The Drought on Brahmagiri

The Brahma Purāṇa, one of the old books of sacred story, tells another story of Gautama, from the time when he lived on Brahmagiri, the mountain where Brahmā had once sacrificed.

Once there was a drought on the earth that lasted twenty-four years, and everything that moves and does not move was perishing. Only Gautama's holy hermitage was spared. In it there was no sickness, no famine, no want of rain, no fear or grief or poverty. Nowhere else were offerings made to the gods and ancestors, and in the world of the gods and in the world of men alike, Gautama alone was known as the one who offered, who gave and who received.

When the sages of all the other hermitages heard of it, they came to Gautama's hermitage, and he cared for them all as if they were his pupils and his sons, and fed them like a father. He served each of them as each needed. At his command the plants that are the mothers of the world grew, and were sown and reaped by the power of his austerity, and every wish was fulfilled. Every day he asked the sages humbly, like a son, like a pupil, like a servant, What can I do for you? And so he fed them for many years.