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ayocations. In fact the poet seems to exclaim as a Chrisé tian poet: did :—

“Oh the pleasures I partake— God the partner of my night !"’

Nay, the tables are turned, and God and his, Bhakta :

become on an occasion woman and man instead of man and woman ; and the man-poet is then equally captivat- ed with the vision of the fascinating fair one, and does, as the Christian poet did,— “Muse all night On the first Eternal Fair,”

The poet was not content with composing poems to describe this Ras ; he collected men and women to enact it as on a stage, and they sang and danced the Ras in honour of Hari. If wicked people came like wise-acres to dissuade the servants of Hari from serving him, the poet could not listen to them. What mattered it, if pious women joined him in thesong-and dance of Hari? If they were women, he was woman too. The only man was Hari, and, by the Ras dance of hearts, he absorbed his women into himself. What the poet seems to have so conceived, he has reduced into songs which survive to this day like Mira’s songs and supply pious Bhaktas with communion and fruition of Hari. We see in his raptureg and songs the great secret of the new religion that had by

this time largely developed the ravishing ideas and images -

WY LIDRATNIT 2