[Advaita-l] Greatness of Devas and Pitrus

[Venkatesh Murthy]

In Hari Vamsha there is a story.

Hiranyagarbha Brahma created Devas and gave them all Bhoga things to
enjoy and also told them to do duties. After some time the Devas
became very attached to enjoyment and forgot the duties. Looking at
them Hiranyagarbha became angry and cursed them 'Let your superior
consciousness become destroyed and you become ignorant'. The Devas
became sad and prayed to Brahma only. He said 'Get your ignorance
removed by your children Pitrus'. The Devas went to the Pitrus. The
Pitrus said 'Children! We will instruct you to remove your ignorance'.
The Devas got Jnana but they were sad because the Pitrus called them
as 'Putraaha' children. The Devas complained to Brahma 'The  Pitrus
are our children but they called us Children'. Then Brahma said to
Devas 'You gave birth to Pitrus. They are your children. But they gave
you Jnana. Now you are children to them. You both are children to each
other'.

त एते पितरो देवा देवाश्च पितरस्तथा
अन्योन्यं पितरो ह्येते देवाश्च पितरस्तथा ॥

-- 
Regards

-Venkatesh