri Krishna is my refuge." This the child is made to repeat after the Maháráj, who then passes round its neck a string with tulasi (ocymum sanctum) or grass beads, called kanthi or necklace; and then the ceremony is complete. The second initiation, called samarpana, which signifies consignment, takes place in the case of a male at the age of eleven or twelve years. He then becomes a full member of the sect, and is fitted for the duties of life. In the case of a female, it takes place upon her marriage, or shortly previous. This celebrated samarpaṇa, or absolute self-dedication to Krishna, and his incarnation, the Maháráj, is also known as Brahm-sambandha, which means connection with BRAHMA (the Supreme Being). The votary |