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In Search of Anjana
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Pavananjay got ready to set off in search of Anjana. Prasannakirti held his hand and with his heart full of grief he said;
“Dear brother-in-law, I know very well that your heart is broken to smithereens by your separation from Anjana. Your heart and mind have been clouded by grief and anguish but do not make us greater sinners. Already we have committed a shameful action ... A monstrous enormity... You kindly take rest here for sometime. Here and now, I take an oath that I will not eat food or drink water until I return with my sister, Anjana. Until then I will not enter this palace; nor will. I lead this splendid royal life as a prince."
"Prasannakirti ! Please do not stop me. Kindly allow me to go. My mind is torn with grief and anguish. My soul is in deep anguish. Every drop of my blood is envenomed by grief. I cannot have peace of mind until I see Anjana alive and safe.”
Pavananjay who for twenty-two years kept away even from the shadow of Anjana and who treated her with bitter contempt was now deeply agitated by the separation from her. This is the peculiarity of the Samsar. One day people rain the cinders of anger upon somebody but the very next day they shower the flowers of love upon the same person. For sometime people treat a person with affection and experience joy, peace and felicity with that person but at another time they treat the same person with animosity and hostility. At one time, they kiss a person, at another time they kill the same person. One day, they make a garden of flowers in the heart of a person but the very next day they light the flames of sorrow and humiliation. Such is the way of the world. The Samsar abounds in such contradictions and calamities. That is why the enlightened seers always exhort people to achieve spiritual elevation and salvation because in that state the Jiva will be free from the confounding snares of attachment and hatred.
Nobody could stop Pavananjay from going out. Even the guard at the door shed tears and entreated him to stay but he did not give up his determination to go in search of Anjana. It was from this very door that once the divinely pure and chaste woman,
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