The Mahabharata/Book 1: Adi Parva/Section 182

Section CLXXXII. ( Chaitra-ratha Parva continued. )

"The Gandharva said, 'Vashishta after this continued the narration, saying,—Hearing these words of the Pitris, Aurva, O child, replied unto them to this effect:—

Ye Pitris, the vow I have made from anger for the destruction of all the worlds, must not be in vain! I cannot consent to be one whose anger and vows are futile! Like fire consuming dry wood, this rage of mine will certainly consume me if I do not accomplish my vow! The man that represseth his wrath that hath been excited by (adequate) cause, becometh incapable of duly compassing the three ends of life (viz, religion, profit, and pleasure). The wrath that kings desirous of subjugating the whole earth exhibit is not without its uses. It serveth to restrain the wicked and to protect the honest. While lying unborn within my mother's thigh, I heard the doleful cries of my mother and the other women of the Bhrigu race that was then being exterminated by the Kshatriyas. Ye Pitris, when those wretches of Kshatriyas began to exterminate the Bhrigus together with the unborn children of their race, it was then that wrath filled my soul! My mother and the other women of our race, each in a state of advanced pregnancy, and my fathers, while terribly alarmed, found not in all the worlds a single protector! Then when the Bhrigu women found not a single protector, my mother held me in one of her thighs! If there be a punisher of crimes in the worlds, no one in all the worlds would dare comit a crime. If sin findeth not a punisher the number of sinners becometh large. The man who having the power to prevent or punish sin doth not do so knowing that a sin hath been commited, is himself defiled by that sin. When kings and others, capable of protecting my fathers, protected them not, postponing that duty to the pleasures of life, I have just cause to be enraged with them! I am the lord of the creation (capable of punishing its iniquity)! I am incapable of obeying your command! Capable as I am of punishing this crime, if I abstain from doing so, men will once more have to undergo a similar persecution! The fire of my wrath too that is ready to consume the worlds, if repressed will certainly consume, by its own energy, my own self! Ye masters, I know that ye ever seek the good of the worlds. Direct me therefore as to what may benefit both myself and the worlds!

'Vashishta continued,—The Pitris replied, saying,

O throw this fire that is born of thy wrath and that desireth to consume the worlds, into the waters. That will do thee good. The worlds, indeed, are all dependent on water (as their elementary cause). Every juicy substance containeth water: indeed, the whole universe is made of water. Therefore, O thou best of Brahmanas, cast this fire of thy wrath into the waters. If, therefore, thou desirest it, O Brahmana, let this fire born of thy wrath abide in the great ocean, consuming the waters thereof, for it hath been said that the worlds are made of water. In this way, O thou sinless one, thy word will be rendered true, and the worlds with the gods will not be destroyed!—

'Vashishta continued,—Then, O child, Aurvya cast the fire of his wrath into the abode of Varuna. And that fire consumeth the waters of the great ocean. And that fire became like unto a large horse's head which persons conversant with the Vedas call by the name of Vadavā-mukha. And emitting itself from that mouth it consumeth the water of the mighty ocean! Blest be thou! It behoveth not thee, therefore, to destroy the worlds, O Parāshara, thou who art acquainted with the higher regions, thou foremost of wise men!—'"

Thus ends the hundred and eighty-second Section in the Chaitra-ratha of the Adi Parva.