With aching heart did Lila ponder this. She thought :

^If I die before riiy husband it were well, and I were free
from pain. But should he die before me, then shall I do so
that his Jiva may not pass out of the limits of this palace."

With this resolve she made Upasana(1) of SarasvafT,
the Goddess of wisdom and all knowledge, and, unknown
to her husband, worshipped her in the ways laid down by the
Shasiras.(2) By hard austerities and strong* self-discipline
she pleased the Goddess of Speech and Science, and the
Goddess appeared to her and spoke; "I am pleased with thy
unbroken Tapas and thy Bhakti(8) to thy husband. Name
the boon thou seekest."

LIla answered; ^O Mother of the worlds ! Thou that
dispellest the gloom of the heart as the Sun the gloom
of the outer world ! If ^Thou art pleased with me, then
give me this—that if my husband die before I pass, his
Jiva may not quit the limits of this palace. And give me
this also, that when I pray to see Thy holy form. I may
have sight of it and be not disappointed."

"So be it," said SarasvafT, and disappeared.
The wheel of time rolled on, and what the queen had'
feared did come to pass. They brought to her, one day, that
much-loved body of her husband, wounded to death in a
great battle with unrighteous kings who had invaded the
country wrongfully and been defeated, but at the cost of his
own life, by Padma- Sad was the state of Lila on beholding-
him. Now crying and now silent with despair, like one
demented, withering like the nalinl(4) flung out of its water
basin, fading like the lamp-flame fallen from its feeding cup,
she came near to dying too.

(1) Worship, fitting near', 'attendance'.

(2) Religions books. Scriptures; also sciences generally ; etymology
dally; ^Qaohrngs', from .shas, to teach. (3). Deyotion. (4) Lotus.