God the Known and God the Unknown

How sweet the melted ghee when it congeals.
So, when the Hidden One his form reveals,
How glad the seeker feels.

Dark, dark the far Unknown and closed the way
To thought and speech; silent the scriptures; yea,
No word the Vedas say.

Not thus the Manifest. How fair! How near!
Gone is our thirst if only he appear, —
He, to the heart so dear.

The ever perfect, Bliss eternally,
Being and thought, — lo, Govind now is he,
Spring of all sport and glee.

Strength, courage, fame, the lofty spirit, — lo,
All these we see my lower God bestow,
This, Uddhav, thou must know.

My eyes, if but a glimpse of God I get,
Are healed; escaped am I from out life's net;
Cancelled my sensual debt.

In the lamp's light all hidden things appear;
So when I think upon my God so dear
The far-off God is here.