Page:Life and Teachings of Sri Ramanujacharya.djvu/29

8 GOLDEN LIVES OF THE EAST. [PART 1. and recognised his Teacher through an endless series of lives. He lay at his feet, sobbed with joy, and prayed to be allowed to serve him for ever. The Master raised him up and welcomed him to his heart. Thereafter Mathura Kavi was ever the shield and shadow of Sri Sathakopa.

About this time, the Lord graciously desired to bless Sathakopa with a sight of His Presence. The Celestial Bird, Garuda, anticipated, as it were. His wish, and stood before Him. And so He appeared to the wondering Sri Sathakopa’s eyes, seated on Garuda, with the Great Mother beside Him, and conferred upon him the Divine vision from which nothing is hidden. Sathakopa was thus enabled to stand face to face with the Mighty Presence; he gazed upon the awful majesty of the Mighty Isis without her veil; he realised in himself simultaneously the infinite nature and powers of the Supreme Purusha. He revelled in the ineffable Bliss until he was permeated with it; until he lost himself in the illimitable ocean of Divine Love and Harmony.

In the midst of his ecstatic beatitudes, there shot a pang across his heart. “Shall I be happy, and hear the world cry? Shame upon me if it were so.” He was the Lord of Compassion before all, and held his wisdom and powers only in trust for the great orphan—Humanity—whom he desired to lead on the Path he himself trod with such happy results. The age had become degenerate, and Samskrit was no longer the language of the literary and the sacred classes. He was one of those Saviours of Humanity that wanted to throw open the doors of wisdom

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