43.13: Pandharpur without Vithoba

136. Now let us turn to Pandharpur where in the month of Ashadh (July) Vaishnavas arrived on their pilgrimage. Here they learned the fact that the god had gone to Vidyanagar.

137. Pandharpur now seemed desolate like a body without life, or like a river without water. The city was oppressed with fears.

138. It was like an army without a king, like constellations without the moon or as a virtuous, devoted wife, deprived of her husband, seems unprotected among men.

139. So with Hari gone to Vidyanagar, the whole of Pandhari seemed desolate. Dejected, the saints and mahants sat down by the eagleplatform.

140. ‘Whose praises can we now sing?’ they said among themselves; ‘the Life of the world has deserted us. The promise he gave to Pundalik (to remain here always) has become a broken promise.’

141. Pious bhaktas arrived and all exclaimed, ‘What has happened to the King of Pandhari?’ And all learned the news that the god had gone to Vidyanagar.

142. The saints, sadhus and other Vaishnavas said to one another, ‘Someone should go to Vidyanagar and bring back the Husband of Rukmini.’

143. They discussed this proposal among themselves but no one gave any assurance that he would go on such an errand. Some indeed remarked, ‘Pandurang [Panduranga] has paid no regard to his promise to Pundalik. He will not come back by any effort of ours.’

144. Another added, ‘We have no entry into the king’s palace. If the king should learn the purpose cf our coming he would punish us well.

145. One brought forward an excuse from the point of view of the attributelessness of God, ‘God is within us,’ he argued; ‘if we have no experience of this the philosophers (knowers of self) will have misled us.’

146. Still another added, ‘Whatever and however anything takes place, it is by the will of God. We should watch it, but let no one be troubled thereby.’