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DISCOURSE 88
20$
this witch captivated him magically and the prince has married her and I am foolishly waiting for him here”.
Actually, that was not the case. The daughter of the Rishi did not captivate him magically but the Prince became enamoured of her. Her name was Rishidatta. She was living in the forest with her father, a great sage who was a king once. Soon after the birth of the girl, the queen had died. The Rajarshi brought up the girl himself and he celebrated his daughter's marriage with Kanakarath. After his marriage, Kanakarath stayed in the Ashram for sometime and returned to his city with Rishidatta.
All the members of the Royal family showed great affection to Rishidatta. Her fame spread throughout the city; but in Rukmini's heart there was bitter hostility against her. She made a plan to disgrace Rishidatta by proving that she was a monster. This is called Abhinivesh or making an ignoble resolution to harm someone. The author exhorts his readers to keep off such immoral methods. Abhinivesh is not good in the life of householders. On account of it, hostilities increase. Agitations and restlessness grow. It brings a serious kind of sinful karma. It makes a person suffer inordinate anguish through countless lives. But who was there to tell Rukmini all these things ? She made friends with a female ascetic by name Sulasa.
Sulasa was a magician. Rukmini told Sulasa everything about Rishidatta; and then said, “As long as the Prince loves Rishidatta, he will not marry me. You must do something to destroy his love for Rishidatta". Rukmini offered many temptations to Sulasa and sent her to stain the character of Rishidatta. Sulasa by means of her magical powers began to kill a man every day and after killing a man she smeared the blood to the mouth of Rishidatta. She placed some pieces of muscles near her pillow. She wanted to prove that Rishidatta was a monster; that she killed a human being every day; and that she ate him and drank his blood.
The conspiracy succeeded. Prince Kanakarath knew that some evil goddess was doing all that to disgrace Rishidatta; and
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