Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2540
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 999

I KANDA, 6 ADHYÂYA, 3 BRAHMANA, 17. 167
14. They replied, 'What is to be our reward in that case?' He offered them that Agni-Soma cake on eleven potsherds: this is the reason why there is a cake on eleven potsherds for Agni and Soma.
15. They went over to him, and after them went forth all the gods, all the sciences, all glory, all nourishment, all prosperity: thus by offering that (cake to Agni and Soma) Indra became what Indra now is. Such then is the significance of the fullmoon offering; and he who, knowing this, performs the full-moon offering in this wise, attains to the same state of prosperity, becomes thus endowed with glory, becomes such a consumer of food (as Vritra).
16. Now Vritra, on being struck, lay contracted like a leather bottle drained of its contents, like a skin bag with the barley-meal shaken out. Indra rushed at him, meaning to slay him.
17. He said, 'Do not hurl (thy thunderbolt) at me! thou art now what I (was before). Only cut me in twain; but do not let me be annihilated!' He (Indra) said, 'Thou shalt be my food!' He replied, 'So be it!' He accordingly cut him in twain; and from that (part) of his which was of the Soma nature, he made the moon, and that which was demoniacal (asurya) he made enter these creatures as their belly; hence people say: 'Vritra was then a consumer of food, and Vritra is so now.' For even now, whenever that one (the moon) waxes fuller, it fills itself out of this world; and when
1 Preyuh, 'the gods &c. that were in Vritra's mouth went out,' Sâyana; see preceding page, note 1.
Yat saumyam nyaktam âsa' ['yat saumyo nyanga âsa,' Kânva rec.], 'what was imbued with Soma,' 'what had Soma inherent in it.' Cf. 'yat somasya nyaktam âsa,' I, 7, 1, 1.
'People say so when anybody eats much food.' Sâyana. See I, 6, 4, 15.
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