And Brahmā, the Creator, witnessed the miracles that Krishna, the Child
and the Youth, was performing hourly at His plays and gambols, and
marvelled if He the child might be that was come to succour Mother Earth
in her trial.
Surely sometime, somewhere, in some place it was said that the All-Wise
Being, that was over all, as a little child would be born among men to
save them from their blinded selves and turn them Godward, looking
towards Home.
This he knew had been said. Was this child the One, that the Eternity
was—He, the Rememberer of all Beings and Things?
He would know it in proving the power of His Yoga! For if this were the
Absolute Lord, He alone would be the Lord of the Lords of all Yogis!
Krishna, sitting with his boys in the forest, discovered that the herds
had disappeared from their sight.
On seeing the alarm on the face of His friends, Krishna exclaimed, "I
Myself shall fetch back the cows, so be not anxious, eat to your fill of
the fruit you are munching."
He searched and called, but the cows were as vanished, and returning
again to His playmates He found they too were missing.
Then a smile, as the sun doth break through the clouds, shone on His
face, and, with Yoga-Māyā, He divided Himself into cowboys and cows and
even into calves, and He Himself leading them who were of Him, the
All—He returned with the cows and the boys to the village!
But, mark, when the boys, that were parts of Krishna, Love-Manifest, ran
to the arms of their mothers, a thrill that was ecstasy played through
their beings, and never did mothers love so their sons as the mothers
who held to their hearts the boys whom by His power He had made from
Himself!
And so it was with the cows and the calves. Those who milked the cows
were wild with joy to stroke their hides and feed them, and milk of
those cows as nectar was.
And Krishna stood with the cowboys among the cows and smiled in His
wisdom at them all.
Now Brahmā knew that the boy was the Lord, who as child to man had come,
for by his Yoga-power he had taken the cows and calves and boys to a
cavern and there put them to sleep.
But Krishna, to prove Himself the greatest in power, had divided Himself
into boys, cows, and calves, and for one year had been thus.
When Brahmā saw this, from trance-sleep he awoke the sleepers, and
bowing low to the feet of Krishna, salutation made and thus did burst
forth: "O Lord of all Love! O Being Supreme! O Source of all Life and
Maker of All! Oft in the eyes of my Yoga, glimpses of Thee have I caught
and Thy loveliness and majesty transcend all beauty.
"What is the merit of the earth, that Thou shouldst bless it with Thy
beautiful feet? have looked upon the earth and have seen Thy Love in all
things, but I perceived not that Thou in Thy mercy wouldst live among
men, even as man.
"Through Thy coming each heart, that a hovel in poorness was, into a
palace of riches has grown.
"Through Thy coming all flesh its grossness has lost, since to the eyes
of man Thou seemingly walkest in the flesh.
"Thou who the centre of Thy radiance art, yet walkest within that
radiance! What is the mystery of Thy great Self?
"Thou who teachest the bird to cleave the sky and hath made me the
creater of earth and continuest the motion thereof!
"Thou who the Concrete art and yet the Abstraction thereof dost prove!
"Thou Mystery of all mysteries, the Secret, the indistinct and yet the
sublimely simple Parent of the Universe!
"Thou who art the whole and yet the parts, the immensity and yet the
mote of things!
"A poor groveller am I at Thy feet in the dust! Why hast Thou blessed me
to know Thee thus?
"Thou art the ocean of existence, and Saints and Gods and men and all
Thy creatures are but the uncounted waves that play and stretch and
heave on Thy breast!
"From Thy abode hast Thou come of Thine own sweet will to give unto all
the power of Thy Love.
"Dull were my eyes to behold not in Thee the Lord, who stamped on all
things the Name of his Love and with the Name its potency too.
"O Thou all Beauty and Power and Sweetness and Strength! refuse me not
the bliss to dwell in homage at Thy feet!
"Thou, who art the cause of all things, who stirrest the root and stem
of all life into love, who art the indestructible Truth of things, Thee
I meditate and worship forever."