Chapter I

Weary and overburdened with its load of sorrow and weakness, the great heart of Mother Earth lifted her voice unto the heights of the skies, complaining.

Her patience and faithfulness were qualities of wondrous worth to Brahmā, the Creator,[2] and so, drawing aside the curtain from his abode. He looked into her soft and wearied eyes, saying:

"O Mother Earth! Long hath the pain of ingratitude and faithlessness pierced thy tender heart, and with courage and loving mercy hast thou borne its stings. But now a balm is to come unto thee and soothe thy wounded love and readjust those things of which thou dost complain.

"Yet a little while, O thou Goddess of Plenty, and One shall play upon thy breast, which will make the veins of thy body to thrill with warm love, so that thy heart will be beautiful beyond what it yet has been.

"Thy mountains shall laugh in great happiness on seeing the beauty of Him who shall cast His lotus eyes upon their rugged sides.

"Thy rivers shall flow in rhapsodies when His Sweet Body shall sanctify their waves by its contact.

"Thy harvests shall come forth in great plentifulness.

"Thy cows shall give forth milk that shall be nourishing and healing unto all whom it will feed.

"Thy trees shall cast forth shadows that all who come under their cooling shade, sick unto death, shall bound forth with the gladness of life and love in their bodies, and, O patient Earth, all who tread upon thee shall call thee blessed because the One All Beautiful shall have made thee blessed by His Holy Feet treading upon thee."

Thus spake Brahmā unto Mother Earth, who lowly laid again her dark head, and entering the Abode of Vishnoo, he said unto Him:

Thou Mighty One! Well dost Thou know the grievance of her, the Patient One, who is dear unto us. Do Thou in Thy glory and majesty succor her, O Lord!

"Let the Only One, the Lord of Love, the Sovereign of all the Universe, the Author of all that lives, again be born upon her surface, and so bring to her wilted breast the nectar of Love, that all who draw from her may again partake freshly of the love that is the life of all animate and inanimate.

"This Thou do, O Wondrous and Most Beautiful One, and quicken again with love her heart and the hearts that beat against her breast, so that the eyes of those who have eyes, yet see not, may see.

"Do Thou incarnate with Thyself those who have ever walked with Thee, and who may, even before the eyes of all, perform and live miracles of love. For, O Most High, full of stolid unbelief and fettered with the world have Thy children become, so that even she who erstwhile ever patient was has complainingly called unto me for help."

He, the Maker of all that is, forthwith spake:

"So shall it be. Unto her who has held upon her lap all those who are mine and who hath come out of Me and who is also of Me, I shall be born.

"And great shall be the rejoicing of her and my children who walk upon her surface.

"From the heart of man the weight of stone shall be lifted and his eye shall be quickened with love, and I with my followers shall bring to them the ways and means that love doth know, and the whole known world shall again learn that I am Life and Love, that I the Creator of all things am, even unto the ant and the huge elephant who by one blow of his mighty trunk uprooteth the tree.

"They shall also know Me as Child, Son, Warrior, King, and Priest, and in their midst I shall walk even with those who with Me shall be born again, and seeing Me and knowing Me, I shall draw all unto Me, and close with Me they shall again taste the sweetness of my love.

"With Me shall come those who have ever known Me through many incarnations, those who cover themselves with the qualities most like unto Me and whom my Earth-children have learned to look upon as gods, praying to them because of these attributes which they themselves wished to be blessed withal.

"Tell those who know the fulness of my Bliss, those who have bathed in the nectar of those who have dwelt in the ecstasy of my loveliness, and those who in their devotion have known nothing outside of Me, those who have ever seen Me in all things, and have feasted their minds only upon My Beauty—tell them that I with them shall be born of woman and shall dwell for the span of man's life among men."

And when the Gods, those whom He had designated, heard the Will of Him, great was the rejoicing in that Abode, for no Will knew they, save the Sweet Will of the Most Lovely One, whose Lotus Feet they worshipped in ecstasy.