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CHANDRASHEKHAR. aromatic ﬂowering plant. Whoever might have advised this vow, had surely a thorough insight into the deep recesses of the human heart. A lonely silent darkness devoid of human presence, added to that an exhausted frame aﬂlicted with hunger and the mind absorbed in one single idea, at such a moment whatever object the mind ﬁxes upon, it becomes saturated with it after a persistent meditation. In these circumstances with a worn-out frame and mind, in a concentrated meditation on her husband, Shaibalini lost her consciousness.

Was it really a cessation of consciousness or the bursting of the spiritual vision? From out of the innermost recesses of her soul she saw with her new eyes oh, what a ﬁgure! That ﬁgure shaming the sal tree in stature, with its ﬁnely moulded arms, its handsome proportions, full of strength and grace—oh, what a peak of beauty! That forehead, extensive, anointed with sandal-wood paste, furrowed with the lines of thought, is ﬁt for the resting place of Saraswati, the battleﬁeld of Indra , the pleasure-bower of Madan, the throne of Lakshmi —what is Protap to this! Fie! Fie! the Ganges compared with the ocean! Those sparkling, laughing, shifting, swimming eyes, at once large and wide-open, piercing but placid, full of tenderness and pity, with a slight touch of humour, and ever inquisitive-can Protap’s eyes be compared with these? Oh, why was I tempted, why did I yield, why did I fall! That handsome, powerful ﬁgure, like the sal tree with its green shoots, like the deodar entwined with the racemosa, like a hill covered with blossoms—