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208
JAIN RAMAYAN
"Revered brother! If you had sent me word I would myself have called upon you. A command would have been enough."
"Such formalities would have taken time.”
Shri Ram took Bharath into his lap and stroked his head with affection. His heart overflowed with affection for Bharath.
"Bharath! How are you ?”
"Revered brother! I have seen you. I have attained the loftiest kind of joy by saluting your feet. The very sight of your sublime feet has freed me from all agitations and agonies.”
"I felt supremely happy and pleased when I heard from the people that you ruled over the country with nobility, ability and equanimity. I was overwhelmed with delight when I heard our people admire your unexampled virtues. Indeed, you have earned the love and adoration of people. Dear brother! You have won a permanent place in their hearts."
"Revered brother! All this is the result of the blessings of Lord Arihant. But what am I but a mean mortal; a child crying in the night for the light. Moreover, all that is the result of the grace of our revered father and of your benign blessings. And I do not deserve any praise.”
Shri Ram was silently looking towards the sky as if he was trying to probe the mysteries beyond the visiable frame of things. The polite words of Bharath moved him greatly.
"Dear brother! I revere you as my father. In order to fulfil our father's promise you went to the forests and experienced countless adversities and calamities. You fought a terrible war against Ravan and faced many perils and disasters and you endured all those disasters with bewildering, super-human patience and serenity. Compared to all those things what I have done is nothing. When I heard from Bhamandal the story of your life in the forests, my heart was torn with grief. Verily, the story of all the sorrows you endured in the forests filled me with grief. I was stupefied to hear all those things. When you were experiencing all those calamities, I was living in a palace
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