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The First Halt
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enemy of Vajrakarna came to King Simhodhar and vomited the poison in his mind. Divulging the secret, he said, “Vajrakarna does not salute you. He is a devotee of Vitrag Paramatma, and such a devotee would not salute others. He has taken a vow not to salute you. Whenever he sees you he bows only to the image of the Paramatma on his ring. He has been deceiving
you."
As soon as hearing this secret, King Simhodhar became furious. His indignation knew no bounds. He began to hiss like a terrible cobra."
The traveller paused a little and kept looking at Shri Ramachandra. Shri Ramachandra, Lakshman and Sita were absorbed in listening to the story of the way in which that area of Avanti came to be deserted. The traveller also was interested in narrating the story without concealing anything.
"By chance, a gentleman came to know of the King's anger. He ran to Vajrakarna and informed him of the king's anger. Vajrakarna was stupefied to hear this". He was stunned and said to him:
"But how did that man come to know that Simhodar was angry with him ?"
"Even this is a strange coincidence. A shravak by name Samudrasangam lived in the city of Kundapur. Yamuna was his wife. She was a woman of great beauty and chastity. They had a son by name Vidyutang. He was a promising young man of extraordinary intellectual brilliance. That is none other than myself.
My parents were hereditary dealers in vessels. Our family enjoyed great prestige in society. When I grew up to be a young man my father placed upon my shoulders the responsibility of carrying on the business. He lived a life of retirement. I too with great enthusiasm carried on our business. I became an expert in the business and our family became affluent and wellknown. Once, I went to Ujjayini with a cart-load of vessels to sell them there. In those days, Ujjayini was the largest centre
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