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he could meet them at Pañcasaila, which is an island, as he later realized, not easy to reach. He therefore paid a lot of money to the King's court and got a drum-beater to announce a considerable reward to any one that would row him to that island. An old man volunteered to take the risk for the money offered. He accordingly furnished a boat after having made arrangements for his family since the journey was dangerous. When the boatman and Kumaranandin sailed a considerable distance on the ocean, the old man asked him whether he could see anything along the distant horizon. Kumaranandin screwed up his eyes and looked for a long while till he espied a fig-tree at the foot of a mountain on the far off coast. The old man told him that the boat could take him only as far as that tree and that when it reached there Kumaranandin was to be quick enough to catch hold of a branch of it and get on the tree. 'Then the Bhārunda birds from Pañcasaila will come. A pair of them has three legs. Thereupon, when they have fallen asleep, do you cling to the leg in the middle, yourself being bound to it by your garment. Then they will take you to Pañcasaila.' The old man further warned Kumaranandin that in case he failed to do so the ship will enter the submarine fire and you will perish there.'
Kumāranandin went through the acrobatic exercise successfully and was taken by the bizarre mode of transport to his destination and the two Vanavyantara goddesses received him cordially. He was quite dazzled by the splendour of their way of life and his fascination for them increased. He would not be disheartened even when they told him that with "this body of yours you cannot enjoy us at all." He was to go through fire and do some other necessary rituals before he would be entitled to that pleasure. This he could do at his own place and the goddesses brought him back in the hollow of their hands and left him in a public garden in his town. He went about making preparations for the fire ritual but his friend Nagila did not approve of it at all. He tried to persuade him to see sense :
Listen, friend, this act, which befits the herd of contemptible fellows is not meet for you. Therefore do not on account of empty pleasures and happiness lose
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