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Moreover they hold their victims in tight grip and squeeze them to the last
drop. Above all greed and hoarding smother their votaries in eternal shame and
submerge them in ocean of grief. They never bring dignity nor add lusture to
life. It is nothing but a living death, if they are relied upon. Drive off those
sinister evils and lead a life overflowing with integrity and divine ideals
humility. If practised with tenacity the worlds fourteen praise and adore you as
worshipful deities both during living and after death too".
Saying thus she
surveyed the assembled from corner to corner, and seeing them all tear-stained,
though exuberant in spirit at her final advice, she looked at the Nissvartha
Thyaga murtis - voluntary renounces, who bubbling with inexplicable ethereal joy
showed willingness by their looks to jump into Agnigunda at the wink of her eye.
Paying homage to the assembled with folded hands, she plunged into the fire-pit,
issuing out sizzling tongues of flame and rising high copiously to touch the sky
to communicate to gods her glory as it were. At once the other elderly couple
awaiting that auspicious moment jumped into their respective fire-pits with
faces wreathed in smiles. "Hail Vasavamba hail, long live Jaganmata
live
long!" Sounds bursting out from the throats of the onlookers rent the
skies.
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