Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/71

II.] cobweb;"—implying that it is not in an ordinary man's power to control the surging passions of love and remain immaculate in his vow. The poet says, that by exercising restraint over feelings and desires and at the same time by running though great sacrifices for its cause, salvation through love may be obtained.

According to Chaṅdīdās, the initiated people must exercise great discretion in selecting their objects of love. The lovers should be both pure in heart, spiritually bent and immaculate in morals.

"If a young maiden (of a spiritual temperament) falls in love with a man of inferior quality, she shares the fate of a flower pierced by thorns and dies of a broken heart. If a youth happens to fall in love with a maiden of lower type, he becomes like one, who is under the influence of evil-spirits,—moves about in great unrest, and eventually succumbs to despair; says Chaṅdīdās. "Such a union between a good-natured person and one who bears an opposite character may be compared to love between the tooth and the tongue; they live together but the former does not let an opportunity slip to bite the latter."