Section CCXXVII

"'"Vali said, 'When calamities have oppressed me, O Sakra, what dost thou gain by such brag now? Today I behold thee, O Purandara, stand before me with the thunderbolt upraised in thy hand! Formerly, however, thou couldst not bear thyself so. Now thou hast by some means gained that power. Indeed, who else than thou could utter such cruel speeches? That person who, though able to punish, shows compassion towards a heroic foe vanquished and brought under his sway, is truly a very superior individual. When two persons fight, victory in the battle is certainly dubious. One of the two certainly becomes victorious, and the other becomes vanquished. O chief of the deities, let not thy disposition be such! Do not imagine that thou hast become the sovereign of all creatures after having conquered all with thy might and prowess! That we have become so is not, O Sakra, the result of any act of ours. That thou hast become so, O wielder of the thunderbolt, is not the result of any act of thine. What I am now thou wilt be in the future. Do not disregard me, thinking that thou hast done an exceedingly difficult feat. A person obtains happiness and misery one after another in course of Time. Thou hast, O Sakra, obtained the sovereignty of the universe in course of Time but not in consequence of any especial merit in thee. It is Time that leads me on in his course. That same Time leads thee also onward. It is for this that I am not what thou art today, and thou also art not what we are! Dutiful services done to parents, reverential worship of deities, due practice of any good quality,--none of these can bestow happiness on any one. Neither knowledge, nor penances, nor gifts, nor friends, nor kinsmen can rescue one that is afflicted by Time. Men are incapable of averting, by even a thousand means, an impending calamity. Intelligence and strength go for nothing in such cases. There is no rescuer of men that are afflicted by Time's course. That thou, O Sakra, regarded thyself as the actor lies at the root of all sorrow. If the ostensible doer of an act is the real actor thereof, that doer then would not himself be the work of some one else (viz., the Supreme Being). Hence, because the ostensible doer is himself the product of another, that another is the Supreme Being above whom there is nothing higher. Aided by Time I had vanquished thee. Aided by Time thou hast vanquished me. It is Time that is the mover of all beings that move. It is Time that destroys all beings. O Indra, in consequence of thy intelligence being of the vulgar species thou seest not that destruction awaits all things. Some, indeed, regard thee highly as one that has acquired by his own acts the sovereignty of the universe. For all that, how can one like us that know the course of the world, indulge in grief in consequence of having been afflicted by Time, or suffer our understanding to be stupefied, or yield to the influence of error? Shall my understanding or that of one like me, even when we are overwhelmed by Time, coming in contact with a calamity, suffer itself to be destroyed like a wrecked vessel at sea? Myself, thyself, and all those who will in future become the chiefs of the deities, shall have, O Sakra, to go the way along which hundreds of Indras have gone before thee. When thy hour matures itself, Time will surely destroy thee like me,--thee that art now so invincible and that now blazest with unrivalled splendour. In Time's course many thousands of Indras and of deities have been swept off yuga after yuga. Time, indeed, is irresistible. Having attained to thy present position, thou regardest thyself very highly, even as the Creator of all beings, the divine and eternal Brahman. This position of thine had been attained by many before thee. With none did it prove stable or unending. In consequence, however, of a foolish understanding, thou alone regardest it to be immutable and eternal. Thou trustest in that which is not deserving of trust. Thou deemest that to be eternal which is not eternal. O chief of the deities, one that is overwhelmed and stupefied by Time really regards oneself after this manner. Led by folly thou regardest thy present regal prosperity to be thine. Know, however, that it is never stable in respect of either thee or me or others. It had belonged to innumerable persons before thee. Passing over them, it has now become thine. It will stay with thee, O Vasava, for some time and then prove its instability. Like a cow abandoning one drinking ditch for another, it will surely desert thee for somebody else. So many sovereigns have gone before thee that I venture not to make an enumeration. In the future also, O Purandara, innumerable sovereigns will rise after thee. I do not behold those rulers now that had formerly enjoyed this earth with her trees and plants and gems and living creatures and waters and mines. Prithu, Aila, Maya, Bhima, Naraka, Samvara, Aswagriva, Puloman, Swarbhanu, whose standard was of immeasurable height, Prahlada, Namuchi, Daksha, Vipprachitti, Virochana, Hrinisheva, Suhotra, Bhurihan, Pushavat, Vrisha, Satyepsu, Rishava, Vahu, Kapilaswa, Virupaka, Vana, Kartaswara, Vahni, Viswadanshtra, Nairiti, Sankocha, Varitaksha, Varaha, Aswa, Ruchiprabha, Viswajit, Pratirupa, Vrishanda, Vishkara, Madhu, Hiranyakasipu, the Danava Kaitabha, and many others that were Daityas and Danavas and Rakshasas, these and many more unnamed, belonging to remote and remoter ages, great Daityas and foremost of Danavas, whose names we have heard,--indeed, many foremost of Daityas of former times,--having gone away, leaving the Earth. All of them were afflicted by Time. Time proved stronger than all of them. All of them had worshipped the Creator in hundreds of sacrifices. Thou art not the one person that hast done so. All of them were devoted to righteousness and all of them always performed great sacrifices. All of them were capable of roaming through the skies, and all were heroes that never showed their backs in battle. All of them had very strong frames and all had arms that resembled heavy bludgeons. All of them were masters of hundreds of illusions, and all could assume any form they wished. We have never heard that having engaged themselves in battle any of them had ever sustained a defeat. All were firm observers of the vow of truth, and all of them sported as they wished. Devoted to the Vedas and Vedic rites, all of them were possessors of great learning. Possessed of great might, all of them had acquired the highest prosperity and affluence. But none of those high-souled sovereigns had the least tincture of pride in consequence of sovereignty. All of them were liberal, giving unto each what each deserved. All of them behaved properly and duly towards all creatures. All of them were the offspring of Daksha's daughters. Endued with great strength, all were lords of the creation. Scorching all things with the energy all of them blazed with splendour. Yet all of them were swept off by time. As regards thee, O Sakra, it is evident that when thou shalt have, after enjoying the earth, to leave her, thou wilt not be able to control thy grief. Cast off this desire that thou cherishest for objects of affection and enjoyment. Cast off this pride that is born of prosperity. If thou actest in this manner, thou wilt then be able to bear the grief that attends the loss of sovereignty. When the hour of sorrow comes, do not yield to sorrow. Similarly, when the hour of joy comes, do not rejoice. Disregarding both the past and the future, live contentedly with the present. When Time that never sleeps came upon me that had always been heedful of my duties, turn thy heart to the ways of peace, O Indra, for that same Time will very soon come over thee! Thou piercest me with thy words, and thou seemest to be bent upon inspiring dread in me. Indeed, finding me collected, thou regardest thy own self very highly. Time had first assailed me. It is even now behind thee. I was at first vanquished by Time. It was for that reason that thou didst afterwards succeed in vanquishing me for which thou roarest in pride thus. Formerly, when I happened to become angry, what person was there on earth that could stand before me in battle? Time, however, is stronger. He has overwhelmed me. It is for this reason, O Vasava, that thou art able to stand before me! Those thousand (celestial years), that are the measure of thy sway, will surely come to an end. Thou shalt then fall and thy limbs will become as miserable as mine now even though I am possessed of mighty energy. I have fallen away from the high place that is occupied by the sovereign of the three worlds. Thou art now the actual Indra in heaven. In this delightful world of living beings, thou art now, in consequence of Time's course, an object of universal adoration. Canst thou say what is that by having done which thou hast become Indra today and what also is that by having done which we have fallen off from the position we had? Time is the one creator and destroyer. Nothing else is cause (in the universe for the production of any effect). Decline, fall, sovereignty, happiness, misery, birth and death,--a learned person by encountering any of these neither rejoices nor indulges in sorrow. Thou, O Indra, knowest us. We also, O Vasava, know thee. Why then dost thou brag in this fashion before me, forgetting, O shameless one, that it is Time that hath made thee what thou art? Thou didst thyself witness what my prowess was in those days. The energy and might I used to display in all my battles, furnish sufficient evidence. The Adityas, the Rudras, the Sadhyas, the Vasus, and the Maruts, O lord of Sachi, were all vanquished by me. Thou knowest it well thyself, O Sakra, that in the great encounter between the gods and the Asuras, the assembled deities were quickly routed by me by the fury of my attack. Mountains with their forests and the denizens that lived in those forests, were repeatedly hurled by us. Many were the mountain summits with craggy edges that I broke on thy head. What, however, can I do now? Time is incapable of being resisted. If it were not so, do not think that I would not have ventured to kill thee with that thunderbolt of thine with even a blow of my fist. The present, however, is not the hour with me for the display of prowess. The hour that hath come is such that I should adopt tranquillity now and tolerate everything. It is for this reason, O Sakra, that I put up with all this insolence of thine. Know, however, that I am less able to bear insolence than even thou. Thou braggest before one who, upon his time having matured, is surrounded on all sides by Time's conflagration and bound strongly in Time's cords. Yonder stands that dark individual who is incapable of being resisted by the world. Of fierce form, he stands there, having bound me like an inferior animal bound with cords. Gain and loss, happiness and misery, lust and wrath, birth and death, captivity and release,--these all one encounters in Time's course. I am not the actor. Thou art not the actor. He is the actor who, indeed, is omnipotent. That Time ripens me (for throwing me down) like a fruit that has appeared on a tree. There are certain acts by doing which one person obtains happiness in Time's course. By doing those very acts another obtains misery in the course of Time. Versed as I am with the virtues of Time, it behoves me not to indulge in grief when it is Time that has assailed me. It is for this reason, O Sakra, that I do not grieve. Grief cannot do us any good. The grief of one that indulges in grief never dispels one's calamity. On the other hand, grief destroys one's power. It is for this that I do not indulge in grief.'

"'"Thus addressed by the chief of the Daityas, he of a hundred sacrifices, viz., the puissant and thousand-eyed chastiser of Paka, restrained his wrath and said these words.