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return home. Dinner is ready. The eye of the world the illustrious Sun is at meridion." Candrakantä said O Candralékha! juvite these guests for dinner. It is getting late." All of them, then, went into the dinner-pavilion. There, after a delicious dinner with vegetables of various kinds, they were given packets of betelleaves with powered sopari ( betel nuts) and camphor. Vidyasiddha addressing Gobhadra, with an anjali in front of his forehead, said "O good man! now ask for the boon previously acknowledged I want to depart from here." Gobhadra said, "O fortunate man! if you are really satisfied, give me a promise that will have constant affection for these women. Think that by doing it you have done all my wished-for desires. Is there any other gift more valuable than the satis faction of another's mind? Kings like Bali, Hariścandra and others, have formerly rendered friendly service to people even at the sacrifice of their lives Rendering friendly service to beings burnt with misery, is the fruit of this immediately perishable and miserable life. Vidyasiddha retorted "O good man! Why do you talk thus? Can any perverse event take place even before you? Virtuous people maintain the words uttered by them as more valuable than their own lives, although they may have been uttered at a time when the eyes were wandering about on account of sleep. If, even Goddess Katyayani is ashamed of hearing about me as one doing a wrong act or telling a falsehood, what to say about any other person? O Gobhadra, give up, therefore, your distrust towards me in this matter. Ask for some other boon. Do not create a break in my friendly relation." On hearing this, Gobhadra said " If it be so, leave off your addiction to another man's wife, because sexual intercourse with another man's wife is 8 source of a regular succession of animosity. It is the chief residence of blemishes. It is a path to the town of hell. It is a storage of humiliation It is a mine of dishonour. It is like an ink-brush for soiling the fame of one's family. It is a custody of sin. It destroys a mass of virtuous qualities by the root. It produces a development of a succession of unrighteousness. Rāvana the King of Lanka (Ceylon) and many other kings were finally ruined, enslaved as they were
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