Hariṇakṛśa Rākshasa Upākhyāna: Pale and Thin

This upākhyāna (a teaching narrative) is told by Bhīshma in the Anuśāsana Parva. Yudhishṭhira asked him whether sāma (gentle, winning speech) or dāna (giving) is the stronger way to win over another person. Bhīshma answered with an old itihāsa about a brāhmaṇa who was caught in a forest by a man-eating rākshasa. The brāhmaṇa calmed the rākshasa by gentle speech alone. The rākshasa asked him one question, why he had become pale and thin, and the brāhmaṇa answered with a long list of mental and moral causes. In the title, hariṇa means pale and kṛśa means thin.

The question

Yudhishṭhira asked Bhīshma which is greater, sāma or dāna, and which has the upper hand in calming and winning over another person. Bhīshma said that some men are won by sāma alone and others only by dāna. One must know a person’s svabhāva (his own nature) before choosing which to use. But he said he would first speak of the guṇas (good qualities) of sāntvana (kind, soothing speech), because even beings as terrible as certain bhūtas can be calmed by sāma alone.

The brāhmaṇa is seized

Bhīshma told an old itihāsa. A brāhmaṇa skilled in speech and in buddhi (understanding) was walking in a forest where no people lived. A man-eating rākshasa seized him, and he suffered greatly.

Even in this danger, the brāhmaṇa was rich in buddhi and in knowledge of the śāstras. He looked at the terrible rākshasa without trouble in his heart and without sorrow. He spoke to him only with sāma. The rākshasa was won over by his words and put one question to him. If the brāhmaṇa could answer it, he would set him free.

The question was, “Why have I become pale (hariṇa) and thin (kṛśa)?”

The brāhmaṇa thought for one muhūrta (a short span of time) with a steady heart. Then he answered in a long series of gāthās (verses). In each one he named a possible cause of the rākshasa’s wasting and then set it aside.

The brāhmaṇa’s answer

The brāhmaṇa’s answer is a long list. Each verse ends with the same refrain, “for this reason you became pale, you became thin.” He named many mental and moral causes, among them these.

Having enjoyed unmatched pleasures of the senses (vishaya-sukha) alone, away from friends and family in other lands and other lokas, with no one beside him.
Having ruined, by his own fault, the very friends whose good conduct had once helped him.
Having been insulted, with no real answer given, by people far below him in quality but above him in wealth and power.
Having treated the good as low and the wise as fools, out of too much pride in his own qualities and wisdom (prajñā).
Living without a proper means of living, always resenting the ways to one, and grieving, “I am great, yet I am brought to this.”
Believing that a man he had once helped, now that the man was rich, thinks he has risen above him and beaten him.
Being seized by kāma (desire) and krodha (anger), and always dwelling on those who have fallen by evil ways.
Being honoured for his great wisdom, yet making friends with the badly behaved and the foolish, and being ruined by their company.
Being betrayed by one who looked like a friend outside but was secretly an enemy.
Having his guhya (secret) matters, once cleverly hidden, laid open, so that those who learned the truth stopped honouring him.
Speaking without restraint about the faults of his own wicked relatives, so that his good qualities went unseen.
Being devoted only to wealth, without learning, yet wanting greatness through tejas (forceful brilliance) alone.
Wishing to live in the forest absorbed in tapas (austerity), but finding that his own relatives did not approve.
Being devoted to his wife, only to find a rich, young, refined and passionate rival move in as a neighbour.
Speaking words that were weighty and well-timed but did not please those who truly understood their meaning.
Having a close old friend, foolish and quick to anger yet dear to his heart, whom he failed to calm.
Being used by another person for that person’s own gain, under the pretence of a task dear to him.
Being regarded by a friend of good qualities as mere property, to be used at will.
Wanting some secret wish, when his self-control had loosened, yet being ashamed to say it even within his own heart.
Trying to win over many people of different tastes and natures by his own personal qualities alone.
Being cowardly and foolish, yet wanting the fame that comes only from vidyā (learning), courage and dāna, for some small purpose.
Having long wanted some small result that others in the end gained instead of him.
Believing himself wholly free of fault while others blamed him without cause.
Watching good householders and good forest-dwellers, and the truly liberated who stay attached only to their homes, and being troubled by the comparison.
Being unable to ease the sorrow of friends and relatives in trouble, and concluding, “Of what use are my qualities and my wealth?”, and so thinking himself worthless.
Speaking words that agree with dharma, bring artha (wealth), suit kāma (pleasure) and are well-timed, yet supposing that no one would listen.
Being proud and clever, yet content to live on the charity of those who cannot help themselves.
Watching those who do pāpa (sin) do well and the good decline, and railing at the sight.
Trying to force a peace between two friends who were by nature unsuited to each other.
Always dwelling on Śrotriyas (learned brāhmaṇas) who have fallen into bad conduct, and on men of great wisdom who lack indriya-nigraha (control of the senses).

The brāhmaṇa ends with this conclusion. Ceaseless brooding over matters that are not truly one’s own concern (ātma-vishaya-cintā that is not truly ātma-vishaya) is the real cause of pāṇḍuratā (paleness) and kṛśatva (thinness). And where dāna cannot be given, sāma itself becomes the means of living and of calming others.

The rākshasa’s answer

The rākshasa was pleased and fully calmed by the brāhmaṇa’s understanding of his own inner state. He honoured the brāhmaṇa greatly and took him as a mitra (friend). He gave him much wealth and set him free, unharmed.

Sources

Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 124