Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.3885

c9.3885

8) The end. Vararuci began to perform penance in the Vindhya mountain. At that time a brahmin came to the hermitage of Vararuci. He informed Vararuci of the death of Yoga Nanda. Thinking about the littleness of the pleasures of the world, he began to walk through the Vindhya mountain when he saw the devil called Kāṇabhūti. Telling everything to the devil Kāṇabhūti, Vararuci started for Badaryāśrama to discard his body. On the way he saw a hermit who lived on water alone. In the meanwhile his finger was cut with the tip of Darbha grass and blood oozed from the wound. Vararuci, by his attainments, changed the blood into the juice of a pot-herb. The hermit cried out “Oh, I have become a man of attainments.” With a laugh Vararuci said “You have not yet overcome your egoism. I did so to test you. First of all you must overcome your egoism and become wise.”