All the ladies were distressed when they saw the queen so sad, who in her deep affection for her daughter began to weep and make great lamentation:
“What harm had I done to Narada that he should make my home desolate and give Uma such advice, to undergo penance for the sake of a mad bridegroom? In good sooth he is fancy-free and passionless, an ascetic who wants neither money, nor house, nor wife, and therefore in destroying another’s home he has neither shame nor compunction; for what does a barren woman know of the pangs of childbirth?” When Bhavani saw her mother’s distress, she answered thus placidly and discreetly, “Be not troubled, my mother, with these thoughts, for God’s plans are unalterable. If fate decrees me a mad husband, then why should any one be blamed? Can you blot out the handwriting of the Creator? Then refrain from profitless reproaches.
Cease from profitless reproaches, nor in vain bemoan my fate;
I must go where’er my destined joys and sorrows for me wait.”
Hearing Uma’s pious answer, all her ladies felt surprise,
Much they talked of God’s injustice, while the tears bedewed their eyes.
“What harm had I done to Narada that he should make my home desolate and give Uma such advice, to undergo penance for the sake of a mad bridegroom? In good sooth he is fancy-free and passionless, an ascetic who wants neither money, nor house, nor wife, and therefore in destroying another’s home he has neither shame nor compunction; for what does a barren woman know of the pangs of childbirth?” When Bhavani saw her mother’s distress, she answered thus placidly and discreetly, “Be not troubled, my mother, with these thoughts, for God’s plans are unalterable. If fate decrees me a mad husband, then why should any one be blamed? Can you blot out the handwriting of the Creator? Then refrain from profitless reproaches.
Cease from profitless reproaches, nor in vain bemoan my fate;
I must go where’er my destined joys and sorrows for me wait.”
Hearing Uma’s pious answer, all her ladies felt surprise,
Much they talked of God’s injustice, while the tears bedewed their eyes.