CHAPTER TEN
The Battle Between
the Demigods and Vrtrasura
As described in this chapter, after Indra obtained the body of Dadhici, a
thunderbolt was prepared from Dadhici’s bones, and a fight took place
between Vrtrasura and the demigods.

Following the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the
demigods approached Dadhici Muni and begged for his body. Dadhici
Muni, just to hear from the demigods about the principles of religion,
jokingly refused to relinquish his body, but for higher purposes he
thereafter agreed to give it up, for after death the body is usually eaten
by low animals like dogs and jackals. Dadhici Muni first merged his gross
body made of five elements into the original stock of five elements and
then engaged his soul at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead. Thus he gave up his gross body. With the help of Visvakarma,
the demigods then prepared a thunderbolt from Dadhici’s bones. Armed
with the thunderbolt weapon, they prepared themselves to fight and got
up on the backs of elephants.

At the end of Satya-yuga and the beginning of Treta-yuga, a great
fight took place between the demigods and the asuras. Unable to tolerate
the effulgence of the demigods, the asuras fled the battle, leaving
Vrtrasura, their commander in chief, to fight for himself. Vrtrdsura,
however, seeing the demons fleeing, instructed them in the importance
of fighting and dying in the battlefield. One who is victorious in battle
gains material possessions, and one who dies in the battlefield attains a
residence at once in the celestial heavens. In either way, the fighter
benefits.

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