Vishnupurana 2.13.26

2.13.26

prītaye mama jātosau kva mamaiṇakabālakaḥ /
viṣāmāgroṇa madbāhuṃ kaṇḍūyanaparo hi saḥ /
kṣemeṇābhyāgatoraṇyādapi māṃ sukhayiṣyati //

Whilst the deer was thus the inmate of his hermitage, the mind of the king was ever anxious about the animal, now wandering away, and now returning to his side, and he was unable to think of anything else. He had relinquished his kingdom, his children, all his friends, and now indulged in selfish affection for a fawn. When absent for a longer time than ordinary, he would fancy that it had been carried off by wolves, devoured by a tiger, or slain by a lion. "The earth," he would exclaim, "is embrowned by the impressions of its hoofs. What has become of the young deer, that was born for my delight? How happy I should be if he had returned from the thicket, and I felt his budding antlers rubbing against my arm. These tufts of sacred grass, of which the heads have been nibbled by his new teeth, look like pious lads chanting the Sáma-veda." Thus the Muni meditated whenever the deer was long absent from him; and contemplated him with a countenance animated with pleasure as he stood by his side. His abstraction was interrupted, the spirit of the king being engrossed by the fawn, even though he had abandoned family, wealth, and dominion. The firmness of the prince's mind became unsteady, and wandered with the wanderings of the young deer. In the course of time the king became subject to its influence. He died, watched by the deer, with tears in its eyes, like a son mourning for his father; and he himself, as he expired, cast his eyes upon the animal, and thought of nothing else, being wholly occupied with one idea.