Heaven Refused, and the Lover

So they lived, friends by day and husband and wife by night, like a lamp and its light, on Mahendra and Śuktimat, Pakṣavat and the foot of Meru, among the Uttarakurus and the northern Kosalas. Every three days, while her beloved slept, Cūḍālā went and did the business of the kingdom and came back.

After some months she resolved to test him, so that his mind would never turn to pleasures. By her māyā she made Indra appear in the forest with the gods and the apsaras. The king honoured him and asked why he had come. Drawn by your virtues, said Indra, we have come to take you to heaven, where the women of heaven are waiting in wonder. Take these too, the magic sandals, the pill, the sword, the elixir, so that you may go by the path of the siddhas.

I know the whole way of heaven, lord of the gods, said Śikhidhvaja, but for me heaven is everywhere; it is not bound to one place. I am content everywhere. I do not know how to go to a little heaven fixed in one place. I will not do what you ask. Indra pressed him, and the king said, Not today; in time. May it go well with you, Kumbha, said Indra, and vanished, and all the gods with him.

Cūḍālā was satisfied, but she wished to test him once more. That night, as Madanikā, while he was at his evening prayers by the river, she went into a bower of creepers and on a bed of flowers made by her will lay with a lover made by her will, her arm around his neck. The king came looking for her, and saw them. With his mind wholly unmoved he was content, and said: Ah, you two lovers live happily. Stay at your ease as you wish; have no fear that I will trouble you. And he went away.

She ended the illusion and came out, flushed and disordered, and found him on a slab of gold in meditation, and stood before him in silence as if ashamed. Why have you come back so soon, slender one, with your joy broken off? he said. Every creature seeks joy. Go back and content your beloved. Kumbha and I are free of passion, but you are a young woman born of Durvāsa's curse; do as you wish. Forgive me, said Madanikā; I was alone in the forest at night while you were at your prayers. There is no anger in me, said the king, any more than there is a tree in the sky. It is only because the good condemn it that I do not want you as a wife. Let us be friends, free of passion, and live happily as before.

Ah, what evenness of mind, thought Cūḍālā. Free of passion and anger, he is free while he lives. Neither pleasures nor even the great powers carry him away. Now I will make him remember all that has happened. I will cast off Kumbha's form and become Cūḍālā herself.