File:Lord Indra was attacked.JPG

Lord Indra was attacked  

Maharaja Bali then attacked Indra with ten arrows and attacked Airavata, Indra’s carrier elephant, with three arrows. With four arrows he attacked the four horsemen guarding Airavata’s legs, and with one arrow he attacked the driver of the elephant. Before Bali Maharaja’s arrows could reach him, Indra, King of heaven, who is the expert in dealing with arrows, smiled and counteracted the arrows with arrows of another type, known as Bhalla, which were extremely sharp. When Bali Maharaja saw the expert military activities of Indra, he could not restrain his anger. Thus he took up another weapon, known as Sakti, which blazed like a great firebrand. But Indra cut that weapon to pieces while it was still in Maharaja Bali’s hand. Thereafter, one by one, Bali Maharaja used a lance, prasa, tomara, rstis and other weapons, but whatever weapons he took up, Indra immediately cut them to pieces.

Bali Maharaja then disappeared and resorted to demonic illusions. A giant mountain, generated from illusion, then appeared above the heads of the demigod soldiers. From that mountain fell trees blazing in a forest fire. Chips of stone, with sharp edges like picks, also fell and smashed the heads of the demigod soldiers. Scorpions, large snakes, and many other poisonous animals, as well as lions, tigers, boars and great elephants, all began falling upon the demigod soldiers, crushing everything.

Many hundreds of male and female carnivorous Asuras, completely naked and carrying tridents in their hands, then appeared, crying the slogans “Cut them to pieces! Pierce them!” Fierce clouds, harassed by strong winds, then appeared in the sky. Rumbling very gravely with the sound of thunder, they began to shower live coals. A great devastating fire created by Bali Maharaja began burning all the soldiers of the Devas. This fire, accompanied by blasting winds, seemed as terrible as the Samvartaka fire, which appears at the time of dissolution. Thereafter, whirlpools and sea waves, agitated by fierce blasts of wind, appeared everywhere, before everyone’s vision, in a furious flood. While this magical atmosphere in the fight was being created by the invisible Asuras, who were expert in such illusions, the soldiers of the Devas became morose….Sivkishen, Author