(Continued...)
On thee also depend our funeral
cake, our fame and our descendants ! My mother is old, and my father also is
so. I am surely their crutch.
If they see me not in the night,
what, oh, will be their plight ! I hate that slumber of mine for the sake of
which my unoffending mother and my father have both been in trouble, and I
myself also, am placed in such rending distress !
Without my father and mother, I
cannot bear to live. It is certain that by this time my blind father, his mind
disconsolate with grief, is asking every one of the inhabitants of the
hermitage about me ! I do not, O fair girl, grieve so much for myself as I do
for my sire, and for my weak mother ever obedient to her lord !
Surely, they will be afflicted
with extreme anguish on account of me. I hold my life so long as they live. And
I know that they should be maintained by me and that I should do only what is
agreeable to them.
Markandeya continued, 'Having
said this, that virtuous youth who loved and revered his parents, afflicted
with grief held up his arms and began to lament in accents of woe.
And seeing her lord overwhelmed
with sorrow the virtuous Savitri wiped away the tears from his eyes and said,
'If I have observed austerities, and have given away in charity, and have
performed sacrifice, may this night be for the good of my father-in-law,
mother-in-law and husband !
I do not remember having told a
single falsehood, even in jest. Let my father-in-law and mother-in-law hold
their lives Jay virtue of the truth !' Satyavan said, 'I long for the sight of
my father and mother ! Therefore, O Savitri, proceed without delay. beautiful
damsel, I swear by my own self that if I find any evil to have befallen my
father and mother, I will not live.
If thou hast any regard for
virtue, if thou wishest me to live, if it is thy duty to do what is agreeable
to me, proceed thou to the hermitage ! The beautiful Savitri then rose and
tying up her hair, raised her husband in her arms.
And Satyavan having risen, rubbed
his limbs with his hands. And as he surveyed all around, his eyes fell upon his
wallet. Then Savitri said unto him, 'Tomorrow thou mayst gather fruits. And I
shall carry thy axe for thy ease.'
Then hanging up the wallet upon
the bough of a tree, and taking up the axe, she re-approached her husband. And
that lady of beautiful thighs, placing her husband's left arm upon her left
shoulder, and embracing him with her right arms, proceeded with elephantic
gait.
(Continued...)
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