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144
CHAPTER FIVE
.. . Grief of the sons (134-143) Vişnu fell on the ground in a swoon, when he heard, like a large tree falling from a storm, like a gouty person (vātaka) from the humor, wind (vāta). Then sprinkled with pitchers of water, Janārdana, conscious again, stood up, crying, "Oh, father, father, father! Is not your body in pain? What herb has any merit? What physician can be trusted? Or rather, is that a pleasant sleep now? Speak, father, as a favor to me." Bewildered by affection, Visņu talked thus for a moment and immediately burst into lamentations. Enlightened by the elders of his family, Sārngabhịt regained firmness and cremated his father in a fire of sandal and aloe.
After he had made the oblation, et cetera, and had sat in the council, he sent a letter, announcing their father's death, to Bala. Bala had conquered the arrogant borderking and he returned in haste, grieved by that letter. Clinging to each other's neck, wailing at the top of their voices, Baladeva and Vasudeva made the council weep. Enlightened by friends, they became firm to some extent, and both abandoned affection for their father slowly, slowly. Whether they were still or moving, talking or silent, they saw their father before their eyes, like something on which to meditate.
Quarrel with Niśumbha (144-188) While they were so overwhelmed with sorrow for their father, a messenger from Ardhacakrin Niśumbha came there. Announced first by the door-keeper, he entered at his command, bowed to Baladeva and Väsudeva, and said: “When he heard from the people that King Siva had died, Niśumbha, your kind lord, felt great sorrow. Recalling your father's devotion, he, the crest-jewel of the dutiful, sent me to your side with instructions to deliver the following message. “Now you are boys, indeed, the abodes of insults from enemies. This high rank of your father has been
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