Durvāsa and the Akshayapātra

In the Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, the Pāṇḍavas are in the forest when Durvāsa Maharshi arrives with ten thousand disciples. The Akshayapātra, the vessel that never runs out of food, has already been emptied and cleaned for the day, and there is nothing to offer. Draupadī prays in great distress to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. He comes, eats the one grain of rice and the small piece of vegetable left in the vessel, and all of Durvāsa’s disciples are filled. The disciples leave without coming back to the camp.

The setting

In the forest exile, Yudhishṭhira had received the Akshayapātra from Bhagavān Sūrya, through the prayer that Dhaumya taught him. The Akshayapātra gave unlimited food all through the day, until Draupadī herself had eaten. After that it gave no more until the next sunrise. In this way it fed the Pāṇḍavas and the brāhmaṇas who travelled with them.

The Pāṇḍavas were living in Kāmyakavana when this trouble came. Draupadī had already eaten for the day, so the Akshayapātra was empty and had been cleaned.

Durvāsa arrives

Durvāsa Maharshi came to the camp of the Pāṇḍavas with ten thousand disciples. Duryodhana had sent him, for Duryodhana knew the limit of the Akshayapātra, and the hour was chosen to make an impossible situation.

Durvāsa said that he and his disciples would bathe in the river and then come back to eat. They went down to the river. The Pāṇḍavas were left in a terrible difficulty. There was nothing in the vessel and nothing to cook. If Durvāsa and ten thousand ṛshis came back and found nothing ready, no one could say what his anger would bring.

Yudhishṭhira stood unable to act. Draupadī, in real desperation, turned inward.

Draupadī’s prayer

Draupadī prayed from her heart to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. She recalled all the ways he had protected her: in the dice hall, from shame, and through every danger of the forest. She called on him now, at a moment when no worldly means could end the trouble.

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa appeared before her. He looked into the cleaned Akshayapātra and saw at the bottom one grain of rice and a small piece of vegetable, the least trace of food left after the cleaning. He took it and ate it. He said: “May Jagannātha be satisfied by this. May the ruler of all the worlds be fulfilled by this offering.”

By this one act, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa eating a single grain and declaring his own satisfaction, the hunger of all living beings was met at the same moment.

What the disciples felt

Durvāsa and his ten thousand disciples were standing in the river, getting ready to bathe before their meal. All at once they felt completely full, fuller than they had ever been after any meal. The fullness was total and they could not explain it. They could not have eaten another mouthful even if they had been made to.

Durvāsa understood what had happened. The power behind this fullness was Bhagavān Kṛshṇa’s own eating of what was left in the vessel. He spoke quietly to his disciples and told them they must not go back to the camp of the Pāṇḍavas. The Pāṇḍavas had Bhagavān Kṛshṇa as their protector. To go back and ask for a meal that no longer needed to be given, when Bhagavān Kṛshṇa had already acted, would bring something beyond ordinary results. The disciples agreed, and they quietly went their ways without returning.

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa’s words to the Pāṇḍavas

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa then spoke to the Pāṇḍavas to reassure them. He told them that their suffering in the forest was not without purpose, that their enemies would not prosper in the end, and that the dharma they had kept through every hardship would bear fruit at the right time. He praised Draupadī’s bhakti (loving devotion) in particular, for the sincerity and need with which she had called on him.

The episode ended in peace. Durvāsa and his disciples never came back, the danger was gone completely, and the Pāṇḍavas understood better what they had been given in the friendship of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 262 and 263