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THE WAY OF LIFE
great fright. How could she save her son from the disaster ? The day had dawned. She saw some people at a distance in the forest. "Probably, they will give me protection". With this hope, she went near those people. She found that they were hundreds of lepers. The Queen with tears in her eyes and with her hands folded respectfully, entreated those people thus, “You seem to be kind-hearted people. Will you save the life of my son ? Listen ! There is the noise of soldiers on horseback following us. They will surely kill my son". The Queen narrated to them her story briefly. The Chief of the lepers said, “Sister, we are lepers. If your son stays with us, he too will be afflicted with leprosy. Therefore, think a little about this. Of course, we will surely give him protection". The queen said, “Dear brother! Kindly keep my son with you. If he is afflicted with leprosy, I will get him cured of it with medicines and treatment but his life must be saved. I will get away from here. You kindly hide the child somewhere”.
The queen thus entrusted her son to the lepers and ran, away from there. Soon, she disappeared into the forest. The lepers, hid Shripal in their tent in such a clever manner, that the soldiers could not at all see him. The soldiers came there and asked the lepers, "Did you see a woman who came this way? In which direction, did she go ?” The lepers said, "We do not know". The soldiers entertained a suspicion and said, "Have you not hidden that woman anywhere ?” They said, "Why should we conceal her. In fact, we did not even see her". The soldiers became angry and said, “We will search your tent now and if we find that woman here, we will send you all to the Kingdom of Yama. (We will kill you).
"Dear God! You can search our tent but we are all lepers and by our contact, you may also become lepers. If you wish, you can surely search our tent". The soldiers were naturally afraid of getting the disease. They saw that the lepers were in hundreds while they were only four or five, in number. If twenty or twenty five lepers happened to touch the soldiers, that would be enough. They would surely get the disease. The soldiers were afraid of this; and rode away from there. Shripal was safe. Those lepers took care of Shripal for some years.
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