The ancestors dissuade Ourva from destroying the worlds
Having spared the kings, Ourva turns his fury on existence itself. He begins terrible austerities to burn all the worlds to ashes. His ancestors, the very Bhrigus he seeks to avenge, descend from heaven to stop him, revealing a shocking secret: they orchestrated their own deaths.
Ourva decided the kings' punishment was not enough. The entire world was complicit. He would bring about the destruction of all the worlds. To bring honor to the Bhrigus, he engaged in great and severe austerities (tapas), generating a spiritual fire so intense it began to burn the worlds — the realms of the gods, the asuras, and men.
He was gratifying his ancestors with this offering of universal fire.
His ancestors, learning what he planned from their heavenly world, descended. They stood before him and spoke.
"O Ourva! O son! We have witnessed the power of your severe austerities. Have mercy for the worlds and control your anger."
Then they explained everything. The self-controlled Bhrigus had not been powerless against the Kshatriyas. Nor had they been indifferent to the slaughter. The truth was the opposite: they had grown tired of their long lives and had themselves wished for death at the hands of the warriors.
The riches buried in the ground in the dwelling place of the Bhrigus? They had placed that treasure there themselves, with the explicit intention of angering the Kshatriyas and creating enmity. It was bait. "O bull among the twice-born!" they said, "What use are riches to us when we wish to attain heaven?"
They had found that death was completely unable to overcome them naturally. This conflict seemed the most pleasant way to end their long spans. There was a final, crucial point of dharma: "O son! Those who kill themselves never attain the best worlds." Remembering that, they had not taken their own lives. They had engineered a situation where the Kshatriyas would do it for them.
"O son! That which you desire does not please us at all. Therefore, control your mind and refrain from this evil destruction of all the worlds. O son! None of the Kshatriyas in the seven worlds has offended or harmed our austerities. Win over the anger that has arisen in you."
Ourva listened. He was persuaded by their words. The fire of his tapas cooled. He refrained from destroying the worlds. The threat of universal destruction, born from a son's love and rage for his fathers, was averted by the very fathers who had planned their own ends.