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184
JAIN RAMAYAN
This was the last day for King Vasu.. the last opportunity for him to hear a case and administer justice.. the last even in his life in which he could show himself to be a truthful man but King Vasu who had been ensnared by the words of our teacher's mother had already made up his mind to speak an untruth and to give an unfair judgement. He pretended to scrutinise our statements carefully. He also made a pretence of consulting the other members of the court. There was absolute silence in the court. Everyone was eagerly waiting to hear the king's judgement. Their eagerness had reached a climax. Then, King Vasu announced his judgement in a grave and dignified voice.
...."As far as I remember, our Gurudev interpreted Aja to mean a goat”.
I was greatly shocked to hear King Vasu's judgement. My mind began to reel. Even as I was trying to recover from my shock and stupefaction, suddenly a terrible incident took place. Suddenly some unseen power began beating and hammering the throne made of Sphatika. It seemed as though some unseen power was hitting the throne with a massive hammer trying to break it into pieces. At once, the throne broke into fragments. Vasu fell down upon the ground with his face downwards. Blood began to flow profusely from his mouth. Enraged by the unjust verdict given by King Vasu the Kshetra devata or the god presiding over the place was infuriated and the terrible dance of destruction was his work. As soon as the king fell on the ground from his throne, the bird of his life flew away. Only his dead body lay on the ground. After his death; Vasu went to hell.
I was greatly stupefied to see the sport of destruction played by fate. For a few moments, I could understand nothing. But when I saw my fellow-student falling down suddenly, I was moved to pity. After Vasu's death his son Prithu Vasu became the king of the city of Shuktimati. But the enraged gods of the place did not allow even him to live. They killed even him mercilessly. Later, when his son was made the king of Shuktimati he too was killed by the gods in the same manner. In this manner, they killed eight princes one after the other. The ninth
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