01.083
Indra said.
O king, having fulfilled all your duties and having renounced household life, you have gone to the forest. Therefore, O son of Nahusha, O Yayati, I ask you: by what penance are you your equal? (01-83-1)
King Yayāti said;
O Indra, I do not see anyone among gods and men, nor among gandharvas and great sages, who is equal to myself in austerity. (01-83-2)
Indra said.
When you disregarded your equals, superiors, and even those inferior whose greatness was unknown, therefore these your worlds, having an end, have fallen today as your merit is exhausted, O king. (01-83-3)
King Yayāti said;
O king of the gods, if, because I have insulted gods, seers, gandharvas, and men, the worlds of Śakra are lost to me, then deprived of the heavenly world, I would indeed wish to fall among the virtuous. (01-83-4)
Indra said.
O king, having fallen in the presence of the virtuous and lost your standing, where you have now again regained your position—knowing this, O Yayati, do not despise your equals and those who are noble. (01-83-5)
Vaiṣampāyana said.
Then, as Yayati was falling after leaving the meritorious worlds enjoyed by the king of the immortals, the eminent royal sage Ashtaka, protector of true dharma, saw him and spoke.
Who are you, young man, having a form equal to Indra? You shine with your own radiance like fire. As you move, dispersing the darkness of lofty clouds, you outshine all who move in the sky like the sun. (01-83-7)
Having seen you falling down from the sun’s path, possessing an immeasurable brightness like that of fire and the sun, all of us, pondering what indeed this could be that is falling, were completely bewildered. (01-83-8)
Seeing you standing on the path of the gods, possessing majesty equal to Indra, the Sun, and Viṣṇu, we have all come here today to you, wishing to learn the truth about your downfall. (01-83-9)
We did not have the courage to question you at first; nor do you ask us who we are. Therefore, you with your attractive form, we ask: whose are you, and for what purpose have you come? (01-83-10)
Let your fears and the confusion of dejection depart; quickly abandon them, you who are like Indra in form. Even Indra himself, the destroyer of force, would not be able to endure you when you are here among the virtuous. (01-83-11)
Good people are truly the support of the unhappy; among the virtuous, they are ever like Indra himself. By their association, they become rulers over all things mobile and immobile; you are firmly established among your peers, among the good. (01-83-12)
Fire is powerful in burning, the earth is powerful in containing, the sun is powerful in shining, and among the virtuous, he who approaches is powerful. (01-83-13)
