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FRIENDS AND ADMIRERS
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your ‘If the Lord said so, so it is’; away with you and begone ! ”
Then the queen told the Brahmin Nali Dhyan to go to the Lord and in her name, to bow his head at the Lord’s feet and, after asking after his health, to enquire whether he had really said what was attributed to him.
“And be careful,” she added, “to tell me exactly what the Lord answers.”
In obedience to the queen’s commands the Brahmin went off and duly asked the Lord whether he had really said so.
“Yes, Brahmin; our dear ones do bring sorrow and lamentation, pain, suffering, and tribulation. Here is the proof.
“Once, here in Shravasti, a woman’s mother died and the daughter, crazed and beside herself, went about from street to street, from cross-road to crossroad, saying: ‘Have you seen my mother? Have you seen my mother?’
“Another proof is a woman of Shravasti who lost her father—a brother—a sister—a son—a daughter —a husband. Crazed and beside herself, the woman went about from street to street and from cross-road to cross-road, asking if anyone had seen the dear ones she had lost.
“Another proof is a man of Shravasti who lost his mother—his father—a brother—a sister—a son —a daughter—a wife, crazed and beside himself, the man went about from street to street and from crossroad to cross-road, asking if anyone had seen the dear ones he had lost.
“Another proof is the woman of Shravasti who visited her people’s home; and they wanted to take her from her husband and marry her to someone else whom she did not like.
“She told her husband about it, whereupon he cut her into two and then killed himself, so that they might both die together.
“All this the Brahmin Nali Dhyan duly reported to the queen.
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