Tripura Rahasya

Hemalekha continued,

• The eldest son entertained his father (Mr. Inconstant) with different kinds of sweet music, with incantations of the Vedas, the reading of scriptures, the humming sounds of bees, the twittering of birds and other sounds sweet to hear.
• Invited by his second son, the father went to stay in his mansion. There he found soft seats, downy beds, fine clothes and some hard things; others hot or warm or cold, or refreshing things with various designs, and so on. He was pleased with the agreeable things and felt aversion to the disagreeable ones.
• Then going to the third son, he saw charming and variegated scenes, things red, white, brown, blue, yellow, pink, smoky-grey, tawny, red-brown, black and spotted, others fat or lean, short or long, broad or round, bent or wavy, pleasing or horrible, nauseous, brilliant or savage, unsightly or captivating, some pleasing and others otherwise.
• The father was taken to the fourth son's mansion and there he had fruits and flowers to order (sweet, sour, pungent, astringent and so on). He tasted them all.
• The last son took the father to his home and treated him with fruits and flowers, with various scented grasses, herbs and things of different odors.
• In this manner, he enjoyed himself uninterruptedly in one mansion or another, being pleased with some and repulsed by others.
• The sons too were so devoted to their father that they would not touch anything themselves in his absence.

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Excerpts from Chapter 5, Tripura Rahasya