THE LIFTING OF THE MOUNTAIN 187
and could not be given or withholden by Indra or any other of the ancient gods, *' Surely, if ye must worship/' He cried, in His earnestness, *' it were better to worship this mountain under whose shelter we dwell. Let us celebrate a feast in honour of the forest and the priesthood and the cows. To do this were indeed well, but to worship Indra for the sake of harvests is but childish nonsense and old wives' tales I " Carried away by His pleadings, the cowherds placed themselves entirely at his will, and that year's merry-making was dedicated to the mountain, to which they owed home and food and all that they enjoyed.
But not without a struggle would the God Indra resign His accustomed offerings. None of the daring words of Krishna were hidden from Him, He was present at every conference. He heard the fiery arguments, and He saw the impression moreover that was made on the minds of the simple country-folk. Indra knew that if He did not now defeat the plans of the Lord Krishna, then were the hearts of the people lost for ever to Him, and all the shining deities of the sky. Therefore, to punish the presumption of the cow- herds — who had dared, at the bidding of Krishna, to enter on the rainy season without first making sacrifices to Him — the God Indra sent dDwn such rain as had never be^^n seen in Brindaban within
