An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s6.252.2

c5.s6.252.2

The brahman did not know, as his recitations had never been connected with any special purpose; he told the king that Truth required that he should take them as he had asked for them (the signification of Truth). Dharma and Heaven (Svargaḥ) seconded the brahman. Ikṣvāku wished to give his own merits instead, but in vain; then Ikṣvāku agreed to accept half the brahman's merit on the condition that the brahman should take half of his own, but he was refused. At this time two ungainly individuals came there, Virūpa and Vikṛta (afterwards disclosed to be Desire and Wrath); Virūpa said that he owed Vikṛta the merits of the gift of a cow, but that Vikṛta refused to take repayment (in the form of the merit of having given two kapilā cows with calves to an uñchavṛtti); Vikṛta declared that Virūpa owed him nothing; they asked Ikṣvāku to decide the question. Ikṣvāku hesitated; the brahman threatened to curse him. Ikṣvāku would give him some drops of water that had fallen upon his hand. Virūpa approved of this arrangement, and said that Vikṛta really did not owe him anything; "we appealed to thee for thy own sake." Bhīṣma said that a reiter goes to Brahmān, or Agni, or Sūrya, whose attributes he catches stupefied by attachment (rāgeṇa); and so also if he goes to Soma, etc. (β); if, however, he goes to those regions after having freed himself from attachment, he enters the Supreme and Imperishable, and becomes Brahman (XII, 199). The brahman accepted, worshipped Dharma, etc.