Indra and the Ants (The Power of Myth)

And so the boy points to the ants and says, “Former Indras fall. Through many lifetimes they rise from the lowest conditions to the highest illumination. And then they drop their thunderbolt on a monster, and they think, ’What a good boy am I.’ And down they go again.“ When the boy is talking, a crotchety old yogi comes into the palace with a banana leaf parasol. He is naked except for a loincloth, and on his chest is a little disk of hair, and half the hairs in the middle have all dropped out. The boy gr