Rama Katha Rasa Vahini - Post 14

The death of the woman he loved as intimately as his own breath caused desperate grief to the ruler; his lamentation shook the forest from end to end. The earth quaked in sympathy; the trees stood still, rooted in wonder at the sorrow that filled the royal heart and overflowed it. 

Narada heard the wail of the king - his sobs and groans - as he wept over the corpse of his beloved. He came down to console his agony. "Raja!", he said, "sorrow is of no avail when death strikes; the body is prone to birth and death; what brings about birth brings about death too; to seek to know why they happen is an exercise in insanity. 

The acts of God are beyond the cause-and-effect chain. Ordinary intellects cannot unravel them; they can at best guess the reason, as far as their faculties can reach. How can the intellect grasp something out of its domain?

"Death is inevitable for each embodied being. However, since the death of Indumathi is resonant with strangeness, I have to tell you its reason", Narada said. He drew Aja near and said, "Listen! In former days, the sage Thrnabindu was engaged in extreme asceticism, and Indra resolved to test his attainments and the depth of his equanimity. 

He dispatched a Divine Enchantress, named Harini, to attract him into the world of sensualism. But, the sage was immune to her wiles and remained unaffected. He opened his eyes and said, ‘You do not seem to be an ordinary woman! You are perhaps a godly damsel. Well, whoever you are, you must suffer the penalty for resolving to execute a foul deed, a nefarious plan!’ 

Be born as a human being, fallen from heaven; learn what it is to be a mortal human. Cursing her thus, the sage closed his eyes and plunged into meditation again.

Harini shook with fear and shed profuse tears of repentance; she prayed for pardon and for cancellation of her exile from heaven, she pleaded pathetically for the removal of the curse. 

Continued...

Love.