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PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
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the cause of religion though fed at the cost of the Government. He decided to set him right personally. He left for the minister's abode on horse back, but on his way he heard the news of the minister's murder. He stopped, inquired and found his bodyguard the barber dead. The minister's symbol ring was bristling on his finger.
"How could this happen”? The king thought, "Perhaps the minister losing his post must have conspired to kill this bodyguard." But this was only a conjecture and let us see from one more tale how rash conjectures create great confusions and mishaps.
A RAJPUT LADY A Sadhu (recluse) put up near a village one day. He enkindled fire under a tree and rested there. By sunset, three women from the village arrived there to fetch water. One woman was Brahmin by caste, the other was a rajput lady and the third one was a bania woman. By this time, the sadhu was muttering loudly, “The first one is good, the last is also good but the middle one shall receive shoehammering.” The brahmin and bania women were overjoyous at these mutterings but the Rajput lady grew very furious. She knocked her waterpot down and returned home.
At home, she attended to no work but stretched herself on an old cot. At night her husband returned from work to find the situation with great surprise. He inquired, “Did any one insult you? What is the matter ?” She replied, "A coward man's wife could be insulted by any one." The Rajputs by nature are very haughty. He drew out the sword and said, “Who did insult you, tell me, I will teach him a good lesson.”
The Rajput lady said, “A recluse, halting at the borders of the village under the tree has very badly insulted me. The Rajput said, “I shall finish him very soon, don't feel nervous at all.”
He came near the well. Many Rajputs attended the sadhu and he dared not execute the idea soon. He hid himself behind a tree. After sometime the Rajputs dispersed and that recluse was alone. He again started muttering, “The first is good, the last is good but the middle-one deserves shoe-hammering." On hearing these words the Rajput was wonderstruck as no one else was present whom the monk might have intended to insult. The