Chapter XC - Love of the fictitious indra and ahalya

Argument. Curses have power on the body, and not upon the mind.

The sol said:—

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The lotus-eyed king thus defied by this perverse Indra, addressed the sage Bharata, who was sitting by him (in the court-hall).

The king spoke:—

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Lord, you are acquainted with all morality, and seest this ravisher of my wife, and hearest the arrogant speech, that he utters before our face.

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Deign, O great sage! pronounce thy fulmination upon him without delay; because it is a breach of justice to spare the wicked, as it is to hurt the innocent.

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Being thus besought by the great king, Bharata the best of the wise munis; considered well in his mind, the crime of this wicked soul Indra.

And then pronounced his imprecation by saying said:—

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"Do you, O reprobate sinner, soon meet with thy perdition, together with this sinful woman, that is so faithless to her husband."

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Then they both replied to the king and his venerable sage, saying,—"what fools must ye be, to have thus wasted your imprecation, the great gain of your devotion, on our devoted heads (knowing that our souls are invincible).

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The curse you have pronounced, can do us very little harm; for though our bodies should fall, yet it cannot affect our inward minds and spirits (which are unchangeable).

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The inner principle of the soul, can never be destroyed by any body and anywhere; owing to its inscrutable, subtile and intellectual nature.

The sol added:—

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This fascinated pair, that were over head and ears in love, then fell down by effect of the denunciation, as when the lopped branches fall upon the ground from the parent tree.

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Being subjected to the torment of transmigration, they were both born as a pair of deer in mutual attachment, and then as a couple of turtle doves in their inseparable alliance.

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Afterwards, O lord of our creation, this loving pair came to be born as man and woman, who by their practice of austerities, came to be reborn as a Brahmana and Brahmani at last.

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Thus the curse of Bharata, was capable only of transforming their bodies; and never to touch their minds or souls which continued in their unshaken attachment in every state of their transfiguration (or metamorphosis of the body only, and no metempsychosis of the soul).

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Therefore wherever they come to be reborn in any shape they always assume by virtue of their delusion and reminiscence, the form of a male and female pair.

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Seeing the true love which subsisted between this loving pair in the forest, the trees also become enamoured of the other sex of their own kinds. (This refers to the attachment of the male and female flowers, long before its discovery by Linnaeus).