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OF THE HINDUS.
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new temple, but his wife advised him, and urged: this is not a business of five or six days, why go without the consecrated food so long? Then he said: I will not partake of the consecrated sweetmeats, I will only eat the fruits. And so he did, and the temple was completed, and Sri Thákur jí was enshrined in it, and DÁMODAR Dás distributed food to the Vaishnavas, and they partook thereof.
Sri Thákur ji had a faithful worshipper in a Mahratta lady, whom, with the frolicsomeness of boyhood, he delighted to teaze. One day, a woman selling vegetables having passed without the Bái noticing her, Sri Thákur ji said to her: will you not buy any vegetables for me to-day? she replied: whenever any one selling them comes this way, I will buy some; to which he answered: one has just now passed. The Bái replied: no matter, if one has gone by, another will presently be here. But this did not satisfy the little deity, who leaping from his pedestal ran after the woman, brought her back, and, after haggling for the price with her himself, made his protectress purchase what he selected.
As Rásávyás and JAGANNÁTII, two of Vallabináchárya's disciples, were bathing, a woman of the Rájput caste came down to the river to burn herself with her husband; on which JAGANNÁTu said to his companion: what is the fashion of a woman becoming a Sati? RÁKÁVYÁs shook his head, and said: the fruitless union of beauty with a dead body. The Rájputáni observing RÁMÁVYÁs shake his head, her purpose at that moment was changed, and she did not become a Sati, on which her kindred were much pleased. Some time afterwards, meeting with the two disciples, the Rajputání told them of the effect of their former interview, and begged to know what had passed between them. Rákávyás being satisfied that the compassion of Sri Achárj was extended to her, repeated what he had said to JAGANNÁTII, and his regret that her charms should not be devoted to the service of Sri Thákur ji, rather than be thrown away upon a dead body. The Rájputáni enquired how the service of Thákur jí was to be performed, on which RÁrávrás, after making her bathe, communicated to her the initiating prayer, and she
