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JAIN RAMAYAN
tered all her dreams and threw them into the dust. Now, when the time had arrived for the fulfilment of her deeply cherished hopes and aspirations she was compelled to leave her husband's house.
The enlightened great men say that this is the nature of Samsar and that one should not have any faith in it. It is transient like the bubbles on water. We cannot say when the bubbles break and disappear. What is union ? What is separation. All these are the sports of fate: “We are here as on a darkling plain, swept by confused alarms of struggle a where ignorant armies clash by night". Such is the n Samsar. Unions and separations seem to be the sports that fates play with the lives of human beings. When a mighty tempest rages over the sea, when whirlwinds appear, the sea waves rise sky-high, unite, embrace each other and then in a moment they are separated. This is the nature of life also. But when can this great truth, this eternal truth bring peace and felicity to the Jivas that are caught in the snares of infatuation and a consumed in the flames of attachment and hatred ? How can this eternal truth bring peace to man when he has been caught in the consuming flames of attachment and hatred which have been burning him for countless lives. No, it cannot. This will be possible only when man attains some firmness and equanimity. Man must seek the spiritual refuge of some Yogis and must think about these things with a calm mind.
Of course, Anjana lost everything that was hers. She fell into the abysmal depths of distress and despondency. Yet she could not forget those few sweet words of promise and assurance that her husband had spoken to her at the time of their happy union on that night. Again and again, she sought comfort and solace in the thought that Pavananjay would surely come to her and would shower the nectar of love upon her heart which was fading away like a fallen flower.
Of course, for twenty-two years she had lived in absolute desperation, without any hope of being reunited with her husband and then in her life that had been enveloped by the dark,
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