Musings 
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A dragon was threatening the survival of humanity, withholding the water that fell to the earth. Indra, a powerful god, killed the dragon with a bolt of lightning and saved the world. After having carried out this glorious deed, he felt very special and summoned Visvakarman, the god of arts and crafts, ordering him to build a palace of unrivaled splendor that would be worthy of himself, the king of the gods. Within a year, the great architect had managed to construct a beautiful big palace, with wonderful gardens, crystal clear lakes, orchards and forests, but Indra always asked for more, however, and every time the work was just about finished, he would come up with some new demands.
Very tired, Visvakarman went to Brahman to complain, who then took the complaint to the highest level and spoke to Vishnu.
The following morning, a blue boy appeared at the doors of the palace asking to speak to Indra. The guards could see that he was special, and took him to the royal presence.
Walking into the courtroom, he addressed Indra. “Great king, I see that your beautiful palace is still not finished. How many years do you think it will take to be completed?”
The great Indra laughed. Drunk on his own glory, he rather fancied the young boy’s pretension in wanting to know something he did not know.
“Even I do not know this,” he answered.
“No Indra that came before you ever managed to finish such a majestic palace.”
“There were Indras that came before me? There were others?”
“Many. An infinity of them, in fact.”
Indra was perplexed. “How many Indras have already existed?”
“The life of an Indra lasts 71 eons, and when 28 Indras have died, one day and one night will have passed for Brahman. The Brahmans die too and are followed by others. As well as this, earth is one amongst many others that exist in our universe, and there are many universes too. It is easier to count all of the grains of sand on all the beaches of the universe that to count the number of Indras that already came before you.”
At this moment, a long procession of ants many yards long came into the room in rows of four, marching like a military parade. The boy started to laugh. Curious, Indra asked, what was so funny.
“Look, great king. Each of these was already an Indra. They became so proud of what they had achieved that, after many incarnations, they came back to earth transformed into ants.”
The great Indra understood the lesson. He called Visvakarman immediately and called off the construction, moving on to dedicate himself diligently to his own spiritual development.
This story is being retold by Roberto Lima Netto, the Brazilian author of The Amazon Shaman and the Happiness Academy blog.
