43.6: Ram Raja goes to Pandharpur

60. Accompanied by horses, elephants, chariots, palanquins and a small army, the king started on his journey that he might see Pandurang.

61. They marched along to the sound of many musical instruments. Behind them all walked the Brahman thinking to himself, ‘The Husband of Rukmini will either protect me from humiliation in my need or He will disregard me.

62. If the king does not see things as I have described them to him he will undoubtedly punish me.’

63. So bringing the image of Pandurang to his mind he praised him from his heart and prayed, ‘O Thou who tenderly carest for bhaktas, Husband of Rukmini, come to my rescue in this hour of my need.

64. I your Brahman, helpless and poor, went on my begging journey from country to country. Through the proclaiming of Thy name I have gained support for my family.

65. O God, the saints of old have proclaimed Thy wondrous renown. And I have but described the same renown to the king, but he is unable to regard it as true.

66. The king has become angry at what he calls an insult to his family goddess, and he is now on his way to witness for himself, O Pandharinath.

67. I have related to the king what Pandhari really is. It is only in this Kali Yuga that it seems to men to be built of earthen walls, for there is no essential difference (between gold and earth).

68. Just as coins buried by some ancestor appear to the luckless man as mere charcoal, so Pandhari, though really golden, seems otherwise through a wrong conception.

69. As the saints of old have described Pandhari, in those same words I have described it. But now if the king does not see Chakrapani (Holder of the disk, Krishna) as I have portrayed Him, he will punish me.

70. Then I shall commit suicide, and the words of the saints will be proved false. Moreover, when good people will hereafter read about the glory of Pandhari they will not believe it.

71. O Protector of the helpless. Husband of Rukmini, in this my present distress come quickly to my rescue.’