Verse 17

¹⁷As I meditated on those lotus feet with a mind mastered by feeling, and my eyes brimmed with tears of longing, Hari came little by little into my heart. ¹⁸My body broken open into thrills by the sheer weight of love, wholly at rest, dissolved in a flood of joy, I saw neither of the two, O sage. ¹⁹That form of the Bhagavan, which is lovely to the mind and carries grief away, I no longer saw; and I stood up all at once, undone, like one whose mind is broken. ²⁰Wishing to see it again, I set my mind once more in the heart; but though I looked, I did not see, and I was like a sick man who cannot be satisfied. ²¹As I strove so in that lonely place, he who lies beyond the reach of speech spoke to me in a voice deep and gentle, as though to quiet my grief:

²²Alas, in this birth you shall not see me here again. I am hard to see for those whose stains are not yet ripe, who go about yoga poorly. ²³Sinless one, this form was shown once to waken longing in you; for one who is good and longs for me lets go by degrees of all that lies in the heart. ²⁴By service of the good, even for no long while, a firm mind has arisen in you towards me. Leaving this blameworthy world behind, you will come to be one of mine. ²⁵This mind, once bound to me, will never fail, nor will your memory, even at the drawing in of the creation of beings; and that by my favour.