Indra was embarrassed that his enemy caused the mighty thunderbolt to slip from his hand. Seeing Indra dejected, Vṛtta encouraged him saying,

“O Indra, take up the weapon and kill this enemy. This is neither the time to grieve nor feel insulted. The Supreme Lord, who is cause behind this creation; who is responsible for the creation, sustenance and annihilation of the universe; who is omniscient and who exists beyond time, alone remains eternally victorious. On the other hand, individual souls who are bound by bodily identification will at times be victorious and at other times will face defeat. **Where is the rule that living beings should eternally be victorious? Victory can take any side it pleases. **

Every living entity, including Guardian-deities, are dependent entities. Just like birds trapped in a hunter’s net, they are trapped in the web called time and are engaged in various fruitive activities. Remember that time alone is responsible for their victories and failures.

**Ojaḥ saho balaṁ prāṇam amṛtaṁ mṛtyum eva ca Tam ajñāya jano hetum ātmānaṁ manyate jaḍam ** Time alone is the real strength of the living entity. Sensory strength, bodily strength and life-force exist in the form of births and deaths. Unable to realize this important truth, foolish human beings mistakenly believe this gross body to be the root for their success and failures.

Just as a wooden puppet-doll resembling a woman is nothing but an instrument in the hands of the puppeteer, all living entities are puppets in the hands of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord is the cause for the entire creation. His illusory power (māya) manifests as the Mahat tattva (cosmic intelligence), egoism (ahamkara), the five gross elements, senses and the four-fold mind of the living entity. His grace causes the creation, sustenance and annihilation, which are the outcomes of illusion, to take place.

The foolish person who does not realize this profound truth mistakenly considers himself to be the independent entity who is the doer of the action and the enjoyer of the result. This is illusion! The truth is that the Supreme Lord creates through the medium of the living entities. Through them alone he causes the destruction.

Āyuḥ śrīḥ kīrtir aiśvaryam āśiṣaḥ puruṣasya yāḥ Bhavanty eva hi tat-kāle yathānicchor viparyayāḥ

The person enjoys longevity, opulence and fame based on his destiny. At times, the person experiences dishonor even though it is not to his liking. This is because they are the rewards which time showers at the opportune moments. Hence it is imperative for the person to be equibalanced in all dualities such as success-failures, fame-dishonour, birth-death and joys-sorrows.

The traits of goodness, action and ignorance are creations of illusory power and do not belong to the Pure Consciousness. Hence the person who realizes that he is a mere witness to dualities experienced in in life, will remain unaffected by them.

Indra, not only did you shred my weapon but in addition you defeated me by brutally chopping off my arm. Undaunted, I am trying my best to kill you in this war. War is a gamble in which life is at stake. Our vehicles are the game-board. The arrows are the dice. In this game it is unknown which side will emerge victorious.”

Hearing Vṛtta’s clear-cut, honest words, Indra’s pride was quelled. Picking up his thunderbolt he laughingly applauded Vṛtta,

“Aha! O demon-king! You are truly a wise, accomplished and Self-realized. You are the well-wisher of the creation. You have serving the Supreme Lord after having surrendered wholly unto Him. You have cut through the Lord’s illusion which bewilders conditioned souls. You have destroyed all demonic qualities and cultivated supremely noble qualities. Your mind which is filled with traits of passion (rajas) has firmly established itself in Lord Vāsudeva who is an embodiment of goodness (sattva). How astonishing this is!

Lord Srihari is the Lord of liberation. You who are deeply devoted towards Him and who swim in the ocean of nectar have no necessity of heavenly comforts, which are like tiny water ditches”.

With a desire to understand dharma they continued their discussion and thereafter resumed fighting. They continued to fight and then at intervals discuss spiritual subjects. It was a strange war.

Vṛtta suddenly picked up a fearsome, heavy iron mace with his left hand. Swirling it vigorously he hurled it upon Indra. Using his thunderbolt Indra broke the iron mace as well as Vṛtta’s hand simultaneously.

Vṛtta, whose both arms had been chopped off, shone like the phenomenal mountain whose both wings are cut off. This gigantic demon whose prowess was truly remarkable rested his lower jaw upon the earth and upper jaw in skies. With his mouth which as was deep as the skies and his tongue that resembled a fearful serpent he looked frightful. His tooth appeared like the tooth of death. It appeared as if he was about to swallow all the three worlds.

Shaking all the mountains as he walked, like a mountain king he trampled the earth with his legs crushing it completely. He approached Indra and as playfully as python swallows an elephant he quickly swallowed Indra’s elephant Airavata.

Not stopping with that he quickly swallowed Indra. Maharishis, Devatas and Prajāpatis who observed this, moaned, “Alas! What a calamity has befallen us.”

As Srihari protected him with his armour (kavaca), Indra did not die even after being swallowed by Vṛtta. Even the Lord’s illusory energy offered protection to Indra. The mighty Indra, the destroyer of demon Bala, unhesitatingly used the thunderbolt to rip apart Vṛtta’s stomach and then emerged out. He then took up the thunderbolt to chop the head of Vṛtta, who was as huge as a mountain.

At unimaginable speeds the thunderbolt rushed towards Vṛtta and circling his gigantic neck began to cut it. By the time it completed severing his neck the Sun together with all the stars completed the northern and southern journeys. In other words, it took one year for the thunderbolt to sever his neck from his gigantic body.

Achyutāya namah.