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the strange cosmic game, perpetually going on in the world. It is called the game of karmas. The inauspicious karmas bring in sorrow and the auspicious karmas bring in joy. The karmas forced Dasaratha to wander as a mendicant and reinstated him on the throne of Ayodhyā.
At Ayodhyā, Kaikeyi witnessed fortunate symbols in a dream before delivering a son. The son was named Bharata. Queen Suprabhā, too delivered a healthy baby. It was propherised that this babyboy would annihilate legions of enemies. He therefore was named Śatrughna.
Sītā's Birth - Bhāmandala's abduction
Sitā's Birth and abduction of
Bhāmandala
Emperor Janaka too returned to his own kingdom and re-established his sway. As the days passed, the emperess Videhā conceived twins. While the twins were still in the womb, Pingala - a diety residing in the first celestial world, learnt through clairvoyance-avadhi-gyana that one amongst the unborn progeny of Videhā was his bitter foe in the past life. The diety thought, "My foe is about to be born in a regal family. He will enjoy all the comforts and pomp that the noble birth will bestow upon him. I must abduct him when he is born and kill him.' With this cruel intension, he invisibly came to Mithila and abducted Videha's newly born son.
He then flew towards the mountain Vaitadhya. He had decided that once he scaled the greatest heights of the mountain, he would hit the tender infant on some rock and thus take revenge, but the infant was not destined to die, probably because of his own virtue which he had acquired in his former lives. Probably, the virtue acquired by the diety in his former births rekindled his conscience.
The feeling of hatred residing in the innermost being of the diety somehow subsided when he reached the summit of the great mountain Vaitādhya. He began to think, "Through my previous good deeds, I have become a diety. But now, commiting infanticide, why should I invite miseries in future births." He then
Pille
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