z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 02.indd MK SJ+YS 4 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 41
FROM BIRTH TO PARIVRAJA
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aloes, and sandalwood, how will that manly body live in the woods, exposed to the attacks of the cold, the heat, and the rain?
“He who was proud of his family, goodness, strength, energy, sacred learning, beauty, and youth, who was ever ready to give, not ask, how will he go about begging alms from others ?
“He who, lying on a spotless golden bed, was awakened during the night by the concert of musical instruments, how alas ! will he, my ascetic, sleep today on the bare ground with only one rag of cloth interposed ?”
Having heard this piteous lamentation, the women, embracing one another with their arms, rained tears from their eyes, as the shaken creepers drop honey from their flowers.
Then Yeshodhara, forgetting that she had permitted him to go , fell upon the ground in utter bewilderment.
“How has he abandoned me his lawful wife ? He has left me widowed. He could have allowed his lawful wife to share his new life with him.
“I have no longing for the heaven, my one desire was that my beloved may never leave me either in this world or the next.
“Even if I am unworthy to look on my husband’s face with its long eyes and bright smile, still is this poor Rahula never to roll about in his father’s lap ?
“Alas ! the mind of that wise hero is terribly stern, gentle as his beauty seems, it is pitilessly cruel. Who can desert of his own accord such an infant son with his inarticulate talk, one who would charm even an enemy ?
“My heart too is certainly most stern, yea, made of rock or fashioned even of iron, which does not break when its lord is gone to the forest, deserted by his royal glory like an orphan,—he so well worthy of happiness. But what can I do ? My grief is too heavy for me to bear.”
So fainting in her woe, Yeshodhara wept
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