One day, a driver drove an elephant to a forest dam to drink. And there, by chance, the ruler of the underworld Yamaraj ended up - the ruler decided to take a walk on the earth. Yamaraj looked at the elephant for a long time and was still amazed: such a huge animal and in everything obedient to the little man sitting on his back! The elephant got drunk, went ashore and went where the man told him, and then he allowed himself to be tied to a post, like a dog.
Yamaraj could not resist, approached the animal and asked:
- Listen, elephant! You are bigger than a mountain and stronger than a mountain stream, so why do you blindly obey someone who is small and weak? Don’t you really want to free yourself and run away to freedom, so as not to obey anyone?
- O lord! — the elephant responded to this. “Don’t try to judge what you don’t know, because in your kingdom there are only dead people, what kind of power do they really have?” That's why you torture them as you please. A living person, although small in stature, is strong in mind. All animals, even big ones like me, obey him. Someday you will come across someone who is alive and not dead, and you will understand what it is. Let's see then who will defeat whom.
Yamaraja did not like these words, and he no longer wanted to continue the conversation. He left the elephant and headed to his own domain.
Some time passed. Yamaraja got tired of torturing sinners, he suddenly remembered what the elephant had told him. The ruler called his servants and ordered to deliver a living person to the underground kingdom of the dead. They went to earth and saw the clerk first. The clerk fell asleep on the bed, in one hand - an inkwell with a feather, in the other - a sheet of paper.
“This one is quite suitable for our master,” Yama’s servants decided, picked up the clerk along with the bed and rushed to the underworld.
They rushed like crazy and shook the bed so much that the clerk woke up. He sees that evil spirits are dragging him to an unknown place, and at first he even chickened out a little. Only the clerk was not timid. He gathered his courage and began asking his porters where they were going in such a hurry.
The clerk heard that he had been taken away by order of Yamaraja himself, and became despondent. But is it in vain that he is endowed with a human mind? He thought and thought and finally came up with an idea. I dipped my pen into the inkwell and wrote the following on a piece of paper:
The Almighty God Vishnu - the ruler of the underworld Yamaraja.
Rumors have reached me, O Yamaraj, that you want to get a living person into your possession. Apparently you forgot that you are supposed to take only the dead? To remind you of this, I decided to take on the image of a living person and personally appear before you. So be it, I won’t reprimand you in front of your subjects, that’s why I wrote this message. However, do not expect forgiveness and, as soon as you see me, immediately go to heaven with me to decide your fate. I will take care of your kingdom myself until we meet. On the way, be careful not to tell anyone that I was underground. That's all for now!
Meanwhile, the servants reached the underworld and placed the bed with the scribe in front of Yamaraja. Without wasting any time, the clerk jumped to his feet and handed his letter to the lord of the dead. Yamaraj read it and immediately ordered everyone to leave, and when the servants left, he descended from the throne and bowed his head before the clerk.
- Why are you delaying? Follow orders! Meet me in heaven! - the man said majestically.
Yamaraj called the servants, ordered them to obey the newcomer from the earth in everything and hurried to the domain of the god Vishnu.
The clerk immediately ordered the hellish torture to stop and all sinners to be released.
After some time, Yamaraj reached the heavenly abode and appeared before the Almighty. He saw Vishnu, the ruler of the underworld, trembling with fear and exclaimed:
- Oh Yama! What news did you come to me with? Has trouble happened in your domain?
- Oh great god! - Yamaraj was surprised. “You yourself ordered me to come here.” As you can see, I have fulfilled your will. I know my guilt is great, and yet I ask you, O Almighty, change your anger to mercy!
With these words, Yamaraj bowed down to Vishnu. But the Almighty looked in surprise at the frightened Yama. And only when the lord of the underworld told about everything that had happened to him, Vishnu finally understood the reason for his fear and burst out laughing.
- Well, it serves you right, Yama. I wanted to test my strength with a living person, so he taught you a lesson! As you can see, it is not so easy to cope with a living, endowed with the power of the human mind. It’s not for nothing that a person is considered the smartest in the world, that’s why everyone obeys his will. Return home and respectfully escort the living person back to earth where he belongs.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru