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The Birth of Krishna
49
at this auspicious moment. But I cannot help it. Do you think he is alive?” queried a schoolmistress from Brindavan. "Who knows the ways of God ?” declared the devout old mother of a carpenter. "How can you presume that this little lump of flesh is a god? And, of all women, Yasoda to be his mother, just imagine !" pooh-poohed the proud wife of the local priest. "And look at her stupid faith. He does not show a single symptom of life, and she gives him a name !" rebuked Yasoda's mother-in-law.
At last arrived Radha, Nanda's sister. The women began to twitch their lips and whisper to one another all sorts of things, as she approached the cradle with folded hands and half-closed eyes. She bowed to the boy before taking him in her arms. And the moment she touched him, lo ! he opened his large, lustrous eyes and burst into loud, lusty cries.
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