The
Asuras, however, O child, could not bear that righteousness which
prevailed in the world. Multiplying (in both number and energy), the
Asuras (in the form of Lust and Wrath) entered the bodies of men. Then
was pride generated in men that is so destructive of righteousness. From
pride arose arrogance, and from arrogance arose wrath. When men thus
became overwhelmed with wrath, conduct implying modesty and shame
disappeared from them, and then they were overcome by heedlessness.
Afflicted by heedlessness, they could no longer see as before, and as the
consequence thereof they began to oppress one another and thereby acquire
wealth without any compunction. When men became such, the punishment of
only crying fie on offenders failed to be of any effect. Men, showing no
reverence for either the gods or Brahmanas, began to indulge their senses
to their fill.[1526] At that time the deities repaired to that foremost
of gods, viz., Siva, possessed of patience, of multiform aspect, and
endued with the foremost of attributes, and sought his protection. The
deities imparted unto him their conjoined energy, and thereupon the great
god, with a single shaft, felled on the earth those three Asuras, viz.,
Desire, Wrath, and Cupidity, who were staying in the firmament, along
with their very habitations.[1527] The fierce chief of those Asuras
possessed of fierce, prowess, who had struck the Devas with terror, was
also slain by Mahadeva armed with the lance.[1528] When this chief of the
Asuras was slain, men once more obtained their proper natures, and once
more began to study the Vedas and the other scriptures as was in former
times.
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