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occasion flowers, fregrant sandal paste etc and ordered him to worship the gods with those offerings Commanding thus, the king, then, sent spies to watch Dhanapala
Being thus ordered Dhanapala at once went at first to the temple of the goddess, but being afraid therein he immediately went to the temple of Siva. Then, he went to the temple of god Visnu where, hanging in front of the shrines of Visnu and Laksmi was his upper garment as a curtain, he came out, and went to the temple of Rsabhdeva. There he worshipped the shrine properly with the things brought with him and went back to the royal court The spies had acquainted the King with everything On the arrival of Dhanapala, the King asked him "Have you properly performed the worship ceremony 2 " Dhanapala answered, "Yes, my lord, I have properly worshipped the gods" The King asked him once more, "Why did you at once leave off the temle of the Bhavāni goddess being so nervous ?"
Dhanapala replied, "The goddess wielded a "Trisula' (a weapon with three pointed blades in front), her eyebrows were straightened (on account of anger) and she was in the act of killing Mahisa (a demon). This made me frightened, and I ran out. I was under the inpression that the goddess was busy fighting and had no time then to talk, and therefore I did not worship her."
The king-Then why did you not worship Mahadeva ? Dhanapala replied
How to garland person having no neck?, How to offer to a person having no nose How to please with music a person having no ears?, and How to bow down to a person who has no feet Thinking thus, I did not worship the god Sankara who has assumed the form of a Ling' ('Ling'-form is the form of an image which is simply round).
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