ஶ்ரீ க்ரு'ஷ்ண ஶரணாஷ்டகம் ௨

Eight verses by Harirayacharya, each closing on the same line — Shri Krishna is my refuge — and the surprise is what Krishna is doing in them. He is not being described as a protector at all. His lotus face is worn with the distress of thinking about his mistress; his eyes are closing; he is filled with love and imagining her in his mind, his mind agitated for the meeting; his mouth is dry with sighing; he sits in the bower he has made a bed of flowers and shoots in, waiting for her to come to him. Only the refrain turns each verse back into an act of surrender. So the hymn takes refuge in a god who is himself in the state of longing, which is the Pushtimarga's characteristic move and not a common one elsewhere.