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JAIN RAMAYAN
tions end in frustrations. Then, the Jiyatma loses patience and begins to lament and the jiva in consequence begins cursing his or her Karmas and fortune and then the Jiva becomes weaker.
Chandranakha went strutting to the place in the Dandakaranya where her son was performing tapas. She placed the plate containing holy substances on clean ground and she crept into the bamboo grove. Suddenly, she saw her son's body hanging from a branch of the banyan tree. The head had been cut off and blood was pouring out. She was thunder-struck to see the sight. Her heart stopped beating. She stood petrified like a stone-image. Her eyes were unmoving. Her hands and legs began to shake. She screamed aloud in utter anguish. “Alas,
ear Shambuk! What has happened to you? My dear child ? Who killed you ? Oh ! How did this calamity occur? Where have you gone my son ?” Then she placed Shambuk's severed head on her lap and wept aloud like a child. Her lamentations were so heart-rending that even the trees were moved to pity.
A little while ago she was floating on the waves of joy. Now, she was whirling in a whirlpool of anguish. Her radiant face became bleak and blighted. Her aspirations ended in bitter frustration.
At once, countless thoughts and feelings arose in her mind, “Who might have come here? Who might have killed my son in this heinous manner ?” Then placing her son's head in the plate she began to look for foot-prints in the surroundings
Lakshman noticed her from a distant place. Chandranakha noticed Shri Ram, Lakshman and Sita seated beneath a tree. Suddenly, she stopped. She kept staring at Shri Ram's radiant face. She was beside her wits. Shri Ram's splendour was strange. He possessed such beauty as would make the god of love look dull and devoid of lustre.
His beauty was such that it would make the three worlds spell-bound.
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