The Goat's Beard

The gods, beaten and broken, went with the priests and the gathering to Brahmā and told him everything. Brahmā and Viṣṇu had known of it beforehand, and neither had gone to that sacrifice. Those who wrong one mightier than themselves, Brahmā said, seldom come off safely, if they wish to live. Still, you have done wrong; you shut Bhava out of his share of the offering. Go and win him over with a pure heart, for he is quickly pleased. Take hold of his feet. When he is angry, the world and its guardians cannot stand; so if you want the sacrifice to live, go quickly and ask his pardon, for he has lost his beloved and been wounded to the heart by cruel words. Neither I nor the sacrifice nor you nor the sages know what he truly is, or the measure of his strength.

So Brahmā went with the gods and the fathers and the lords of creatures to Kailāsa, best of mountains, dear to Śiva. There beneath a great banyan they found him seated, absorbed in the peace of Brahman, teaching the eternal Brahman to Nārada while the good sat and listened. The gods and the sages bowed to him with folded hands. When he saw the self-born Brahmā come, Śiva, whose feet the lords of the gods and the demons honour, rose and bowed his head to him, worthy of honour though he is above all. Then Brahmā smiled and spoke to him:

I know you as the Lord of all: Lord of the womb and the seed of this world; you are the highest, that Brahman in which there is no break. You alone send out this world and keep it and take it back, playing as a spider plays with its thread. You sent out the sacrifice, with Dakṣa for your thread, so that dharma and wealth might be milked from it, and by you the bounds of the world are set, which brahmins true to their vows hold in faith. For the doer of good you spread out his world, heaven or what lies beyond it, and for the doer of evil a thick darkness. Anger does not overcome the good, who have given themselves to your feet and see you in all beings, as it overcomes a beast. Those who see things as separate, who see nothing but rites, whose hearts ache day and night at another's rise, wound others with cruel words; one like you should not kill them, for heaven has already struck them down. Your mind is untouched by the endless illusion of the supreme Person, and you see the whole. Lord, show grace to those whom that illusion has struck down.

Then he asked him: Raise up again Dakṣa's sacrifice, which you struck down, for the sacrificers kept back your share. Let the sacrificer live, let Bhaga have his eyes, let Bhṛgu's beard grow again and Pūṣan's teeth be as they were, and let the gods and priests whose limbs were broken be whole. Let whatever is left of the offering be your share.

Śiva was pleased, and he laughed and said: I do not speak of the wrong done by children overcome by the divine illusion, nor do I brood on it. I only held the rod over them. Let Dakṣa, whose head was burned, have a head with a goat's face. Let Bhaga see his share through Mitra's eye. Let Pūṣan chew with the sacrificer's teeth, or else eat ground meal. Let the gods who gave me the leavings be whole in every limb, and let the priests have arms from the Aśvins and hands from Pūṣan. And let Bhṛgu wear a goat's beard. And all beings, hearing the gracious god, said, Well done, well done.

They went back to the place of sacrifice with Śiva and Brahmā, and did all that Śiva had said. They joined to Dakṣa's body the head of the beast set aside for the offering, and with Śiva's eyes upon him Dakṣa rose as if from sleep and saw Śiva standing before him. His heart, muddied with hatred, became clear as a lake in autumn, and he tried to praise Śiva and could not for love, remembering his dead daughter through his tears; and then he praised him with a heart that had nothing false in it, and asked his pardon, and went on with the rite.

As the cake was offered to Viṣṇu, Viṣṇu himself appeared, carried on Garuḍa, his own light filling the ten directions and dimming theirs, and all the gods, with Brahmā and Indra and the three-eyed Śiva at their head, rose at once and bowed to him, and praised him as far as each could understand. And Bhṛgu said: Brahmā and all who wear bodies, their knowledge of the self stolen by your deep illusion, lie asleep in the dark, and even now they do not know your truth, which rests in the self. Be gracious, you who are kin to all who bow to you.

Then Viṣṇu said to Dakṣa: I and Brahmā and Śiva are the highest cause of the world. In that one Brahman, without a second, only the ignorant see Brahmā and Rudra and all beings as separate. As a man never thinks his own head or hands belong to someone else, so the one devoted to me sees all beings. Whoever sees no division among the three, who are one in being and the self of all beings, comes to peace. So Dakṣa worshipped Viṣṇu with his sacrifice, and gave Rudra his own share, and brought the rite to its close.

And Satī, who had left her body at her father's sacrifice, was born again to Menā, the wife of the mountain Himavat, and chose that same beloved Śiva for her husband once more.