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JAIN JOURNAL
Vardhaman :
If I do not marry, the world will none be poorer for it.
Trishala :
The world will not be poorer, but I shall be. I am sure my son will not put me to a loss.
Vardhaman :
I can never put you to a loss. But I see no profit and loss in this.
Trishala :
You are not a mother, and so you cannot visualise the yearning for a daughter-in-law. All your colleagues have got married. Their mothers have got the daughtersin-law of their choice. Their mansions are resonant with splendour and merriment; while our palace is cold and desolate like winter. You should have been long married. The delay was because hitherto I could not find an appropriate daughter-in-law. But now that I have found a bride beautiful, modest and befitting you, you say you do not want to marry.
Vardhaman :
Yes, mother, I do not want to marry.
Trishala :
Then, how shall our royal dynasty continue.
Vardhaman :
I have my elder brother Nandivardhan, I have my sister Sudarshana ; I have my uncle Suparshva. They are all there to continue the royal dynasty. And my own father is like the ever-green Champaka tree, resplendent in his glory.
Trishala :
The tree of trumpet flowers is not known by one or two flowers. It is when every branch blossoms forth that the tree becomes flaming-red.
Vardhaman :
The verdure of the tree is temporary. I am not impressed by such transient beauty. This splendour slowly fades away like the waning glory of the moon in the dark-half.
Trishala :
Your learning is as remote from my affections as the earth is from the sky. My son, you can never comprehend the maternal instinct.
Vadhaman :
Instincts are constantly changing. Death grabs us like the mightly waves of the ocean. And the men at the
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