12. Seeing me situated in this place, I hope you will not forsake me here alone; as I verily desire to live in your company herein.
13. But then I will tell you sir, that it will come to pass in the course of some years hence, and there will occur a direful famine in this place, and all its people will be wholly swept away.
14. Then there will occur a warfare between the raging border chiefs, when this village will be destroyed, and all the houses will be thinned of their occupants.
15. Then let us remain in this place, free from all troubles, and in perfect security and peace, and live free from all worldly desires, by our knowledge of the knowable.
16. Here let us reside under the shelter of some shady trees; and perform the routine of our religious functions, as the sun and moon perform their revolutions in the solitary sky.
17. There will then grow in this desert land and deserted place, many kinds of trees and plants, covering the whole surface of this lonely place.
18. The land will be adorned by fruit trees, with many a singing bird sitting upon them; and the waters will be filled with lotus beds, with the humming bees and chakoras chirping amidst them. There shall we find happy groves like the heavenly garden of paradise for our repose.
CHAPTER CLIII.
One soul is the cause of all.
Argument:—Arrival of the Huntsman, and the sage’s preceptorship of him.
The other sage said:—When both of us shall dwell together in that forest, and remain in the practice of our austerities; there will appear upon that spot, a certain huntsman, weary with his fatigue in pursuing after a deer.