The Brahmarṣi

Viśvāmitra left the northern mountains for the east and took a vow of silence for a thousand years. He stood as still as a post, and many things tried to shake him, and anger found no way in. When the thousand years were over and he sat down at last to eat, Indra came in the form of a brahmin and begged for his food. Viśvāmitra gave him all of it, and kept his silence, and spoke not a word, and went without. Then for another thousand years he did not breathe, and smoke rose from his head until the three worlds seemed to be on fire.

The gods and the gandharvas, the serpents and the rākṣasas lost their brightness, and went to Brahmā. Viśvāmitra has been tempted and angered in many ways, they said, and he only grows greater by his austerity. There is no flaw left in him. If his wish is not granted he will destroy the three worlds. The quarters are dark, the seas are troubled, the mountains are breaking, the sun has lost its light. Give him what he wants before he makes up his mind to destroy everything.

Then all the gods with Brahmā at their head came to Viśvāmitra and said, Welcome, brahmarṣi. We are well pleased with your austerity. By your fierce austerity you have become a brahmin. We give you long life. Go in peace.

Viśvāmitra bowed and answered them gladly. If I have become a brahmin, and have long life too, then let the syllable Om and the call of vaṣaṭ and the Vedas choose me. And let Vasiṣṭha, Brahmā's son, best of those who know the Veda of the kṣatriya and the Veda of Brahman, say so to me. If this, my highest wish, is granted, then go, best of the gods. Om, the holy syllable, and vaṣaṭ, the call that sends an offering to the gods, belong to a brahmin's rites; he asked that they and the Vedas should own him as a brahmin, and that Vasiṣṭha, master of the warrior's learning and the priest's, should say so.

So the gods went to Vasiṣṭha and won him over, and Vasiṣṭha made friends with Viśvāmitra and said, So be it. You are a brahmarṣi; there is no doubt of it. Everything will be fulfilled for you. Then the gods went back the way they had come, and Viśvāmitra, having won the highest state of a brahmin, honoured Vasiṣṭha, the best of those who pray. His wish fulfilled, he went about the whole earth, still devoted to austerity.