Well knowing this, hearken to me, O wise and learned king,
Cease to indulge thy heart's desire--renounce the cursed thing.

O ruler erst of broad domains, thy act I cannot praise,
To long for death, in prime of youth, great folly, sure, betrays.

Brahmins and angels, gods and men, all know thy deed and name,
And saints who by their holiness attain on earth to fame--
Yea, all that wise and famous are, thy sinful act proclaim.

[7] Then the ascetic uttered four stanzas:

One who knows how frail our life is, and how transient things of sense,
Never thinks to slay another, but abides in innocence.

Honoured once by saints in council, owner of a virtuous name,
Now with sinful men conversing, thou dost win an evil fame.

Were I on thy banks to perish, nymph with comely form endowed,
Ill repute would rest upon thee, like the shadow of a cloud.

Therefore, goddess fair, I pray thee, every sinful deed eschew,
Lest, a bye-word of the people, thou have cause my death to rue.

[8] On hearing him, the goddess replied in five stanzas:

Well I know the secret longing, thine to bear so patiently,
And I yield myself thy servant and the mango give to thee.
Lo! foregoing sinful pleasures, pleasures hard to be resigned,
Thou hast gained, to keep for ever, holiness and peace of mind.

He that, freed from early bondage, hugs the chains he once forswore,
Rashly treading ways unholy, ever sinneth more and more.

I will grant thy earnest craving, and will bid thy troubles cease,
Guiding thee to cool recesses, where thou mayst abide in peace.

Herons, maynah birds and cuckoos, with the ruddy geese that love
Nectar from the bloom to gather, swans aloft in troops that move,
Paddy-birds and lordly peacocks, with their song awake the grove.

Saffron and kadamba blossoms lie as chaff upon the ground,
Ripest dates, the palms adorning, hang in clusters all around,
And, amidst the loaded branches, see how mangoes here abound!

[9] And singing the praises of the place she transported the ascetic thither, and, bidding him eat mangoes in this grove till he had satisfied his hunger, she went her way. The ascetic, eating mangoes till he had appeased his appetite, rested awhile. Then, as he wandered in the grove, he spied this Spirit in a state of suffering and he had not the heart to utter a word to him, but at sunset he beheld him attended by nymphs and in the enjoyment of heavenly glory and addressed him in three stanzas:

All the night anointed, feted, with a crown upon thy brow,
Neck and arms bedecked with jewels--all the day in anguish thou!

Many thousand nymphs attend thee. What a magic power is this!
How amazing thus to vary from a state of woe to bliss!