XXVIII.
PRE-ORDINANCE.
In Jayasthala on the banks of the Kaveri, there lived a Brahman, Durgatha by name. As he was in very indigent circumstances, he used to go a begging to four different villages, come home at about two or three o'clock every day, and cook his own meal and eat. Things went on thus for some time, and when on a certain day the poor Brahman was plodding his weary way homeward, it came to pass that Iswara and his wife were sauntering in the heavens. Parvati, the wife, unable to endure the sight of this poverty-stricken Brahman, took compassion on him, and requested her husband to bless him with riches. Whereupon Iswara replied and said that Brahma had not written on his face that he must enjoy wealth, and that he must, therefore, live and die a beggar. Parvati thereupon said:—Let me see how this Brahman cannot become wealthy when we will it," and threw a heap of one thousand gold mohars on his way. The Brahman came to within ten yards of the heap, when suddenly the thought struck him to see if he could walk like a blind man. He accordingly shut his eyes and passed off the heap of mohars on the way.
Moral:—The law of karma (fate) is inevitable.