ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 11.15

11.15

there’s life yet in your body, you should be making money. You can endear yourself to your wife later.’

“So the householder arranged to have the young man sent to another country on business. The young man loaded up the camels, donkeys, and the rest of the animals, and ranged over vast, isolated distances through the villages, cities, and forest settlements of that enormous country. After arriving in some remote place, he sat facing the direction of his wife, like freshly cut green grass that is left to wither, and asked himself, ‘How might I visit with her quickly?’ And so he sat there, reflecting on how he might do this.

“Now at that time in a mountain village there lived a certain man who was very skilled in the art of woodworking and knew how to make a garuḍa carving that could fly through the sky. When the young man heard about him, right away he thought, ‘I’ve found a way to get to her!’ He went to the artisan and said, ‘Sir, give me this garuḍa carving and I shall give you five hundred gold coins.’

“ ‘I wouldn’t feel right giving it to you for good,’ said the man. ‘You can come here every day to get it. Then return and bring it back to me.’

“ ‘As you wish,’ the young man replied.

“The man carved the garuḍa, taught the young man how to travel with it and how to return, and then gave it to him. The young man mounted it and traveled back to his house, where he would visit his wife, they would enjoy themselves happily, and then he would return to the mountain village.

“This continued until one day his wife conceived, but after nine or ten months had passed and the time came for her to give birth, the artisan had left for another province, so the young man could not get home anymore. Moreover, the girl’s two in-laws began to accuse her of adultery,⁹⁸ saying, ‘How could you commit such a crime?’

“ ‘This was my husband’s doing,’ she replied.

“ ‘It’s been many years now since our son went away,” the householder responded. “How could he have done this?’