King Sibi ruled over the kingdom of Sibi and was known for his philanthropy. One day, Indra and Agni came to test the limits of the king's generosity. The two gods disguised themselves as a hawk and a dove. The hawk started chasing the dove and the dove fell on King Sibi's lap trembling with fear. The hawk demanded the king to surrender the dove as its prey. The king refused saying that the dove had sought his protection.
After much argument the hawk agreed to leave the dove alone if the king would offer a piece of flesh from his own body which was equivalent to the weight of the dove. The king was more than happy to make such a sacrifice. Strangely, after endless slicing off his flesh and placing it on the scale, the king found that he could not equal the weight of the dove. The king threw his entire body on the scale and even then the scales tipped in favor of the dove. At this point the hawk and the dove revealed their true identity and praised the king for his unbounded charitable spirit.
What is it
that BALANCES, about Libra? Apart from the idea that the ecliptic branches off
(vi+sakha) to the south, from Visakha (Vi + Sakha), or that the days and nights
are equal, when the Sun is in Tula , there seems to be something more. Who are
the presiding deities of Visakha? Indra and Agni. While the shape of Visakha is
round and can be interpreted as the Vedic fire altar, or even the pan of the
scales of a Balance, (the symbol of Libra), something else needs our attention
-the story of Sibi Chakravarti.
|
