“Listen, O Slayer of demon Tripura : among a thousand men there is scarce one who is steadfast in his vow of piety. Among ten million souls devoted to religion there may be one who is averse to the pleasures of sense and takes delight in dispassion. Among ten million souls free from worldly attachment, so declare the Vedas, scarce one succeeds in acquiring perfect wisdom. Among ten million enlightened souls in this world there is hardly one who attains final beatitude even when living. Among a thousand such souls he who has not only realized his oneness with Brahma but merged his identity in the Absolute and has accordingly become a fountain of all joy is rarely to be found. Of the religious, the unattached, the enlightened and the emancipated, as well as of those merged in the Absolute, O lord of divinities, he who takes delight in devotion to Ýr¶ RŒma and is free from vanity and wiles is most difficult to find.” Kindly explain to me at length, O Lord of the universe, how such a devotion to Ýr¶ Hari was attained by a crow. (1—4)