Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 112

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who was artless and did not know his motive, “What is your purpose with me?" he said, “Except your husband alone, what man of sense, understanding different flavors of pleasure, would not have a purpose with you, fair lady?” When she heard that speech that was like a needle in her ear, betraying an evil meaning, angered, her face bent down, she said to him cuttingly: "O villain, basest of men, how can you think this? Or thought, how can you say it? Shame upon the temerity of a fool! Moreover, do you consider my noble husband like yourself, villain ! Shame upon you, an enemy in the guise of a friend. Go! Do not stay, scoundrel ! From the mere sight of you there is evil.”
Thus reviled by her, he went away quickly like a thief. As he went along, his face black with darkness like a cow-killer, disconsolate, Sagara saw him. “O friend, why do you look as if you are troubled ?" Sāgaracandra, who had a crystal-pure mind, asked him. Then the villain, a mountain of deceit and tricks, heaving a deep sigh, his lower lip contracted a little, as if from great strain, said, “You see, brother, the cause of depression of those living in sarnsāra is like the cause of cold of those dwelling near Mt. Hima. Something is present here like a wound in a secret place which it is desirable neither to conceal nor to tell.” Guileless Sāgaracandra reflected, as Asokadatta stood, after saying this, with deceitful tears in his eyes, “Oh, saṁsāra is worthless, in which even in such men such a cause of doubt suddenly arises. Though he does not speak from firmness, his extreme inner despair is clearly indicated by tears, like a fire by smoke.” Thinking thus for a long time, at once pained by his pain, again Sāgaracandra said to him in a choking voice, "If it is not untellable, friend, tell the cause of your depression. Now have less pain by sharing your pain with me."
Asokadatta said, "Nothing else is untellable to you, who are the same as life to me; this matter is especially untellable. My friend knows this—that here a woman is