A woman afflicted by the pain of her lover’s estrangement is shown in this image as an ascetic seated before a temple to the left of her spiritual master, chanting hymns. A lover’s anguish due to separation from his or her beloved is a theme that runs through several religious ideologies and early modern movements, like Bhakti in the Indian subcontinent, and is articulated in the classical poetry of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century masters such as Nizami, ‘Attar, Rumi, and Hafez. The lover’s yearning for the estranged beloved is akin to the ascetic’s yearning for God, who does not reveal the true self. Chanting hymns such as "om"—the sound of universal consciousness in Hindu philosophy—is considered an aid to spiritual contemplation.