15 - The dialogue between the father (Rukmangada)     and the son (Dharmangada)

Vasishtha said:

1. After setting the lizard free from the sin, the delighted king laughingly said to Mohini-May the horse be mounted instantaneously.

2-3. Like Krishna’s horse (?) this can go ten thousand Yojanas in a moment. On hearing the words of the king, Mohini, the ardently passionate lady, climbed on to the horse which was as swift as the wind, alongwith her husband. The lady of sweet smiles spoke these words to the king her husband.

4. O king, drive this horse towards your city. My desire to see the face of your son is intense.

5. O excellent king, I am at your disposal. You may go wherever you are inclined to go. On hearing the words of Mohini, he started towards his city.

6-9.  With great delight he observed the trees, the mountains, the rivers, the different   kinds of forests, the        animals of various sorts, villages, forts, lands, splendid   cities, lakes of variegated nature and the charming plots of lands on the way. On seeing the hermitage of Vamadeva soon, the king who was in a hurry, bowed down from the firmament itself. Again the king proceeded on his way on his horse that was as swift as the wind-god. Observing many lands fully endowed with riches and food grains.

10-12. The king reached Vidisha (a city in Madhya Pradesh) that was under his control. His son Dharmangada had already heard through his spies that the king, his father, was coming. With great delight he spoke these words to the vassal kings: - O excellent kings, this northern quarter is becoming brighter on being illuminated by his splendour and on being occupied by my father’s horse. Hence, let us all go to greet the king face to face.

13. If the son does not come face to face with (i.e. does not personally go to receive) his father immediately on his arrival, he falls into the terrible hell and stays there as long as fourteen Indras reign.

14. The Brahmanas well-versed in the Puranas say that if the son goes ahead to receive his father face to face, (personally he derives the fruit of a Yajna for every step he takes).

15. Get up. I shall go to greet him lovingly surrounded by you all. He is my deity of deities.

16. When the king approved of his words saying “So be it,” the prince accompanied by all of them went on foot for a distance of a Krosha (3 km.) to greet his father personally face to face.

17. Appearing like the embodied form of Manmatha and accompanied by a thousand kings, he went a Jong distance and met the king on the way.

18.Meeting his father, he prostrated to him by falling at his feet on the ground affectionately. Alongwith the vassal kings, he bent his head down and made obeisance.

19-20. With great love the king observed his son falling at his feet immediately after arrival along with the vassal kings. The king got down from the horse. With his brawny arms he lifted up his son and warmly embraced him closely. Sniffing at his head the king then spoke to his son.

21. O son, I hope you are protecting your subjects. I also hope you are punishing the enemies. I presume you fill the treasury only with such amounts as are earned by justifiable means.

22. I hope, never failing maintenance amounts that are more than sufficient have been handed over to the Brahmanas. I hope you practise attractive and pleasant manners, and that you do not speak harsh words.

23. I hope cows are now milked in the houses of Chandalas and sons carry out the behests of their fathers always.

24. I hope the daughter-in-law obeys the mother-in-law and her own husband. O son, I hope you never enter into verbal disputes with the Brahmanas.

25. I hope the cows are not restrained in the land and are fed on different kinds of grass. I hope you scrutinise the weights and balances of foodgrains and other things.

26. O son, I hope you do not impose too much of a burden on the householder by means of taxes. I believe game of dice and over-addiction to liquor arc not present in your land.

27. I hope there are people of different tastes and different opinions expressed in words in your city. I (further) hope the men do not maintain themselves on liberal gifts of others and do not wear old ragged clothes.

28. O son, I hope you personally survey the elephants and horses in your army and protect them. I hope you look after all your mothers without partiality.

 29. O son, I hope men do not take food on the day of Vishnu (on the Ekadashi day). I hope men are interested in performing Shraddha when the moon is waning (on the New Moon day).

30. I hope you always eschew slumber in the latter halves of the nights. Slumber is the root of sins.

31. Slumber is the mother of poverty. It is destructive of prosperity and welfare. No king who is a slave unto slumber rules over the Earth for a long time.

32. Just as an unchaste woman destroys both the worlds of her husband so also slumber destroys both the worlds of the king.

When the father said all these things, the son spoke these words.

33. The son Dharmangada bowed to the king again and again and said.

O dear father, all these things have been done by me. I shall again carry out your behests.

34. In all the three worlds those sons who carry out the instructions of their fathers, are blessed. O king, what is more sinful than not carrying out the directives of one’s own father?

35. If the son disobeys his father and goes to Ganga for his holy dip, he does not attain the benefit of the holy river. He who does not carry out his father’s directives does not enjoy the fruits of pilgrimage to holy centres.

36. My body is subservient to you; my life is at your disposal.¹ My duty is subservient to you. You are my great deity.

1.Henceforth every now and then Dharmangada and Sandhyavali unknowingly and unintentionally hint the future tragedy-Dharmangada’s death at the hands of his father.

37. A son cannot free himself from indebtedness to his father even by making a gift of the three worlds. O Lord, what then by means of physical strain, monetary gift and other things.

38-39. Even as his son surrounded by many kings said thus, Rukmangada embraced the son and spoke these words: O son, you have spoken the truth. You are the knower of virtue. There is no other greater deity for a son than his father. If the son disrespects the father, even the gods turn their faces from him.

40. Since you have conquered the Earth consisting of many continents and possessing many kings and since you protect that Earth, I have been held by you on your head.

41. This the greatest happiness in the world, certainly this is the heavenly region on the surface of the Earth, that the son is superior to the father.

42. O son, I have been made contented by you who traverse the path of good qualities and who make all the kings observe holy rite on the auspicious day of Hari.

43. On hearing these words of his father, Dharmangada, the son said: -

“O father, where did you go after depositing all the riches in me?

44. At what place was this lady with the lustre of ten thousand suns attained by you? I think, after creating her Prajapati (Brahma) had become disgusted with the world and detached from it.

45. O king, in the whole of the three worlds there is no other woman with this form and beauty. I think she is born of the mountain or originated from the ocean.

46-47. Or she may be the Maya (illusion) of the Daitya Maya, with the for1n of a young woman assumed by her. O Lord, indeed, Brahma by whom she has been created is very clever. There is no slightest defect even to the extent of a hundred part of the tip of a hair. O Lord of the kings of the Earth, she is worthy of being the heroine of your house since she is as pure as gold. If I were to have a mother of such a type, which man is more meritorious than I?”