In course of time, they were all increased with sons and with daughters; and after a long time had gone by, their parents died. At that period, they say that a man's life was twenty thousand years.

Then died one clearly beloved son of the great King Vasudeva. The king, half dead with grief, neglected everything, and lay lamenting, and clutching the frame of his bed. Then Ghatapandita thought to himself, "Except me, no one else is able to soothe my brother's grief; I will find some means of soothing his grief for him." So assuming the appearance of madness, he paced through the whole city, gazing up at the sky, and crying out, "Give me a hare! Give me a hare!" All the city was excited: "Ghatapandita has gone mad!" they said. Just then a courtier named Rohineyya, went into the presence of King Vasudeva, and opened a conversation with him by reciting the first stanza:

"Black Kanha, rise! why close the eyes to sleep? why lying there
Thine own born brother--see, the winds away his wit do bear,
Away his wisdom ! Ghata raves, thou of the long black hair!"

[85] When the courtier had thus spoken, the Master perceiving that he had risen, in his Perfect Wisdom uttered the second stanza:

"So soon the long-haired Kesava heard Rohineyya's cry,
He rose all anxious and distrest for Ghata's misery."

Up rose the king, and quickly came down from his chamber; and proceeding to Ghatapandita, he got fast hold of him with both hands; and speaking to him, uttered the third stanza:

"In maniac fashion, why do you pace Dvaraka all through,
And cry, "Hare, hare!" Say, who is there has taken a hare from you?"

To these words of the king, he only answered by repeating the same cry over and over again. But the king recited two more stanzas:

"Be it of gold, or made of jewels fine,
Or brass, or silver, as you may incline ,
Shell, stone, or coral, I declare
I'll make a hare.

"And many other hares there be, that range the woodland wide,
They shall be brought, I'll have them caught; say, which do you decide?"

On hearing the king's words, the wise man replied by repeating the sixth stanza:

"I crave no hare of earthly kind, but that within the moon :
O bring him down, O Kesava! I ask no other boon!"

"Undoubtedly my brother has gone mad," thought the king, when he heard this. In great grief, he repeated the seventh stanza:

[86]"In sooth, my brother, you will die, if you make such a prayer,
And ask for what no man may pray, the moon's celestial hare."