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30.AGASTYA
Agastya said that no doubt that was so,
but, if he spent his austerities in gaining
things of such little moment as riches,
they would soon dwindle to nothing.
She replied: "I do not wish that. What I
desire is that you should earn in the
ordinary way sufficient wealth for us to
live in ease and comfort."
Agastya consented and set out as an
ordinary brahmana to beg of various
kings. Agastya went to a king who was
reputed to be very wealthy. The sage told
the king: "I have come in quest of wealth.
Give me what I seek, without causing any
loss or injury to others."
The king presented a true picture of the
income and expenditure of the State and
told him he was free to take what he
deemed fit. The sage found from the
accounts that there was no balance left.
The expenditure of a State turns out
always to be at least equal to its income.
This seems to have been the case in
ancient times also.
Seeing this, Agastya said: "To accept any
gift from this king, will be a hardship to
the citizens. So, I shall seek elsewhere,"
and the sage was about to leave. The king
said that he would also accompany him
and both of them went to another State
where also they found the same state of
affairs.
Vyasa thus lays down and illustrates the
maxim that a king should not tax his
subjects more than necessary for rightful
public expenditure and that if one accepts
as gift anything from the public revenues,
one adds to the burden of the subjects to
that extent.
Agastya thought he had better go to the
wicked asura Ilvala and try his luck.
Ilvala and his brother Vatapi cherished an
implacable hatred towards brahmanas.
They had curious plan for killing them.
Ilvala would, with effective hospitality,
invite a brahmana to a feast.
By the power of his magic he would
transform his brother Vatapi into a goat
and he would kill this pseudo-goat for
food and serve its meat to the guest. In
those days, the brahmanas used to eat
meat. The feast over, Ilvala would invoke
his brother Vatapi to come out, for he had
the art of bringing back to life those
whom he had killed.
And Vatapi, who as food had entered the
vitals of the unlucky brahmana, would
spring up sound and whole and rend his
way out with fiendish laughter, of course
killing the guest in doing so.
In this manner, many brahmanas had died.
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