It is a popular saying that the best things of the world come in small packages. This just does not apply to things, but even to humans, wherein sometimes when one is judged by their appearance as not capable, turns out to be the most intellectual of all. There are many stories which prove this, and one such story is that of Rishi Agastya and the Vindhya Mountain.
Once, the Vindhyas situated in the Dandak forest competed with the Himalayas and started increasing their height and rising to the skies. They grew so tall that they started blocking the path of Surya Bhagwan and interrupted his daily duty of providing light to the world. This bought trouble for the Devas as without the Sun God moving in his regular path and providing light to the world, there would be no life. They requested the Vindhyas to reduce their height, but the Vindhyas did not budge. Worried, the Devas approached Rishi Agastya, who was the guru of the Vindhyas and sought his help.
Hearing to their pleas, Rishi Agastya decided to help them and started his journey down south to the Vindhyas. Rishi Agastya was a short man in appearance and indeed it was a great task to walk all the way down from the Himalayas to the Vindhyas barring all the forest perils. But, with determination Rishi Agastya reaches the Vindhyas. The Vindhyas saw their guru and bowed down with great reverence and asked where he was going to.
Rishi Agastya mentions that he was on a pilgrimage due south and requested the tall mountains to decrease their height so that he could pass on. But the Mountain refused. Then Rishi Agastya mentions that he was a short and a stout man and it was difficult for him to climb such a tall mountain and says that the Vindhyas could grow back once he crossed back them.
The Vindhyas agreed to this as they believed that it was difficult for a short man to climb such tall ranges and also as he was their guru, they had to abide to his wish. Lest, did they know the intellectual idea of Rishi Agastya behind asking them to decrease their height. Agreeing to their guru’s wish, the Vindhyas started lowering their height for Rishi Agastya to cross them over. Rishi Agastya thanked them and resumed his journey.
However, the surprise came in for the Vindhyas when Rishi Agastya did not come back and decided to settle in the South permanently. As he promised the Vindhyas that they could grow back tall once he returned, he decided never to return back in that path. He stayed back in south and the Vindhayas bound to their promise remained lower in height. With the Vindhyas reducing their height, things again came back to normal and the Sun God continued his journey in the skies. Thus, Rishi Agastya kept his promise of resolving the problematic growth of the Vindhyas.
This simple, yet intellectual solution of a small man in appearance could bring down the pride and also the height of the great Vindhya ranges that even the Devas could not resolve. It only asserts the statement that the more you grow high in the path of life, the more one needs to be humble as humility is as great as Rishi Agastya which brings down the stubbornness of great mountains like Vindhyas too.