Yavakrīta's Austerity

Bharadvāja and the sage Raibhya were friends, and they lived in the forest, each very fond of the other. Raibhya had two sons, Arvāvasu and Parāvasu, and Bharadvāja's son was Yavakrīta. Raibhya and his sons were learned; Bharadvāja was given to austerity. The two old friends loved each other beyond compare, as they had since boyhood.

But Yavakrīta saw that brahmins honoured Raibhya and his sons, and did not honour his father the ascetic, and he burned with resentment. He undertook a terrible austerity to win knowledge of the Veda, heating his body over a great blazing fire, until Indra himself felt the heat of it.

Indra came to him and asked why he was doing it. So that the Vedas may shine forth in brahmins without their ever having studied them, said Yavakrīta. It takes a long time to learn the Vedas from a teacher's mouth. That is why I have set myself to this.

That is no road to take, said Indra. Why destroy yourself? Go and learn from a teacher's mouth. And he went away. But Yavakrīta went on, harder than before, and Indra came again and warned him. Then Yavakrīta said, If you do not give me what I ask, I will cut off my limbs one by one and offer them into the fire.

So Indra took the form of an old brahmin ascetic, hundreds of years old, weak and consumptive, and went to the place on the Gaṅgā where Yavakrīta bathed, and began throwing sand into the river, handful after handful, as if to build a dam across it. Yavakrīta laughed when he saw him. What are you doing, brahmin? he said. It is a great deal of work for nothing.

I will dam the Gaṅgā, said the old man, and there will be an easy way across. People suffer, having to cross over and over again.

You can never dam that great flood, said Yavakrīta. Leave what cannot be done, and take up something that can.

Your austerity for the Vedas is just like this, said Indra. You have taken up something that cannot be done, and so have I.

Then Yavakrīta said, If you think my work is as useless as yours, lord of the gods, then do what can be done, and give me boons, so that I may surpass others. And Indra granted him what he asked: the Vedas would shine forth in him and in his father, as he wished, and whatever else he longed for would be his too. Go now, Yavakrīta, he said.