द्वितीय राजतरङ्गिणी (जोनराज - कल्हणोत्तर मध्यकालीन कश्मीर का प्रामाणिक इतिहास)

166 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
explain to the king the way to remove worldly afflictions,
and for nights together he heard from me the Saṃhitā
which is the way to salvation. The king was for a
time consoled by listening to my explanations, the
modulations of my voice, and well turned beautiful
passages. "This appears to me most strange that this
waking illusion of good men like the color of the sky
(vacuum) sinks into oblivion in which there is no memory
of the past. O son of Raghu ! Be it long or be it
pleasant, know this mundane existence to be a long
dream as unsubstantial as a large imaginary kingdom.
If there had been no birth, old age, or death, no fear of
separation from the beloved object, and if all had not
been fleeting, who would not have wished to have been
born in this world ? Men will be freed from objects
from which they withdraw their desire ; a man cannot
know of greater happiness than by withdrawing his desire
from all earthly things." The king learnt shlokas like
those mentioned above by listening to my explanations,
and also many others which indicated his own condition,
and he himself read them. The king heard me read the
"way to salvation," and pondered over the meaning of
many verses, and on one occasion he told the learned
who were about him that some one seemed to whisper
to his ear enquiring why he loved his sons, none of
whom was friendly to him. He thought to himself :—"By
eating meat with our teeth, flesh is served with flesh,
and in such meals, which enriches our blood and gives us