Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/70

40 to her. Secret love must he indulged in secret; and thereby her mind should be purified; but she should not submit to desire. She must plunge herself headlong in the sea of abuse, but at the same time scrupulously avoid touching the forbidden stream and be quite indifferent to both pleasure and pain, (she will allow herself to be abused by others remaining true to herself)."

To play with passions,—to indulge freely in love, at the same time to guard oneself against a fall, is risky. The poet knows it well and says —

"To be a true lover, one must be able to make a frog dance in the mouth of a snake"—(which means, the lover while playing with dangerous passions,—nay, while apparently running even to the very mouth of destruction, must possess the self-control to return unhurt). "This love may be attained by one who can suspend the highest peak of Mount Sumeru with a thread, or bind an elephant with a cobweb;" —implying