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CELANA'S PALACE, DURGANDHÅ, ÂRDRAKUMĀRA
brother, the King of Magadha?" The moon of a minister gave delight to the lotus of his mind by favorable news of his master's welfare like moonlight.
Ārdrakakumāra asked: "Father, who is this King of Magadha who has such affection for you like Spring for Manobhu?" The king said: The King of Magadha is Śreņika and there is traditional friendship between his family and mine." Ardrakakumāra, of whom a shoot of love had shot up quickly, looking at the minister with a glance filled with nectar, said: "Minister, does your lord have a son whose good qualities are not deficient? I wish to make him the recipient of courtesy."
The minister said: "There is a son of King Śrenika, named Abhaya, a house of intelligence, the chief of five hundred ministers, munificent, an ocean with the water of extra-ordinary compassion, clever, appreciative of favors, who has crossed the ocean of all the arts. Prince, do you not know Abhaya, endowed with wit and strength, pious, devoid of fear, known to all? There are no good qualities that do not have a home in Abhaya, like the soul-forms in the ocean Svyambhūramaņa."169
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King Ardraka said to his son who was seeking friendship with Abhaya: "You are my son, following my path, noblyborn. Friendship, like the marriage-bond, is suitable between persons of equal qualities and of equal birth and wealth, son." After receiving his father's advice which was in accordance with his own wish, Ardraka's son said to the minister aside: "Do not go without letting me know. When you go, you must listen to a message resembling seed of the tree of affection from me for Abhaya."
The gentle-voiced minister said, Very well," to the prince and, dismissed by the king, went to the house shown by a door-keeper. The next day King Ardraka had his servant
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169 193. The outside ocean of the universe. It is one of 3 oceans that contain life. I, p. 398.
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