Verse 1

¹Then the Bhagavan, the self of all, who sees everything, knew how it was with the serving woman, who was burning with desire, and went to her house, wanting to please her. ²It was rich with costly furnishings and filled out with everything love calls for: strings of pearls and banners, canopies and beds and seats, fragrant incense and lamps, garlands and scents. ³Seeing him coming to the house, she got up at once from her seat in a flurry, went forward as she should with her friends, and made the Unfallen welcome with a seat and the rest. ⁴Uddhava too was honoured for his goodness; he touched the seat and sat down on the ground. And Krsna went straight to the costly bed, keeping to the ways that men keep.

⁵Having got herself ready with bathing and ointment and fine cloth and ornaments, with garlands, scent, betel and sweet drink and the rest, she came near Madhava with shy, playful, smiling, wandering looks. ⁶He called her, shrinking as she was with the shyness of a first meeting, took the hand with the bracelet on it, drew her onto the bed, and took his pleasure with that woman, whose merit was the small one of having given him ointment. ⁷She breathed him in, and with the foot of the Endless she wiped away the pain of her breasts and her chest and her eyes, burnt by the bodiless one; and holding her lover, who is joy itself, between her breasts with both arms, she let go of a burning that had lasted very long.