Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.1179

c4.1179

The gods believed Prahlāda. The Asuras, in the guise of hermits waited for Śukra in the hermitage of Kaśyapa. Śukra reached Kailāsa and bowed before Śiva and requested that he might be given the power of defeating the Gods by some means quite unknown to Bṛhaspati the teacher of the devas (Gods). Śiva was in trouble. He could refuse neither Śukra nor the Gods. At last he told hermit Śukra that to come by such a spell he had to stand head downwards, inhaling smoke for a thousand years. Śiva said so thinking that when the dreadful nature of the feat was considered, Śukra might desist from the attempt. But Śukra began that penance instantly.