Part 3: Explanation to the King

When the King heard from her retinue that she was in this state, he approached her and said in a voice tender with affection: “O Queen, when even I am subject to you, is any wish unfulfilled, because of which you are so grieved, like a haṃsī that has been made to fall in the desert? Does some anxiety torment you, or is there any new ailment? Has anyone transgressed your command? Or have you seen an evil vision? Has there been external or internal evil omen? Tell me the cause of your depression. Surely there is no secret between you and me.”

Sudarśanā sighed and said in a choking voice: “By your favor no one has broken a command of mine any more than one of yours. There is no anxiety nor illness, no bad dream nor evil omen, nor anything else like this which is the cause of my distress; but one thing, O lord, grieves me. In vain is all royal wealth; in vain all worldly pleasure; in vain is the love of those who have not seen the face of a son. Just as the poor man is greedy when he sees the wealth of the rich, so I, too, am greedy when I see the sons of women who have sons, alas! Put on one side all pleasures, on the other side put the pleasure of obtaining a son; the second weighs the more when weighed in the scale of the mind. The deer, etc. in the forest who are surrounded by their offspring are better off than we without offspring. Alas for even their little happiness!”