Mudgala

Yudhishthira asks Vyasa which is greater in the next world — the dharma of giving or austerities — and which is more difficult. Vyasa answers that giving is the most difficult act because wealth is obtained through great hardship, and therefore charity is superior — provided it is given justly to the right person at the right time.

Durvasa, the notoriously short-tempered sage, arrives at Mudgala's hermitage as a shaven-headed lunatic and devours every grain of food the hermit has gathered. He returns six times, each time eating everything, smearing leftovers on his body, and leaving Mudgala to starve. But Mudgala never wavers — not in anger, not in generosity, not in the purity of his mind.

As Durvasa finishes blessing Mudgala, a messenger of the gods descends in a celestial chariot and tells him to ascend — he has earned heaven. But Mudgala does not climb aboard. Instead, he asks the messenger to describe heaven's qualities and its shortcomings before he decides, invoking the principle that seven steps together constitutes friendship with the righteous.