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448
JAIN RAMAYAN
Ah! He went away leaving behind even our father who is so greatly attached to him. Oh! In the absence of our uncle, Ayodhya appears bleak and blighted". Lay's eyes welled up with tears. Kush began sobbing like a child.
"Kush ! Dear brother! Do not give way to grief. What is the use of weeping now? Munisvratswami has explained the true nature of samsar. Death is inevitable. The jiva that is born must die but caught in the confounding snares of Moha, we forget this vital truth about love. Death does not agitate human beings. They are agitated by attachments. Did you not see the condition of our father? How agitated he is! How deeply grieved he is! Who can cause that grief to him ? It is attachment that has caused such a terrible grief to our father. Attachment is a terrible bondage. This world honours and glorifies our father as a god and even such a great man is experiencing terrible anguish at the separation from his brother. That is why we say, strange are the ways of Karmas. Mysterious are the ways of Karmas.
The two brothers kept looking at each other probing each other's thoughts and feelings.
"Dear brother ! You are right. Just as death is inevitable, birth after death is also inevitable in this samsar. Is it not so ? How long should we keep wandering through this maze of birth and death? Instead of that, why should we not carry out spiritual endeavours to be delivered from this cycle of birth and death? Nobody can defy death and if we die before we attain spiritual purity, we will have to face countless calamities", Kush was serious and thoughtful. His eyes had grown red with weeping. He was speaking with great difficulty. Lav saw in the eyes of Kush, the spirit of detachment while his words embodied the desire to carry out spiritual endeavours.
While the whole city of Ayodhya was plunged in grief, Shri Ram's sons were immersed in deep spiritual contemplations. "Just as Death has suddenly devoured our uncle, it will devour us also at sometime or the other. Death will surely overtake us. We have not yet made the necessary preparation for our
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