The Mahabharata/Book 1: Adi Parva/Section XXVIII
Section XXVIII.
( Astika Parva continued. )
Sauti said, "Gadura, thus addressed by the snakes, then said unto his mother. 'I shall go to bring amrita. I desire to eat something. Direct me to it.' And Vinata replied: 'In a remote region in the midst of the ocean, the Nishadas have their fair home. Having eaten the thousand Nishadas that live there, bring thou amrita. But let not thy heart be ever set on taking the life of a Brahmana. A Brahmana of all creatures must not be slain. He is, indeed, like fire. A Brahmana when angry becomes like fire or the Sun, like poison or edged weapon. A Brahmana, it hath been said, is the master of all creatures. For these and other reasons, a Brahmana is the adored of the virtuous. O child, he is never to be slain by thee even in anger. Hostility with the Brahmanas, therefore, would not be proper under any circumstances. O thou sinless one, neither Agni nor the Sun truly consumeth so as doth a Brahmana of rigid vows when angry. By these various indica- tions must thou know a good Brahma. Indeed, a Brahma is the first-born of all creatures, the foremost of the four orders, the father and the master of all.'
"And Gadura then asked, 'O mother, of what form is a Brahmana, of what behaviour, and of what prowess? Doth he shine like fire, or is he of tranquil mien? And, O mother, it behoveth thee to tell my inquiring self, assigning reasons, those auspicious signs by which I may recognise a Brahmana?'
"And Vinata replied, saying, 'O child, him shouldst thou know as a bull amongst Brahmanas who having entered thy throat will torture thee as a fish-hook or burn thee as flaming charcoal. A Brahmana must never be slain by thee even in anger.' And Vinata from affection for her son again told him these words: 'Him shouldst thou know as a good Brahmana who shall not be digested in thy stomach." And Vinata, from parental affection, reiterated those words. And although she knew the incomparable strength of her son, she yet blessed him heartily, for deceived by the snakes she was very much afflicted by woe. And she said, 'Let Maruta (the god of the winds) protect thy wings, and the Sun and the Moon thy vertebral regions; let Agni protect they head, and the Vasus thy whole body! I also, O child, engaged in beneficial ceremonies, shall sit here to give thee prosperity. Go them, O child, in safety to accomplish thy purpose.'"
Sauti continued, "Then Gadura, having heard the words of his mother, stretched his wings an ascended the skies. And endued with great strength, he soon came upon the Nishadas, hungry and like to another Yama. And bent upon slaying the Nishadas, he then raised a great quantity of dust that overspread the firmament and sucking up water from amid the ocean, shook the trees growing on the adjacent mountains. And then the lord of birds obstructed the principal thoroughfare of the Nishadas by his mouth having increased its cleft at will. And the Nishadas began to fly in great haste in the direction of the open mouth of the great serpent-eater. And as birds in great affliction ascend by thousands into the skies when the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind, so those Nishadas blinded by the dust raised by the storm entered the wide-extending cleft of Gadura's mouth open to receive them. And then the hungry lord of all rangers of the skies, the oppressor of enemies, endued with great strength, and moving with the greatest activity to achieve his end, closed his mouth killing innumerable Nishadas following the occupation of fishermen."
And so ends the twenty-eighth Section in the Astika of the Adi Parva.