Lord Dattatreya said,
At the end of her (Hemalekha's) speech, Hemachuda's confusion was cleared up, so that he gradually became well established in the perfect Self bereft of any distinction of within and without. Being always equable, he led a very happy life with Hemalekha and others, reigned over his kingdom and made it prosperous, engaged his enemies in war and conquered them, studied the scriptures and taught them to others, filled his treasury, performed the sacrifices pertaining to royalty and lived twenty thousand years, emancipated while yet alive (jivanmukta).
The king Muktachuda, having heard that his son had become a jivanmukta, consulted his other son Manichuda. Both agreed that Hemachuda was not as before, but that he had changed so that he was no longer affected by the greatest of pleasured or the worst of sorrows; that he treated friend and foe alike; that he was indifferent to loss or gain; that he engaged in royal duties like an actor in a play that he seemed like a man always intoxicated with wine and that he did his duty well, notwithstanding his absent-minded or other-worldly look. They pondered over the matter and wondered. Then they sought him in private and asked him for the reason of his change. When they had heard him speak of his state, they too desired to be instructed by him, and finally became jivanmuktas like Hemachuda. The ministers were in their turn desirous of attaining that state, and eventually reached it after receiving proper instructions from the king. So were the citizens, the artisans and all classes of people in that city. All of them gained the summum bonum (highest good) of life and transcended desire, anger, lust etc. Even the children and the very old people were no longer moved by passions. There were still worldly transactions in this ideal state, because the people consciously acted their parts as the actors in a drama, in accord with the rest of the creation.
(To be continued)
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