The Sage Who Tested the Gods

The sages told the Pandavas of how the sage Bhrigu was sent to test the three great gods, to learn which of them was greatest in the quality of goodness and forbearance - and of how the Lord Vishnu answered an insult with such humility that the test was decided. It is a tale of the greatness of forbearance, and of the truth that the highest power shows itself not in wrath but in patience.

Long ago, a great company of sages were gathered on the banks of the sacred river Sarasvati, performing a mighty sacrifice. And a question arose among them, and they fell to disputing it: which of the three great gods - Brahma the Creator, Shiva the Destroyer, and Vishnu the Preserver - was the greatest, the most full of the quality of pure goodness and tranquillity, and so the most worthy to receive the chief honor of their sacrifice? The sages could not agree among themselves; and so they resolved to put the matter to the test, and to send one of their number, the great sage Bhrigu, to try each of the three gods in turn and discover the truth.

Bhrigu undertook the task, and resolved to test each god by offering him disrespect, to see how each would bear an insult; for the truest measure of goodness and tranquillity, he judged, is how one responds when provoked. He went first to the Creator, Brahma, who was his own father; and coming into his presence, Bhrigu deliberately withheld the reverence and salutation that were due, behaving with studied disrespect, neither bowing nor honoring him, to see how the Creator would bear the slight.

Brahma was angered at this disrespect from his own son, and a flash of wrath rose in him at being so slighted before all; for it is a hard thing to be insulted by one's own child. Yet Brahma, being great and being the father, mastered his anger and did not curse or strike his son, restraining himself out of paternal affection and his own greatness. So Brahma passed the test in a measure, for he checked his wrath; yet wrath had risen in him, and been mastered only with effort, and Bhrigu noted that the Creator had been moved to anger, even though he had restrained it. And Bhrigu went on to the next of the gods.

Bhrigu went next to the great Lord Shiva, upon his mountain; and there too he behaved with deliberate disrespect, to test how the Destroyer would bear a slight. He spoke to Shiva slightingly, or withheld due honor, provoking him to see his response. And Shiva, fierce by nature and quick to wrath, was angered at the disrespect, and his anger blazed up hotly; in some tellings he seized his trident and was about to strike the insolent sage down in his fury.

But the goddess, Shiva's consort, intervened, and calmed her lord, and stayed his hand, pleading for the sage and reminding Shiva of his greatness and his compassion; and so Shiva, his wrath checked by the goddess, spared Bhrigu and did him no harm. So Shiva too, in a measure, restrained himself, and did not in the end destroy the sage; yet his wrath had blazed up fiercely, and been checked only by the goddess's intervention, not wholly mastered from within. And Bhrigu noted that the Destroyer, like the Creator, had been moved to anger by the insult, and had needed help to restrain it. There remained one god yet to test: the Lord Vishnu, the Preserver.

Last of all, Bhrigu went to the Lord Vishnu, the Preserver, to test him as he had tested the others. He came to the abode of Vishnu and found the Lord reclining, asleep, with the goddess Lakshmi attending him. And Bhrigu, to offer the Lord the greatest disrespect of all, and to see how he would bear even so gross an insult, went up to the sleeping Lord and kicked him upon the chest with his foot - a deliberate and shocking affront, the worst of insults, to strike the very breast of the Lord with one's foot while he slept.

It was an outrage beyond the slights offered to Brahma and Shiva - a direct and physical insult of the grossest kind, such as might have provoked the wrath of any being, however great. Bhrigu had reserved for Vishnu the hardest test of all, the most extreme provocation, to see whether the Preserver's goodness and forbearance would hold even against so gross an affront. And he waited to see how the Lord, so insulted, would respond - whether with the wrath that had risen in Brahma and Shiva, or with something different, something greater.

But the Lord Vishnu, kicked upon the chest by the sage, did a thing that none of the others had done. He showed no anger at all - not the least flash of wrath, not the smallest sign of offense. Instead, rising from his sleep, the Lord at once took hold of the sage's foot, the very foot that had struck him, and began gently to press and massage it, with every show of tender concern; and he spoke to Bhrigu not in reproach but in solicitude: 'O sage, I hope you have not hurt your foot! My chest is hard, and your tender foot may have been injured by striking it. Forgive me that my hard breast has bruised your foot; let me ease it for you.'

So the Lord, far from being angered by the gross insult, was concerned only for the welfare of the one who had insulted him, fearing that the sage might have hurt himself, and tending to his foot with gentle care. He answered the worst of affronts not with wrath, but with humility and kindness and concern for the offender - taking the blame upon himself, easing the hurt of the very foot that had struck him, showing not the smallest trace of anger or wounded pride. It was a forbearance so complete, a humility so perfect, that it astonished the sage and answered, at a stroke, the question he had come to test.

Bhrigu was overwhelmed by the Lord's response, and his test was decided. For he had provoked Brahma, and wrath had risen in him, mastered only with effort; he had provoked Shiva, and wrath had blazed up, checked only by the goddess; but he had offered Vishnu the grossest insult of all, and the Lord had shown no anger whatever, but only humility and concern for the offender. Here, plainly, was the greatest in the quality of pure goodness, tranquillity, and forbearance: the one who could be struck upon the chest and respond only with care for the striker's foot.

So Bhrigu returned to the assembled sages on the Sarasvati and gave them his verdict: that of the three great gods, the Lord Vishnu was the greatest in goodness and forbearance, the most full of the quality of tranquillity, the one who answered even the worst insult not with wrath but with humility and kindness; and that to him, therefore, the chief honor of the sacrifice was due. And the sages, hearing how each god had borne the test, accepted Bhrigu's judgment, and honored the Lord Vishnu as the foremost in forbearance - the god whose greatness showed itself not in power to punish, but in the perfection of patience and humility.

There was in the tale a teaching about the true measure of greatness, which is forbearance, and about the strength that shows itself in patience rather than in wrath. For the test had measured the gods not by their power - all three were mighty beyond measure - but by how they bore an insult; and the greatest was shown to be, not the one who could most fiercely punish the offender, but the one who could most perfectly forbear, answering even the worst affront with humility and kindness. The tale teaches that the truest greatness lies not in power to harm but in the power to endure, to forgive, to respond to insult with grace; and that the highest soul is the one least moved to anger and most full of patient humility.

It does not follow, the sages were careful to say, that Brahma and Shiva are not great, for they too are supreme, and they too restrained their wrath; the test measured one quality only, the perfection of forbearance, and in that one quality the Lord Vishnu showed himself supreme. And the lesson for all is this: that we should measure greatness, in ourselves and others, not by power or by the capacity for wrath, but by forbearance and humility; that the strong soul is the patient one; and that to answer insult and injury not with anger but with grace and concern even for the offender is the very height of goodness, as the Lord himself showed when he was struck upon the chest and cared only for the striker's foot.

The sages drew the lessons of the tale for the Pandavas.

'See, first, the true measure of greatness, which is forbearance. The sage Bhrigu tested the three great gods not by their power but by how they bore an insult; and the greatest was shown to be, not the one who could most fiercely punish, but the one who could most perfectly forbear - the Lord Vishnu, who, struck upon the chest, showed no anger at all, but only concern for the foot that had struck him. The tale teaches that the truest greatness lies not in the power to harm but in the power to endure and forgive; that the highest soul is the one least moved to anger and most full of patient humility; and that to answer insult with grace is the very height of goodness.

'And see the strength that shows itself in patience rather than wrath. We are tempted to measure greatness by power, by the capacity to punish those who wrong us; but the tale teaches that the strong soul is the patient one, and that wrath, even when restrained with effort, is a lesser thing than the perfect forbearance that is not moved to anger at all. Measure greatness, then, in yourself and others, not by power or pride but by patience and humility; meet insult and injury not with anger but with grace, even with concern for the one who has wronged you; for in this perfect forbearance, as the Lord showed, is the truest greatness of all.'

And the Pandavas, who would be sorely provoked and sorely insulted by their foes, took to heart the tale of the testing of the gods, and the greatness that lies in forbearance.