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LVI
THE REVELATION OF A SECRET
King Dasarath arrived at Ayodhya with his sons and daughters-in-law. The people of Ayodhya delighted and elated by the tremendous victory that Shri Ram and Lakshman had achieved and by their marriages, organised grand celebrations and jubilations.
The flood of time was flowing incessantly. The sun rose and set. The present became a part of the past and the future
became the present. From times immemorial, this process of the passage of time has been in existence and it will go on forever. Just as time is without a beginning or an end the soul also is without a beginning or an end. They are co-existent. King Dasarath had passed the phase of youth and prime and had entered the phase of middle-age. He spent much of his time in reminiscences of the past and there was little time to dream of the future and to realize that dream. One dream of his remained unfulfilled.
King Dasarath once arranged a celebration in the temples of the Jin and organized the ceremony of Shantisnatra or the consecration ceremony as a part of the celebrations. Dasarath personally participated in the Shanthisnatra ceremony; worshipped the Paramatma with devotion and attained in consequence supreme spiritual felicity. The ceremony was over. The devotees who attended the ceremony received the holy water and felt supremely blessed.
At the time of the completion of the ceremony, he got four golden vessels and filled them with the holy water and sent the first one by an attendant to Queen Aparajita i.e., Kausalya. That attendant was the head of all the attendants and maids in
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