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99.ENVY
The king of the gods could not believe the
story. "Agni, you burn up other things in
the world. How can anything burn you?
What is this story of Samvarta’s angry
eyes reducing you to ashes?"'
"Not so, king of the gods," said Agni.
"Brahmic power and the potency born of
brahmacharya are not unknown to you."
Agni thus reminded Indra of what the
latter had suffered; incurring the wrath of
those whom had attained Brahmic power.
Indra did not wrangle but called a
Gandharva had said: "Now, Agni has
failed. I want you to go as my messenger
and ask Marutta to give up Samvarta. Tell
him that if he does not, he will incur my
wrath and be destroyed."
The Gandharva went accordingly to king
Marutta and faithfully conveyed Indra's
message and warning.
The king would not listen. "I cannot be
guilty of the deadly sin of deserting a
trusting friend," said the king: "I cannot
give up Samvarta."
The Gandharva said: "O king, how can
you survive, when Indra hurls his bolt at
you?"
Even as he said this, the clouds above
thundered and everyone knew that the god
of the thunderbolt was coming, and
trembled in fear.
The king was in great fear and entreated
Samvarta to save him.
"Fear not," said Samvarta to the king, and
he proceeded to put the power of his
penance into action.
Indra, who had come to do battle, was
compelled to change over to benevolent
peace and to take part in the yajna as the
radiant god of sacrifices. He received the
burnt offering in proper form and retired.
Brihaspati's plan of envy failed miserably.
Brahmacharya triumphed. Envy is a
deadly sin. It is a universal disease. If
Brihaspati who could defeat the goddess
of knowledge herself in learning became a
victim to envy, what is there to say about
ordinary mortals?
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