half for you and half for me

half for you and half for me

In a village there was a very rich but lazy person whose wealth consisted manily of agricultural land and cattle inherited from his forefathers. He had no education or training whatsoever and never cared about it.The two functions that engaged his whole time was sleeping and eating and in time he became so fat that he could not move at all. Incidently this man's name was Vajrasumbha ( the inveterate idiot) When the excessive fat was accompanied with disease like immobility, gasping, giddiness and similar maladies obligatory to such fatties, the man called the local Brahmin priest who was also a part-time astrologer, quack and soothsayer. The priest examined the fat man gravely and quoting from all the slokas that he could remember came to the conclusion that the sick man was possessed by a ghost and a havan or yajna had to be conducted to exorcise the ghost and bring the victim to his normal condition. (the priest was rather very scantily trained in scriptures etc, but had the gift of the gab to compensate for it.) He also fixed the date and the dakshina for the ritual.....one hunndred milch buffaloes. 

The deal was confirmed and on the appointed day the priest prepared a big fireplace for havan and started pouring ghee and other incense to it loudly chanting a lot of inarticulate and strange words and the fatty victim and the viilagefolk were highly impressed

But as luck would have it, a very learned scholar unexpectedly turned up to the village on that date . He was aghast and angry seeing this buffoonery and came rushing to the place of yaj~na and prepared himself to announce something gravely.. 

Pre-empting the scholar, the priest started pouring ghee on the fire chanting the following mantra..

वज्रशुंभस्य यज्ञस्य महिषीशतदक्षिणा

तवाप्यर्धं ममाप्यर्धम् मा विघ्नं कुरु पण्डित॥

(vajraśuṁbhasya yajñasya mahiṣīśatadakṣiNaa

tavāpyardhaṁ mamāpyardham mā vighnaṁ kuru panḍita||

Oh, revered Scholar, for the yajna of vajrasumbha, I have arranged for a dakshina of a hundred milch buffaloes, half of it will be for you, and so please keep quiet and do not raise any impediment. 

The idiot of a fatty fellow or his villagers did not understand the meaning of this mantra. The scholar became silent and tame like a sweet lamb and 

the yajna was a resounding success.