"Difficult art Thou to find, O Lord! and now we have found Thee, Oh thrust us not from Thy Lotus Feet, we who find our joy and happiness in Thee!
"Thy flute hath drawn us from our homes! Oh, suffer us to remain with Thee and know Thee as Thou art! Unable are we to live without Thy love, O Lord! and our duties of home cannot engage us since our minds are ever contemplating Thee.
"If Thou sendest us away, we shall die. Be Thou kind to us, Thy servants, and grant us to serve Thee with our Love."
Then singing into their midst He came, He the Lord of the Highest, the Lord of Love and Lord of the Lowest and Lord of Mercy! And with mighty Love swayed He all alike. And each self was forgotten and Love alone was.
Now singing in chorus, now dancing, now skipping, the Lord and his maidens in those forest groves roamed, till the river was reached.
Then, from over-much pleasure, proud each maid became, and her simple joy to vanity was turned because thus she was favored by Krishna, the youth Krishna, the Heavenly One, Krishna, the Glorious of all glorious ones!
He, noting this, to punish the sin of vanity, in swiftness from them vanished; and with his going the sin was gone.
Maddened by love, the maids pleaded to the skies and the trees and the flowers for Him, who was their life. But still He came not.
So absorbed in Him they became, themselves they forgot, and even as Krishna they thought they were. And imitating His acts they cried to one another: "Lo, I am Krishna! See, I hold the mountains on high! Lo, Putanā I slay and baffle the rage of Indra with my power!" And still came He not.
Then they sang His praises, then with breaking hearts they wailed and prayed for Him to return to their midst. At this He came, for ever is the Lord most kind to the lowly and sorrowing.