The Teacher Who Walked Out

Indra had won the three worlds, and it had gone to his head.

On this day he sat on his throne with his queen Shachi beside him, sharing the seat. Over them hung a white umbrella as bright as the full moon. Attendants fanned him with yak tails. The whole court of heaven stood around him: the Maruts, the Vasus, the Rudras, the Adityas, the Ashvins and the sages. The Gandharvas played and the Apsaras danced. Everyone was praising the king.

Brihaspati came in.

He was the teacher of the gods, and their priest. Gods and demons alike respected him. When a teacher enters, a pupil stands. He offers a seat and says a word of welcome.

Indra saw him clearly, and stayed where he was. No seat was offered. No one said anything.

Brihaspati understood at once what he was looking at. The Purana says he had the power to curse Indra and chose not to. He turned around, walked out of the hall without a word, and went home.

The music went on a little longer. Then Indra understood too.

"What have I done?" he said, in front of all of them. "My teacher walked into my own hall and I sat here like a fool. I am the king of the gods and a little wealth has made me blind."

Nobody answered him.

"Some people will say a king on his throne should rise for no one," he went on. "Whoever says so does not know what is right. A leader like that is a boat made of stone. He sinks, and everyone who climbed in after him sinks too."

He stood up at last. "I will go to him now. I will put my head at his feet."

But Brihaspati knew what Indra was thinking, as he always did. Before the king could reach his door he made himself unseen and left his house. Indra searched, and all the gods searched with him. They could not find him anywhere.

"My teacher is displeased with me," said Indra. "Nothing can go well for me now."

News travels quickly between enemies. The Asuras heard that the gods had lost their priest. Their own teacher, Shukra, told them this was the moment. They armed themselves and attacked.

It was a bad battle for the gods. They came out of it with wounded heads, arms and thighs, and with nowhere to turn. So they went with bowed heads to Brahma.

Brahma looked at their wounds and was kind to them. Then he told them the truth.

"You did this to yourselves. Brihaspati came to your hall and you did not receive him. That is why you have lost. The Asuras were weak, and you had beaten them many times. Do you know why they are strong now? They honour their teacher. Shukra's pupils do what he tells them, and so today they could take even my own seat from me."

The gods waited.

"You need a priest," said Brahma. "Go to Vishvarupa, the son of Tvashtri. He is a true brahmin, strong in his austerities. Honour him and he will give you what you want. But his heart leans a little towards the Asuras. You will have to put up with that."

So the gods went to Vishvarupa's hermitage and asked him to be their priest. This chapter of the Purana does not bring Brihaspati back. It leaves his seat empty.

South of the river Kaveri, near Thanjavur, there is a village called Thittai. The name means a mound. People there say that when the great flood covered the world, this one rise of ground stayed above the water, with a Shiva linga standing on it. The temple built over that linga is all of stone, and inside it a drop of water falls on the linga from the roof every twenty-four minutes, day and night.

The temple has its own account of Indra and his teacher.

Brihaspati, it says, was the seventh son of the sage Angiras, and so learned that the gods took him as their guru. Under him they did well. Then one day he came to see Indra, and Indra was watching Urvashi dance. He was so taken up with the dancing that he never noticed his teacher had arrived. Nobody greeted him.

In this telling Indra meant no insult. He simply did not look up. It made no difference. Brihaspati went away from heaven and hid himself, and without him the gods grew weak, and the Asuras began to win.

Indra knew whose fault it was. He did not go to Brahma for another priest. He went looking for the one he had lost. He went from one Shiva temple to the next, praying at each to be forgiven. The search brought him at last to the mound at Thittai. There he worshipped Shiva with his whole heart.

That was where Brihaspati had been all along. Seeing that the king was truly sorry, he showed himself and forgave him.

A shrine was made for the Guru on the spot, and it is still there, set between the shrine of the Lord and the shrine of the Goddess. In most Shiva temples the Guru is honoured in the form of Dakshinamurti. At Thittai Brihaspati has a sanctum and a tower of his own. He is worshipped there as the Raja Guru, the royal teacher, with one hand raised in blessing.