srimadbhagavatham skandha6

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Slaying of Vrthra by Indra.

Once Indra showed disrespect to Brhaspati due to

the arrogance of his wealth the devaguru and he left the sabha and disappeared.

Indra regretting his action searched for Brhaspathi but could not find him.

Without the aacharya anugraha the devaloka lost its lustre and the devas were

easily defeated by the asuras. Indra lost his kingdom and appealed to Brahma who told him to ask Visvaroopa the son

of Thvashta to act as their guru. Thvashta was one of the twelve aadhithyas

born to Adhithi and Kasyapa. But he married Racana who was the sister of the

asuras. Visvaroopa was the son of Thvashta and racana and was well versed in

Vedas. When Indra asked him he accepted to be their guru, even though he said,

his brahma thejas would be dimmed by doing the work of a purohith, because the

devas were like his fathers, and instructed Indra with Narayanakavacha to

protect him from his enemies. Through the power of the Narayana kavacha Indra

got back his kingdom.

Then Visvaroopa performed a sacrifice and gave the offerings to the devas calling

them by names but he also offered it secretly to the asuras who were his

uncles. Indra came to know this and severed the three heads Visravas had. Thvashta

angered by this did a homa to create a son who would kill Indra with the

manthra indhraSSathro vivrDhasva,maa

chiram jahi vidhvisham, "oh enemy of

Indra grow and kill the enemy soon." But due to his agitation he pronounced the

manthra with a wrong accent. Giving the

accent on the letter dhra in Indhra it became a bahuvreehi compound

meaning indhraH SathruH yasya, the one

to whom Indra is the enemy instead of giving the accent on thruH of the word sathruh,

which would have been a thathpurusha compound meaning Indhrasya SathruH, the

enemy of Indhra.

AS a result of the homa Vrthrasura rose from the

fire, fierce looking and the devas became afraid and resorted to Lord Vishnu

for protection He advised them to pray the sage dhaDheechi to give them his

backbone and make a weapon out of it strong like vajra. Sage dhaDheechi gave up

his sareera which, he said, had to be

given up sometime in any case, and the Indra made vajrayudha from his bones.

There ensued a fierce battle between the devas and

asuras. This happened in the beginning of Threthayuga. Vrthra abused the devas saying that they were

killers of guru, brother and one of brahmathejas, meaning the killing of

Visvaroopa by Indra.

Then he said the Lord Vishnu would not give riches

to His devotees lest they may swerve from the path of salvation and prayed to

the Lord that he should always be endowed with the devotion to the Lord. Indra

was surprised to see his devotion but nevertheless the two fought on and Indra

struck Vrthra with the vajrayudha which cut off his arms and Vrthra walked

towards Indra with his legs like a great mountain and swallowed Indra along

with his chariot. But since Indra was protected by the Narayana kavacha he was

unharmed and came out breaking his body with the vajrayudha and cut off his

head with it. A light came from the body of Vrthra and entered the Lord.

But Indra was affected by the brahmahatthi which

was pursuing him in the form of an old, sick and ugly female with foul odour and Indra ran away and

entered the manasa lake and lived inside the lotus stalk there for

thousand years out of sight of everyone.

Then he was released by meditation on Sathyanarayana and since he was protected

by Mahalakshmi in the manasarover he was not affected by the brahmahatthi.

In the absence of Indra, Nahusha became Indra by performing 100 aswamedha sacrifices.

But due to arrogance he wanted Sachidevi to come to him and she asked him to

come to her on a palanquin carried by the saptharshis. When they were not going

fast enough due to the gait of Agasthya, the dwarf sage, he said "sarpa sarpa,"

go fast and Agasthya cursed j him saying "sarpo bhava" and he fell down being

transformed into a serpent.

The Indra regained his kingdom and became

completely free from his sin by the aswamedha sacrifice performed n by sage

Marici and others by propitiating Yagna naraayana.