Listen, dear Garu˛a, to this unutterable romance, which can only be comprehended by the mind but is incapable of expression. The soul is a particle of the Divinity, immortal, conscious, untainted by MŒyŒ and blissful by nature. Such a soul, my lord, has allowed itself to be dominated by MŒyŒ and has been caught in its own trap like a parrot or a monkey*. Matter and Spirit have been linked together with a knot which, though imaginary, and a string attached to it is so set in the ground that it revolves from the weight of the parrot when it lights upon 1080 * ÝR” RMACARITAMNASA* is difficult to untie. Since then the soul has become worldly: it can have no happiness till this knot is untied. The Vedas and PurŒ˜as have suggested a number of devices for untying the knot; but the knot, far from being resolved, becomes harder and harder. The interior of the soul being utterly clouded with the darkness of ignorance, the knot cannot even be perceived; how, then, can it be untied? If God were to bring about such conditions (as are depicted below), even then the disentanglement of the knot is problematical. Suppose by the grace of Ýr¶ Hari the blessed cow in the shape of SŒttvika (genuine) piety comes to abide in one’s heart and feeds on green herbage in the shape of Japa (muttering of prayers), austere penance, sacred observances, the Yamas or forms of self-restraint (viz., continence, veracity, non-violence, non-stealing and non-possession), the five Niyamas or positive virtues (viz., external and internal purity, contentment, self- study, self-discipline and self-surrender to God) and innumerable other blessed virtues and religious practices recommended by the Vedas. Milk begins to flow from her teats, let us hope, when she is united with her newly-born calf in the form of love. Quietism serves as the cord by which her hind legs are tied (in order to milk her); faith represents the pot in which the cow is milked; while a pure mind, which is at one’s beck and call, plays the role of a milker. Having thus drawn the milk in the shape of supreme righteousness one should boil it, brother, on the fire of desirelessness. When boiled, it should be cooled down with the breath of contentment and forbearance and congealed by mixing with it a little curd in the shape of fortitude and mind-control. The curd thus made should be churned in the earthen vase of cheerfulness with the churning-stick of reflection after fastening the stick to the host of self-restraint with the cord of truthful and agreeable words; and by this process of churning one should extract the pure, excellent and holy butter of dispassion. (1—8)