The Garland
Once, as he wandered, Durvāsa saw a heavenly garland of santānaka flowers in the hand of a woman of the vidyādharas, the beings of the sky, so fragrant that the whole forest was filled with its scent. He asked her for it, and she bowed to him and gave it with respect. He put it on his head and went on wandering the earth.
Then he saw Indra, lord of the three worlds, coming towards him on his elephant Airāvata, with the gods. Durvāsa took the garland, with the bees still humming over it, from his own head and threw it to the king of the gods, like a madman. Indra caught it and set it on Airāvata's head, where it shone like the Gaṅgā on the peak of Kailāsa. But the elephant, drawn by the scent, smelled it with his trunk and threw it to the ground.
The great sage Durvāsa was angry and said to Indra: You are drunk with your power, Indra, and too proud. I gave you this garland, the home of fortune, and you did not welcome it. You did not bow and say, This is a blessing; you did not put it on your head with a glad face. Because you have thrown to the ground the garland I gave you, the three worlds will lose their fortune. You must think I am like any other brahmin, and so you insult me in your pride, me, at whose anger all that moves and does not move is afraid.
Indra came down quickly from his elephant and tried to soothe the sage, bowing before him. But Durvāsa said: I am not tender-hearted, and forgiveness is not in me. Other sages are like that, Indra; know that I am Durvāsa. Gautama and the others have made you proud for nothing, and Vasiṣṭha and the rest, who are all kindness, have sung your praises aloud, until now you insult even me. Who in the three worlds is not afraid when he sees my face, frowning under my blazing matted hair? I will not forgive you. Why say more? And he went away, and Indra mounted Airāvata again and went back to Amarāvatī.
From that time the three worlds, and Indra with them, lost their fortune. Plants and herbs withered. No one sacrificed, ascetics did no austerity, and no one cared for giving. All the worlds grew weak, their senses struck by greed. Then the demons made war on the gods, who had lost their fortune and their strength, and defeated them, and the gods went to Brahmā for refuge, and Brahmā led them to Viṣṇu, who told them to churn the ocean of milk. They churned it, and out of it rose Śrī, the goddess of fortune, and went to Viṣṇu's breast, and the three worlds and Indra had their fortune again.