DEFEAT OF THE DEMONS.
Argument. The Demons elated with the pride of their bodily strength,
are at last foiled and put to flight by the gods.
Vasishtha continued:—In this manner, the energetic and murderous
Asuras, repeated their attacks and waged many wars with the gods.
2. They carried on their warfare sometimes by fraud and often by their
aggressiveness; and frequently after a truce or open war was made with
the gods. They sometimes took themselves to flight, and having
recruited their strength, they met again in the open field; and at
others they lay in ambush, and concealed themselves in their
subterranean caves.
3. Thus they waged their battle for five and thirty years against the
celestials, by repeatedly flying and withdrawing themselves from the
field, and then reappearing in it with their arms.
4. They fought again for five years, eight months and ten days, darting
their fire arms, trees and stones and thunders upon the gods.
5. Being used to warfare for so long a period, they at last grew proud
of their superior strength and repeated successes, and entertained the
desire of their final victory.
6. Their constant practice in arms made them sure of their success, as
the nearness of objects casts their reflection in the mirror. (Constant
application makes one hopeful of success).
7. But as distant objects are never reflected in the glass, so the
desire for any thing, is never successful without intense application
to it.
8. So when the desires of the demons Dáma and others, became identified
with their selves, their souls were degraded from their greatness, and
confined to the belief of the desired objects.
9. All worldly desires lead to erroneous expectations, and those that
are entangled in the snares of their expectations, are thereby reduced
to the meanness of their spirits.
10. Falling into the errors of egotism and selfishness, they were led
to the blunder of _mei tatem_ or thinking these things as mine; just as
a man mistakes a rope for a snake.
11. Being reduced to the depravity of selfishness, they began to think
their personalities to consist in their bodies, and to reflect how
their bodies from the head to foot could be safe and secure from harm.
12. They lost their patience by continually thinking on the stability
of their bodies, and their properties and pleasures of life. (_i.e._
The eager desire of worldly gain and good, grows into impatience at
last).
13. Desire of their enjoyments, diminished their strength and valour;
and their former acts of gallantry now became a dead letter to them.
14. They thought only how to become lords of the earth, and thus became
lazy and enervated, as lotus-flowers without water. (As the thought of
grandeur enervated the Romans to impotence).
15. Their pride and egoism led their inclination to the pleasures of
good eating and drinking, and to the possession of every worldly good.
(Luxury is the bane of valour).
16. They began to hesitate in joining the warfare, and became as timid
as the timorous deer, to encounter the furious elephants in their
ravages of the forest.
17. They moved slowly in despair of their victory, and for fear of
losing their lives, in their encounter with the furious elephants (of
the gods) in the field.
18. These cowards wishing to preserve their bodies from the hands of
death, became as powerless as to rest satisfied with having the feet of
their enemies set up on their heads. (_i.e._ They fell at the feet of
their foes to spare their lives; (as they say; that cowards die many
times before their death)).
19. Thus these enervated demons, were as disabled to kill the enemy
standing before them; as the fire is unable to consume the sacred
_ghee_ offering, when it is not kindled by its fuel.
20. They became as gnats before the aggressive gods, and stood with
their bruised bodies like beaten soldiers.
21. What needs saying more, than that the demons being overpowered by
the gods, fled away from the field of battle for fear of their lives.
22. When the demons Dáma, Vyála, Kata and others, who were renounced
before the gods in their prowess, fled cowardly in different ways:—
23. The force of the Daityas, fell before the deities, and fled from
the air on all sides, like the falling stars of heaven, at the end of a
kalpa age or last day (of judgment).
24. They fell upon the summits of mountains, and in the arbours of the
Sumeru range; some were enwrapt in the folds of the clouds above, and
others fell on the banks of distant seas below.
25. Many fell in the cavities of the eddies of seas, and in the abyss
of the ocean, and in the running streams; some fell into far distant
forests, and others dropped down amidst the burning woods of wild fire.
26. Some being pierced by the arrows of the celestials, fell in distant
countries, villages and cities on earth; and others were hurled in
thick jungles of wild beasts, and in sandy deserts and in wild
conflagrations. (_i.e._ The demons were hurled down by the gods from
high heaven to the earth below).
27. Many fell in the polar regions, some alighting on the mountain
tops, and others sinking in the lakes below; while several of them were
tossed over the countries of Ándhra, Dravida, Kashmir and Persia.
28. Some sank in billowy seas and in the watery maze of Ganges, and
others fell on distant islands, in different parts of the Jambudwípa,
and in the nets of fisher-men.
29. Thus the enemies of the gods, lay everywhere with their mountainous
bodies, all full of scars from head to foot; and maimed in their hands
and arms.
30. Some were hanging on the branches of trees, by their outstretched
entrails, gushing out with blood; others with their cropt off crowns
and heads, were lying on the ground with open and fiery eyes.
31. Many were lying with their broken armours and weapons, slashed by
the superior power of the adversary, and with their robes and attires
all dismantled and torn by their fall.
32. Their helmets which were terrific by their blaze, were hanging down
their necks; and the braids of their hairs woven with stones, hung
loosely about their bodies.
33. Their heads which were covered with hard brazen and pointed
coronets, were broken by slabs of stone, which were pelted upon them
from the hands of the gods.
34. In this manner the demons were destroyed on all sides, together
with all weapons at the end of the battle; which devoured them, as the
sea water dissolves the dust.