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dressed the infant in the finest clothes and jewellery and left him in a garden called Nandana, situated in the southern ranges of the mountain Vaitadhya and soared towards his own celestial abode.
Sitting on an ornate chair in the terrace of the royal palace, Emperor Candragati was enjoying the moonlit night and its bewitching beauty. Suddenly, he saw a brilliant light in the southern ranges of the great Vaitadhya mountain. For a moment, he thought that the moon himself had descended on the earth to enjoy a few moments of solitude. He left his palace at once. On reaching the southernmost summit, he noticed a infant swaddled in the celestial finery. The finest jewels on his tiny body were emitting the brilliant light. As destiny would have it; Candragati was the father of that divine infant in his former life. His heart was filled with love when he witnessed the lovely child. He lifted the infant and returning to the palace placed it on the couch of Queen Puspavati.
Queen Puspavati had no children and hence considered herself a very unfortunate woman. King Candragati awoke her up and said, "Behold, You have delivered such a handsome young prince." The queen replied, "Through the virtue of my former lives have made me your consort, I have brought you enormous misfortune. I am a barren woman. How can an accursed woman like me ever deliver a handsome baby?"
The king narrated his strange experience to the queen and finally told her, "You have neither conceived this baby nor did you carry him in your womb for nine months. You have not suffered the pains of delivery. Yet you have become a mother. Congratulations to you, for you have given a heir to the throne." Early morning, the news of the royal nativity was announced.
dampened the hearts of the people at Mithila. Though the emperess had delivered twins; she couldn't even see her new born son. Overcame with grief; she lamented, "God, surely some foe of mine has abducted my baby. Did I, in my former life, deprive some innocent mother of her infant, that I am suffering now? Did I, in my former life, burn some innocent life in the fire of separation ? Am I reaping the harvest my evil actions now ? God! I was blind and you blessed me with eyes, and once again you have deprived me of my sight. My new born baby is like a tender lotuslily. Where could he be? Why is my child suffering on account of my evil deeds ?"
The emperor Janaka offered solace to the wounded heart of his consort with words of endearment. He at once dispatched his trusted soldiers in every direction in quest of his son; but after a prolonged search, they all returned, their hearts laden with grief and dispair.
Finally, the royal couple accepted the fact that, it was predestined that they would suffer the separation of their son, because of their own actions in the past lives. They named the baby girl Sita. Gradually, the royal couple forgot the pangs of separation, for joys and woes both are transitory in nature. They come and go. A wise person remains unaffected by both and strives for emancipation - for, only emancipation is the source of eternal and endless joy.
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The subjects reacted with a spontaneous revelry. For days, they celebrated the joyful occassion. Diety Pingala had gifted the finest earrings studded with the brightest gems to the new born. Their lusture added to the brilliance of the infant's face; therefore he was named Bhamandala. As a result of his ill-actions in the former lives, the infant was separated from his mother immediately after birth, but as a result of the virtues he acquired in his former lives, he spent his childhood in the palace of King Candragati, that offered him all the comforts in the world. This indeed is the power of Karma - the result of the good and evil actions in previous lives.
While the subject of King Candragati revealed with joy, clouds of despair and woes had
sa For the past births of Candragati, Pingala Deva and Prince Bhamandala refer Appendix: 2.
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