Part 3- The Goddess’s Conceit

Since the past some years, Kaunasuraa, the demon warrior who had done a huge penance & acquired many divine weapons & the one with a huge army of 11 million devil warriors, was continuously attacking earth, creating havoc & destruction. He had powers to control nature & he used them swiftly on Earth, creating huge Typhoons, Storms, earthquakes, Landslides & floods. Plus, he had a very special ‘boon’ which he had received from the Gods. Since the past many centuries, the storms kept happening, causing huge destruction of Property & Life on earth. The Demon’s demands were clear: After creating dominance in heavens, he wanted to capture earth. However, Bhumi, the Goddess of Earth, always protected her home planet. On every attack from the Demon, she repelled it back fighting fiercely. She was a Warrior, the most ferocious one & was arrogant, filled with Conceit: Pride in her powers, Pride in her strength & Pride in herself.

Bhumi was the daughter of Lord Vishnu, & possessed many powerful weapons. Being the Goddess of earth; she was tall & elegant, with broad shoulders & Bluish black long hair. But at the same time, she loved Earth & always saved the beautiful planet whenever there was an attack or any natural calamity. Her eyes were Green in color, & her skin was light Brown, which resembled earth when looked from space.

Her Citadel was in the Carwar town on earth, set up high above in the mountains. Since the past some years, she used to practise meditation for getting answers to all her questions. Today, as usual she sat down outside her dwelling & started her meditation.

She was walking on a long sea beach. It was dusk, with sun setting on the horizon. Dark clouds were looming in the sky, as if the storm was approaching. The waves rippled on the shore, and a light sea breeze was blowing. Behind the shore, there were dense woods. Sensing something, she walked in the woods. After walking some distance, the noise of the sea shore stopped. Everything was silent. Little ahead, she saw a wooden pedestal. She approached it and saw a something written on the top.

“Arrogance, pride, anger, conceit, harshness and ignorance-these qualities belong to those of demonic nature. Those who are demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done.”

Terrified, she opened her eyes. What did I see? Was it meant for me? What am I supposed to understand from it? Whenever she meditated, she always saw the same message. What was it supposed to mean?

As she was interpreting the message, suddenly she heard chaos all around. At once she knew that the demon Kaunasuraa had attacked Earth again. Immediately she flew up high in the space. She saw a huge army approaching, & the demon was seated on a huge boar. In a quick glance, she flew towards him & without warning, directly attacked him.

"Don't make me use my powers on you, Kaunasuraa...!” Bhumi, the Goddess of earth, flung her axe in his direction and shouted fiercely. "I alone can fight with you and bring you down..! You very well know I can eliminate you in one blow..!"

"I am very much special to you. I know you won't do that, goddess..." the demon replied in a cunning voice.

Without hesitating, Bhumi dodged her trident straight towards the demon. The trident moved with tremendous speed towards him. But the demon, after years of great penance, had received many boons from the Gods. No weapon could harm him.

As the Trident moved towards him, he used the divine weapon of agneyaastra, which was capable of destroying all attacks forged towards it's owner by creating huge fire. The trident just vanished before it even touched the demon.

"You are no match to me, goddess...!” saying this, the demon threw a huge burning stone towards earth, and that created havoc. Before Bhumi could stop, the huge stone launched directly in sea, and the resultant impact created a high density earthquake, resulting in huge tsunami waves. Within minutes, the huge waves swept across the cities along the coastlines, creating destruction everywhere. From space, Bhumi watched in despair as numerous lives were lost, thousands lost their home, and huge amounts of property was destroyed.

Leaving the demon, Bhumi dashed towards earth and stopped the earthquake using her powers. The waves slowly subsided. However, destruction had already been done. She glared angrily at the demon who stood laughing at her powers which were incapable of stopping the destruction.

"I know your weakness, goddess...!" the demon screamed loudly and laughed. "I've already established myself in the heavens and hell. Now soon.... I'll get your earth. And you will be absolutely insolvent...!" Saying this, the demon again swung his hands and created a huge typhoon in the sea.

The typhoon slowly started advancing towards land. Instead of fighting with the demon, using her powers, Bhumi somehow stopped the typhoon from hitting the Land. The demon watched & laughed at her. Bhumi was now in a difficult situation. She had to save the earth, as well as to fight the demon in front. As she was about to make her move, suddenly there was a huge gush of wind. With a loud thundering sound, Tanun, the God of Wind and Storm, entered & using his super power, he repelled all the weapon attacks coming towards him. Using his superpowers, Tanun expanded himself to a huge size and started fighting with the demon, but still couldn’t overpower him. Bhumi meanwhile saved the earth from another destruction. Tanun used his power and created 4 different forms of himself, & all 5 of them together attacked Kaunasuraa. However, the demon was equally powerful & fought with all 5 of them, repelling all their attacks. The fight continued for some time. However, as one of the forms of Tanun fisted a blow on his head, Kaunasuraa turned himself into a fireball & escaped out.

“You were uninvited, the God of Wind…! Why did you come in between my fight? I am much powerful than you think. I can defeat him all alone, I don’t need anyone’s help..!” she growled at Tanun.

“Listen goddess, the demon is too powerful..! Your powers alone cannot…”

“Go back to your work, Tanun…! I can handle this myself…! I have enough powers to defeat him all alone…!” The Goddess screamed back at him.

Tanun understood that the goddess was filled with pride over self, pride over her powers. He knew that she could not fight the demon alone.

He had just returned after having a fierce fight with Banasuraa, another Demon god in the far off Universe. Abhimani, the God of Fire & Lightning, was helping him in that quest. Now as he reflected upon the recent war, suddenly he felt something. At once he realised that Bhumi was planning to attack Pragjyotishapur, the capital metropolis of Kaunasuraa, placed far across in the Universe.

Raising his sword, he flew in that direction. He could fly faster than the speed of light. Within a few minutes, he reached the capital city of Kaunasuraa, & as he knew aw the two fighting fiercely in the middle of the city.

“I can destroy you easily Kaunasuraa…!” Bhumi scowled angrily & threw her trident towards him which was easily repelled off by the Demon. She charged ahead & used her mace to fight with him. Tanun saw that she was already down with injuries, but she still fought with the demon.

“I’ll burn down your entire city…I’m that powerful to destroy you immediately…!” Bhumi said as she fought with the demon Kaunasuraa.

“You think that’ll be easy…Then you are a fool..!” Saying this, the demon launched a super powerful fireball towards her ,but she was too weak to avoid it. The fire ball hit her,& soon enough another series of fireballs kept coming towards her. She couldn’t stop all of them, and reluctantly, she fainted.

She was walking on a long sea beach. It was dusk, with sun setting on the horizon. Dark clouds were looming in the sky, as if the storm was approaching. The waves rippled on the shore, and a light sea breeze was blowing. Behind the shore, there were dense woods. Sensing something, she walked in the woods. After walking some distance, the noise of the sea shore stopped. Everything was silent. Little ahead, she saw a wooden pedestal. She approached it and saw a something written on the top.

“Arrogance, pride, anger, conceit, harshness and ignorance-these qualities belong to those of demonic nature. Those who are demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done.”

Bhumi opened her eyes at once. She looked around & saw that she was in her dwelling & Tanun was meditating in one corner. As she rose, he opened his eyes & smiled.

“I hope you understood the message in your dream.” Tanun said to her. How come he knows about that? She looked puzzled.

“I know of everything that happens around. Your mind is exactly telling you what you are doing that is wrong.” Tanun stood up as he said this. “The demon Kaunasuraa knows your weakness.”

“My weakness?” Bhumi questioned him back, ”I don’t have any …”

“You do have it. And you know what is it? Your love towards the people on earth. Your caring & helpful nature. You can do anything to save earth. This the weakness Kaunasuraa exactly knows..! Plus you are filled with Pride: pride for yourself, pride for your powers, pride for everything…! The demon is exactly using your pride as a weapon to destroy your weakness..! Why are you so proud of yourself? Why you think that you can defeat this demon much easily without any problem? Remember, the more proud you are, the more weak you’ll get, & that is exactly what Kaunasuraa wants..! He wants you to get more weaker, so that one day he’ll slowly destroy earth & you’ll feel too much guilty about yourself..! Let go of your pride. You can’t do everything alone. Pray to Gods for help. Don’t be too much dependent, but sometimes, you have to ask for help…!” Saying this, Tanun sat down for meditation.

Bhumi now understood what Tanun meant. She now understood what the message was in her dream. She was proud of everything, which was being used against her. Now she understood why she lost in every battle. She then realised that Tanun had come for her help. The Gods knew exactly what’s to be done, she thought. She then discussed everything with Tanun, & he guided her on the right path

“So finally you’ve decided to surrender…I never knew that you could be so easy & coward..!” Kaunasuraa said to Bhumi. She was kneeling down in front of her & they had decided to meet far off on a dead star in a galaxy, where they can discuss things together.

“I had no option. You’re too powerful for me..!” Bhumi pleaded to the demon.

“From now on….I’ll rule the earth. I’ll have control over all of your powers..! I’ll take over every state & every province on earth..! You have to go as per my rules…..”

“You really think I’ll listen to you…?” saying this, Bhumi at once took her mace & hammered it on the demon’s head. The demon screamed loudly. Instantly, his huge army appeared & surrounded the star. The demon immediately ordered half of his army to attack earth & commanded the other half to attack the goddess. Suddenly Tanun appeared and using his superpowers, created numerous forms of himself. They expanded to huge sizes & within minutes, the entire army of the demon was vanished. Leaving the goddess to fight with Kaunasuraa, Tanun took off towards earth to take down the demon army.

Bhumi & Kaunasuraa both bellowed & charged towards each other. Using her Mace, Bhumi impeded all the fireballs & arrows coming towards her. The demon used all powerful weapons & bombarded Bhumi with them. However, Bhumi was equally powerful. She used her set of weapons on him. Kaunasuraa used Nagapasha, a powerful weapon which upon impact will create coils of venomous living snakes. However, Bhumi used Garudastra & easily defended it. The demon then fired Agneyaastra, which will emit powerful flames of fire upon impact from his bow. Bhumi again neutralised it with Varunastra, a weapon capable of producing torrential amounts of water. Kaunasuraa then used Vaishnavastra which cannot not be stopped by any other weapon. As he released the weapon, it went straight high up in the air & came down with lightning speed towards Bhumi. The Goddess again repelled it using her own Vaishnavastra.

The Demon now got fully enraged and charged ahead, hitting arrows & weapons towards Bhumi. She was equally powerful & dodged all of his attacks. She was the fiercest warrior the demon had ever seen. She was fighting ferociously , much like a tigress in a battle. Finally, after fighting for a long time, Bhumi rolled her mace & hit the demon.

Suddenly Tanun appeared & without warning, used his powers to create many forms of himself, & all of them attacked the demon at once. Bhumi then kept hitting him with her mace.

“You cannot harm me, Goddess…!” The demon screamed at her, laughing.

“You disgraced me, son….!” Bhumi replied back, growling fiercely at him. “I gave you all the powers but you misused them for your own good. I know you have a boon that only your mother can kill you. I restrained myself many times from not killing you. I was thinking you may improve yourself but I was wrong! Now you deserve this!” Saying this, Bhumi flung her Trident which moved at lightning speed,& within a second, the demon was beheaded.

Tanun approached the weeping Goddess. He could understand her grief over the loss of her son.

“Earth is under control. It’s totally safe…” he said as the Goddess thanked him for enlightening her.

As he took off towards earth, he knew that he would require Bhumi, the Goddess of Earth’s help, for his next battle against evil.

THE END