Happiness reigns supreme⁸

One day Agni, the great sage, went to his palace and ate there. Because of the curse that the sage Bhrigu had placed upon him, Agni was forced to eat all things in God’s creation, whether divine or undivine. This day at King Shwetaki’s palace, Agni voraciously ate clarified butter and then he suffered from stomach upset. He tried so many ways to cure himself, but he was not able to free himself from the pain. It was unbearable.

Agni thought to himself, “Since I am suffering so much anyway, I may as well eat everything. I don’t want to stop. How long can I go on suffering from this stomach pain?” So he started eating everything. He went into Indra’s beautiful forest, Khandava, and began eating everything in sight. Indra tried to prevent Agni from eating the animals in the forest, but Agni was so powerful that Indra could not do anything.

Krishna and Arjuna happened to be walking in the forest, and Indra went to them and begged for help. “Look, Agni is destroying my beautiful forest. He won’t allow anything here to remain. Everything is being killed and devoured by him. Now please, please help me. I cannot fight him. Agni is too powerful for me!”

Krishna and Arjuna agreed. “Give us some weapons,” they said. “We have come with nothing. If you can give us some weapons to fight Agni, we shall do it.”

Indra gave the Sudarshan Chakra — Krishna’s famous disc — to Krishna. To Arjuna he gave the famous bow called Gandhiva. After getting these most powerful instruments from Indra, Lord Krishna and Arjuna fought against Agni and finally defeated him.

Indra became very happy and said, “I am so grateful to you two. Please keep your weapons. Krishna, with your disc you will be able to conquer the world. And, Arjuna, with your bow you will be able to conquer the world.”

Indeed, in the time of the Mahabharata Arjuna used his Gandhiva, his most powerful bow, countless times. And with Sudarshan Chakra Krishna killed many undivine beings.

Agni also became happy, for the curse that he had received from Bhrigu was no longer in power. Now he could eat food that was only divine and he no longer had to eat undivine food.

So Indra was happy because his beautiful forest was not going to be disturbed any more. Arjuna and Krishna were very happy, because they received such divine weapons from Indra. And Agni was also happy that he had been defeated by them and freed from his curse. Happiness reigned supreme in everybody’s life.