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THE WAY OF LIFE
with great difficulty. A man does not feel happy at the sight of his brother's happiness. A woman does not feel happy at the sight of her sister's happiness. Some do not feel happy at the sight of the happiness of their friends. Even a father cannot bear to see the happiness of his son. The attitude of love has hidden itself in a dark cave. Even in the wives of Shri Rama, the fire of jealousy, began to burn. They made an ignoble plan to assassinate Sita's character and to separate her from Shri Rama.
By means of deception, they got a picture of Ravana's feet painted by Sita. They spread scandals against Sitaji in the city of Ayodhya using that picture. "Sita keeps thinking of Ravana day and night. She is always lost in thoughts relating to Ravana. She keeps painting the picture of Ravana's feet". They spread such rumours. The common people when they heard these rumours believed that they were true and began gossiping about them. "Since Sita was in Ravana's kingdom for such a long time, she must have lost her chastity. Her chastity cannot remain pure when she has stayed in Ravana's kingdom for such a long time". In every house of the city of Ayodhya people began saying such things. The news reached Shri Ramji. Seeing that the honour and the prestige of the Raghu dynasty were affected Shri Ramachandraji hurriedly abandoned Sita and sent her away to a forest.
Those three queens were greatly delighted. Their joy knew no bounds when Sitaji was thus disgraced and when their deceptive plan succeeded.
RISHIDATTA'S STORY
Rukmini, the princess of Kaverinagar was deeply shocked when Prince Kanakarath had married on his way the daughter of a Rishi and had returned home. Rukmini became jealous of the Rishi's daughter and became hostile towards her. Of course, the daughter of the Rishi had not done any harm to her. But Rukmini thought erroneously of what had happened. She thought, "The prince was coming to marry me and on the way,
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