Shukra [quietly]. I may not love one more than another; my steps, as my heart, go whither God guides them.
Old Man [mocking]. Truth is thy witness?
Shukra. May Indra himself punish me if I love one more than another. Hear me, Indra. [The roll of thunder above.]
Old Man [in desperation]. Come, my son, in the name of thine own God I pray to thee, come to thy mother. I kneel at thy feet and beg for this boon. [He does so.]
Shukra [raising him to his feet. He puts his own head down on the old man's feet.]
Old Man. Then thou comest? [Shukra rises to his feet.]
Shukra [hesitating]. There is a law in the Sacred books that says an ascetic should see the place of his birth every twelfth year.
Old Man. And it is twelve years now since thou didst renounce us! Ah! blessed be the law.
Shukra. Yet, father, if I go, I go not in obedience to the law, but since the desire to see my mother is uppermost in me, I who dreamt not of the law hitherto—yea, now I hasten to abide by the law. Ah, what mockery! It is not the letter of the law, but the spirit in us that judges us sinners or saints. Now if I go with thee to obey the law, that would be betraying the law.
Old Man. Betraying the law!