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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Vana
Āraṇeya (Yakṣa-praśna)
Classical
It begins as a small domestic problem. The Pandavas are in Dwaitavana, after Draupadi has been rescued from Jayadratha. A deer runs off with a Brahmin's fire-sticks and churning staff, tangled in its antlers. The Brahmin asks the Pandavas to get them back, so that his fire ritual will not lapse. The brothers chase the deer and cannot hit it, and it vanishes. Tired, hungry and thirsty, they sit under a banyan tree. Nakula says that their family has always upheld virtue and never refused anyone, so why is this happening to them?
Yudhishthira answers in general terms: calamities have no limit, their causes are not fully known, and the lord of justice hands out the fruits of virtue and vice. Bhima, Arjuna and Sahadeva each blame a past failure, such as not killing an enemy or not silencing an insult. Yudhishthira sends Nakula to find water. He finds a lake and hears a voice warning him to answer questions before drinking. He drinks anyway and dies. Sahadeva follows and dies the same way. Arjuna hears the unseen speaker, a Yaksha, shoots mantra-charged arrows at the voice, and drinks without answering. He dies. Bhima, burning with thirst, drinks and dies.
Yudhishthira goes looking for them and finds a beautiful lake and his four brothers dead beside it. He tries to work out who killed them. There are no wounds and no footprints. He wonders about a trick of Duryodhana's, but their faces have not gone pale as poisoned men's would. Before he drinks, a voice from the sky claims the lake and says Yudhishthira will die too unless he answers. It calls itself a crane that eats small fish, and when Yudhishthira asks what god it is, it says it is a Yaksha and that it killed the younger brothers because they drank after repeated warnings.
Then the questions come, many of them, and Yudhishthira answers each. Some are plain riddles. What is heavier than the earth? A mother. Higher than the sky? A father. Swifter than the wind? The mind. More numerous than grass? Thoughts. Who is the friend of the traveller? A travelling companion. Of the householder? His wife. Of the sick? A physician. Of the dying? Charity. Some are teachings. What is the highest duty? Not harming. What makes a Brahmin: birth, learning or conduct? Conduct. What, given up, makes a person happy? Pride, anger, desire and greed. What is the path? The one the great have walked, since reasoning and scripture disagree. The news of the world, he says, is that Time cooks all creatures in the fire of the sun. And the greatest wonder? That every day people see others die and live as if they themselves never will.
Satisfied, the Yaksha offers to revive one brother. Yudhishthira picks Nakula. The Yaksha is surprised that he would choose a stepbrother over Bhima or Arjuna. Yudhishthira replies that he upholds virtue and treats the sons of Kunti and Madri equally, since Madri should also have a son living. The Yaksha is moved. Yudhishthira values harmlessness above both profit and pleasure, he says, and he gives life to all four.
Then the Yaksha reveals himself. He is Dharma, Yudhishthira's father, who came to test him. He praises Yudhishthira's harmlessness. He had taken the Brahmin's fire-sticks in the form of a deer as part of the test. Yudhishthira asks for three boons. First, that the Brahmin's fire worship not be interrupted. Second, that in the thirteenth year they go unrecognised. Dharma grants it and adds that each brother may take any form he likes. Third, that Yudhishthira overcome greed, delusion and anger, and stay devoted to giving, truth and austerity. Dharma says he already has these by nature, and vanishes. The brothers sleep, wake refreshed, go back to the hermitage and return the fire-sticks. Hearing or reflecting on the story, the text says, brings peace of mind, descendants and long life.
Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya
Who: Yudhiṣṭhira
Where this comes from
- CE · Mahabharata, Critical Edition 3.295-299 3.295-299
- read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Vana Parva, Section CCCIX (the deer and the fire-sticks)
- read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Vana Parva, Section CCCXI as labelled (the brothers fall at the lake; Yudhishthira at the lake; the questions)
- read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Vana Parva, no section number shown (Dharma revealed; the boons)
- read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Vana Parva, Section CCCXIII (the thirteenth year planned; context)
- read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (ibiblio.org SriPedia mirror) Vana Parva, Section CCCX (Nakula, Sahadeva, Arjuna, Bhima fall at the lake)