01.224
Pancharatra: Mandapala and Jarita return to greet surviving Shangrakas. Women are not to be trusted, ways of the world are presented.
Vaiśampāyana said.
Mandapala, O descendant of Kuru, while thinking of his sons at that time, also spoke to the moon; yet he was not at all tormented.
Tormented for his son, he lamented and said: "How is it that my sons, while lamenting, are unable to leap?" (1-224-2)
As the fire grows and the wind blows swiftly, my sons will be unable to free themselves. (1-224-3)
How will their ascetic mother, unable to protect, and afflicted by unhappiness, become, seeing no way to protect her son? (1-224-4)
How can I bear to see my sons, unable to run or even to fall, while I, burning with grief, run all around or cry out for them? (1-224-5)
How is Jaritari's son? How is Sārisṛkva, and how is my Stambamitra? How is Droṇa, and how is she, the ascetic woman? (1-224-6)
O Bhārata, as Mandapala the sage was being addressed in the forest, the speaker replied to him as if with jealousy. (1-224-7)
You do not have regard for your sons; you have called those sages brilliant and powerful; they have no fear from fire. (1-224-8)
In this way, your protected ones, by you, indeed, in my presence, were promised thus by the great soul, by the fire. (1-224-9)
The guardian of the world never utters false words; though they are capable speakers, they lack true intention in their minds. (1-224-10)
But you are tormented, thinking only of her, my enemy; surely, your affection for me is not as it once was for her. (1-224-11)
It is not just for one who is partial or for one without affection to witness the suffering of a dear person if one is able to help, in any way. (1-224-12)
Go to the old woman for whom you are grieving. I too shall live alone, just as one does with a coward. (1-224-13)
Mandapāla said.
I do not act in this world as you suppose; I act for the sake of offspring, and that too is a source of distress for me. (1-224-14)
Whoever, abandoning the past, relies only on the future is of dull intellect; such a person is despised by the world. Do as you wish. (1-224-15)
This burning fire, licking the trees, indeed generates inauspicious and hateful pain in my heart. (1-224-16)
Vaiśampāyana said.
Having passed from that region and having been burned in the fire, then, desiring her sons, she hurried like one longing for her children. (1-224-17)
She saw all her sons, safe and freed from the fire, in the forest; distressed, she wept loudly. (1-224-18)
For them, it was the most unbelievable sight as she, again and again, approached each of her sons who were crying, one by one. (1-224-19)
Then, O Bhārata, Mandapala suddenly arrived. However, all his sons did not welcome him at all. (1-224-20)
Though each of the singers was repeatedly addressed, none of them uttered even a single word to the sage, whether it was good or bad. (1-224-21)
Mandapāla said.
Which is your eldest son? Which one comes immediately after him? Which is your middle son? Which is your youngest son? (1-224-22)
To one speaking thus, afflicted with sorrow, why do you not answer me? O Havyāśa, I have done (what I could), yet I do not find peace here. (1-224-23)
Jarita spoke.
What should you do with your eldest son, or with the next-born? And what should you do with the middle one? What about the youngest, O ascetic lady? (1-224-24)
You, who once entirely abandoned me and left long ago, go now to that very talkative young woman with the beautiful smile. (1-224-25)
Mandapala said.
There is nothing for women apart from another man; except in the world where there are co-wives, it must indeed be so. (1-224-26)
Even Arundhatī, the virtuous and renowned lady in all worlds, doubted Vasiṣṭha, the foremost among sages. (1-224-27)
He, whose mind was utterly pure and always engaged in what was dear and beneficial, was regarded as a hero among the seven sages, and as a sage. (1-224-28)
Because of inattentiveness, she, with a radiance like smoke and sunrise, appears to him as something visible yet invisible, having the form of a navel, like a mark. (1-224-29)
Just as one obtains something for the sake of offspring, in the same way, you too have abandoned me here, and she too acts in the same manner as you. (1-224-30)
A man should never place trust in a wife as 'wife'; for a wife, even if she is chaste and has a son, does not truly reflect upon his work. (1-224-31)
Vaiśampāyana said.
Then all his sons properly attended to him. And he, O king, began to console those sons. (1-224-32)
