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a little way, came back with the object of telling the acārya about the above-named notion of his son. Taking his seat at a lonely plece, and with a respectíul salutation to the worthy ācārya, the king informed him-0 worshipful sire! There is nothing that is beyond the reach of your knowledge; you will, there-fore, be pleased to tell me the reason why my son does not desire to hear the name, even, of marriage? Is be afraid of wandering in this samsāra ? Or, is he under the iníluence of u ghost or a demon? Is it a change in the elergentary costituents of his body or is it the damage done by a cruel planet?" The Guru Mabārāja replied: - O King! Do not cherish doubts about its reasons. It is an out-coine of dense Karmas of previous life Karma alone is the only cause in all the stages of actions like combination and separation, production and destruction, happiness and misery etc. The King said:-'0 Worshipful Master! Please tell me what Karma he did in previous life. I ani anxious to know about this subject." The ācārya said:- 0 King! Your SOD was a merchaut's son named Cärudatta adorned with beauty, comeliness, good luck, and other anspicious qualities, in Sarkhapur Nagara duriog his previous life. One day, wbile abusing with harsh words, his unnecessarily enraged wife, he said "Ah! sinful woman! I will now so arrange that you can only live miserably". She replied: -"Do as, even your father likes fit to do." Cărudatta, then, went in the southern directiou in company with a sportive companion, with the object of contracting marriage with another bride, and after an unirlerius pted jouruey. he reached a town named Känci Nagari abounding in excellent young females. On entering the town, bi saw some boys playing with each other. On seeing that when one boy was trying to put a garland of Mālali flowers on the neck of one boy, the garland fell on the neck of another boy, Cărudatts thought- O! It is a lucky omen, but it is difficult to know its meaning, because when the garland was being placed on the neck of one boy, it fell on the neck of another boy, or, what is the use of thinking about it now! With the acquisition of the desired object, its meaning will be spontaneously understood." With this idea in his mind, Cärudatta went to the house of one
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