Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/477

“MV. ] ~~ BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 441 = learned quotations from Sanskrit works on theo- logy.. But when the God-vision possessed him, he yielded to the fine frenzy of a poet and a lover. Whenever he would see the Kadamva flower blooming into beauty, freshened by the rains, he would fall into a trance, remembering that it was the favourite of Krisna; when the clouds ap- peared on the clear horizon, with the crown of the rain-bow fixed above, his eyes would not move from the lovely sight and he shed profuse tears, stretching out his arms heaven-wards and calling on his beloved Krisna to come to him. Wherever he saw a shady grove of flowering trees, he took it for the Vrinda groves where Krisna sported ; and wherever he saw a river flow before him, he heard in it, the soft mumers of the river Jumna, associated with Krisna. It was a beautiful sight to see him in fits of ecstacy. The Tamal tree with its dark- blue foliage created an illusion in him and he ran to embrace it,—there with tears in his eyes he would chant hymns and quote verses on love. He had the highest poetical vision vouchsafed only to those who are endowed with the power to realise the presence of that primeval Poet whose creation of fancy this world is. If a great Emperor all unexpectedly calls at the lowly cottage of his poorest subject, what tribute can be offer to the monarch except the gratitude of his whole soul expressed in tears! Even so it was the case with Chaitanya; he saw the God-vision and became completely lost in it ; his life was a course of thanks- giving, tears, hymns and praises offerd to God. Yet this divine man never neglected the society he lived in. He allowed the Mahammadans to 56 He reorga- nised the Vaisnava order.