Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/382

 that obtains prosperity. Did you not find those ministers, after they had been separated from you by the curse of the Nága? In like manner shall you again recover them, and get back the others also, and moreover you shall soon be united with Śaśánkavatí." When Śrutadhi said this to the prince, he answered him; " How can this be? The truth is that all this train of events was arranged for our ruin by the Disposer. If it was not so arranged, how came the Vetála to appear in the night, and Bhímapanákrama to do as he did, and how came it to pass that I heard about Śaśánkavatí through the conversation that took place between them, and that I set out from Ayodhyá to fetch her? How came it to pass also that we were all separated from one another in the Vindhya forest by the curse of the Nága, and that some of us were in course of time reunited, and that this second separation has now taken place and with it the ruin of all my plans? It all tallies together, my friend. The fact is they have been devoured in that tree by a demon, and without them what is Śasánkavatí to me, or what is my life worth to me? So away with delusions?" When Mrigánkadatta had said this, he rose up to throw himself into the lake out of sorrow, although Śrutadhi tried to prevent him.

At that moment a bodiless voice came from the air, " My son, do not act rashly, for all will end well for thee. The god Ganeśa himself dwells in this tree, and he has been to-day insulted by thy ministers unwittingly. For they, king, being pinched with hunger, climbed up into the tree in which he dwells, to pick its fruits, in a state of impurity, having neither rinsed their mouths nor washed their hands and feet; so the moment that they touched the fruits, they became fruits themselves. For Ganeśa inflicted on them this curse, 'Let them become that on which their minds are fixed?' Moreover, thy four other ministers, who, the moment they arrived here, climbed up the tree in the same way, were turned into fruits by the god. Therefore do thou propitiate this Ganeśa with ascetic practices, and by his favour thou shalt attain all thy objects."

When Mrigánkadatta had been thus addressed by the voice from the air, that seemed to rain nectar into his ears, hope again sprang up in his bosom, and he gave up all idea of suicide. So he bathed in the lake, and worshipped Ganeśa, who dwelt in that tree, without taking food, and joining his palms in an attitude of supplication, praised him in the following words; "Hail thou elephant-faced lord, who art, as it were, worshipped by the earth, that with its plains, rocks, and woods, bows under the crushing weight of thy tumultuous dance ! Hail thou that hast the twin lotuses of thy feet worshipped by the three worlds, with the gods, Asuras, and men, that dwell in them; thou, whose body is in shape like a pitcher for the abundant storing of varioussplendid successes ! Hail, thou, the flame of whose might blazes forth like twelve