Devraj Indra was the king of the gods or devas. He was a paragon of virtue. But his power and opulence slowly started to corrupt his mind, and that led to his downfall.
Once, he was sitting on his throne in his court when his teacher, Guru Brihaspati, entered. Indra saw that everyone was welcoming him, showing him respect. Suddenly, Indra felt jealous and thought, Why should a king get up from his seat to show respect to someone, even if it was his teacher? Thus, he remained seated and virtually ignored Brihaspati. He even did not utter a single word to him.
Brihaspati noticed everything and smiled. He decided to teach Indra a lesson that even the mightiest may fall if they forget to give due respect to others. Thus, Brihaspati slowly got up and left the court. Not only the court, he left Dev-rajya and started deep meditation and austerity in a hidden cave. Soon everyone came to know that Guru Brihaspati had retracted himself from the world and had submerged himself in austerity. Devraj Indra felt sorry for his maltreatment, and he understood that because of him, his guru had left Swaraga-rajya (heaven).
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For the devas, their guru held an important position. The guru was the mediator through whom the benefits of the sacrificial offerings of the mortals were used to reach the gods. Thus, without their guru, the devas began to fall weak. Devraj Indra understood everything, and he repented of his earlier action. But finding no other way to bring back Brihaspati, Indra visited Lord Brahma.
Brahma assured him that Brihaspati would return in due course, but till then, he advised him to appoint a new guru for the devas. Lord Brahma told Indra to seek help from Viswaroop, the son of God Tvashtri. Viswaroop was a learned person, proficient in the Vedas. He was also known as Trishiras (three-headed), as he had three heads representing three gunas, or virtues. With one head, he used to chant the Vedas; with the second, he used to drink soma; and with the third, he used to eat and talk to others.
As Indra approached him to be the guru of the devas, he accepted the offer with eagerness. Soon, the devas were all extremely pleased to have him as their guru. Viswaroop was indeed a learned and soft-spoken person. But slowly, devas started to feel that something was not right. In spite of having a guru and getting sacrificial offerings, the devas were not as powerful as they were earlier.
One day Indra noticed during a yagna (sacrificial offering) that Viswaroop was secretly passing the bulk of the benefits to the asuras. Indra knew that Rechana, the mother of Viswaroop, was the daughter of the Asura king. Thus, he understood that Viswaroop had a secret connection with asuras. Indra became furious, and without warning, he slaughtered Viswaroop then and there.
It was a severe offense, as Viswaroop was a brahmin and his guru at the time. Thus, the sin of killing him engulfed Indra, and his body started to rot slowly. But devas, after knowing everything, supported their king wholeheartedly.
On the other hand, Tvashtri, the father of Viswaroop, was furious. In grief over losing his son, he decided to perform a ritual to take revenge. He started a yagna, and from his sacrificial alter emerged a formidable giant, Vritra. Tvastri welcomed him as his son and brother of Viswaroop. He gave him the task of destroying the devas and the Dev-rajya.
As the devas came to know about Vritra, they became afraid and asked Indra to lead them on the battlefield. But Indra was suffering from the sin of killing Viswaroop. Thus, at the request of the devas, the earth, the water, the trees, and the women agreed to take one fourth of the sin each from Indra. As a result, parts of the earth became barren as deserts, bubbles and foams appeared on water, making it polluted and unusable, trees began to leak sap from the wounds, and females started to bleed during menstruation. But as they bore the sin of Indra, Indra blessed them as well. Thus, the earth began to repair its holes and craters on its own, trees started to grow their brunches on their own, the water started to enhance the volume of anything it mixed with, and thereafter, women could feed their children with their own milk full of nutrients.
Defeating Vritra was not an easy task. Day by day, he grew more powerful. He became as massive as a large mountain and started to cover everything with his shadow. His eyes were like two blazing suns. He was equipped with a huge trident and was invulnerable to ordinary weapons.
Therefore, the devas went to the ashram of Sage Dadhichi, where they kept their divine weapons hidden for a long time. But somehow Sage Dadhichi consumed the entire energy of all the divine weapons. Dadhichi sacrificed his life and presented his bones to the gods to forge a divine weapon. Lord Viswakarma fashioned a formidable weapon out of the bones, the Vajra, or thunderbolt. There was no god other than Indra himself who could bear that weapon.
Then the gods confronted Vritra with all of their strengths. But soon they realized that the task was much more difficult than they anticipated. The asuras joined Vritra in the battle against the devas. As the devas started to fight the asuras, Indra went to face Vritra with his Vajra. But even Vajra was ineffective against Vritra when hurled from a distance.
Hence, Indra approached Vritra and engaged him in hand-to-hand combat. But Vritra was so powerful that with a single punch, Airavat, Indra's four-tusked elephant, was hurled miles away. Vritra even broke Indra's jaws with a stroke from his trident. However, Indra continued to charge him and at last was able to severe his right hand with his weapon. Vritra became enraged and continued slaying devas mercilessly with his trident. Indra soon chopped off his left hand as well. But, to his surprise, Vritra opened his mouth wide and swallowed Indra along with his Airavat.
With Lord Vishnu's blessings, Indra remained unharmed inside Vritra and appeared by tearing his belly, thereby killing him at last. The asuras also fled, seeing the fall of Vritra. It was indeed a great victory for the gods, but soon they realized another problem. Vritra was a brahmin, just like his brother. Therefore, the sin of killing him started to haunt Indra. Indra decided to repent for his sins and started severe penance under the Mansarovar in the Himalayas.
As Indra left Swarga-rajya (heaven), the devas were in trouble again. There was no rule, no law and order in Dev-rajya. But fortunately, Guru Brihaspati returned, and he advised appointing King Nahusha as the king of Dev-rajya until Indra returned. And thus began the story of Nahusha.
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