THE SLAVE GIRL OF AGRA
heard and learnt of Krishna the Infant, Krishna the Cowherd, Krishna the Lover, and Krishna the Saviour, came back to them as they looked for the first time on his sacred birth-place, dreamt of in their dreams, sung in their lays. The feeling was too deep for words, and tears glistened in their eyes. And a holy joy, a craving for Infinite Love, and a blind aspiration after the Unknown, which dwells in every man, welled up from their hearts. The grey light of the dawn broadened into daylight, and the three women stepped out of their boats and made their ablutions in the river.
Sirish had gone to a temple to make arrangements, and soon after sunrise all four entered a temple where the morning service had begun. It was the morning Arati, and a crowd of worshippers, mostly women, had already gathered in front of the sacred image. They brought some flowers or baskets of offerings which they placed before the image, and some added a silver coin. The priest chanted the appointed prayer in Sanscrit, and the smoke of the incense filled the dark temple. And when at last the prayer was ended, and the bells had tolled their last, the worshippers bent down before the image and received the blessings of the priest.
The morning was passed in visiting the numerous shrines and temples of the sacred city, and the evening was spent in a visit to the equally sacred town of Brindaban.
Mathura is the birth-place of Krishna; Brindaban is associated with the legends of his boyhood and early youth. Born a human child with human failings, Krishna was a wild and mischievous boy, and a
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