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The Clouds Of Calamities
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nality. He at once set off towards Mithila. His hair was yellowish and unkempt. His stomach was sunken. He held a Thambura in his hands and an umbrella over his head. He wore a loin-cloth and a long braid of hair which was shaken by the winds. The divine sage Narad came to Sita's residence with great eagerness. Seeing his peculiar appearance and features Sita shook with fear. At once, she stood up and cried, “Oh mother". Crying thus she ran into the inner chamber.
Hearing the screams of Sita the maids and attendants gathered there. They saw Narad standing in Sita's chamber but no one knew him. So all were stupefied. For sometime, there was dead silence and then when all the maids and attendants
amed and shrieked the guards came running. Narad stood still wondering what he should do in that situation. The guards, the maids and the attendants surrounded him. Some pushed him and some pulled his neck. Some beat him and some spoke to him harshly.
Narad adopted a clever trick to save himself from that calamity. He at once rose to the sky and disappeared. He reached a high peak of Vaithadya and heaved a sigh of relief.
Such an unhappy incident had happened in Narad's life for the first time. Before that whenever he went, he was received. with honour; but what had occurred in Mithila was totally opposite to that. In the palace at Mithila, he had been ridiculed, disgraced, slighted and beaten. All this was new to him and he could not bear with such treatment. The incident made a deep impression upon his mind. He was filled with anger and decided to take a severe revenge against them. After he recovered his spirits a little, in the cool breezes that were blowing, he thought :
“Did I go to terrify Sita? Do I desire to abduct her ? When a guest goes to their house how barbarously do they behave ? That too it happened in the palace of King Janak known for his gentleness. No! This cannot happen. Such a thing cannot happen anywhere in this world. I will take revenge against them. I cannot bear with this disgrace. Sita might not have
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