Yaksha Praśna

The Yaksha Praśna is the dialogue between Yudhishṭhira and a Yaksha at a forest lake. It comes from the Āraṇeya Parva, Chapters 311 to 315, in the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata, near the end of the Pāṇḍavas’ forest exile. It begins when a deer carries off a brāhmaṇa’s fire-sticks and the Pāṇḍavas chase it through a thick forest until they are worn out. At a lake with a spell on it, the four younger brothers, Nakula, Sahadeva, Arjuna and Bhīma, each drink the water without answering the Yaksha and fall senseless. Yudhishṭhira alone answers the Yaksha’s questions on dharma, ātman (the self), the order of the world, right conduct and moksha (liberation), and all five brothers are revived. The Yaksha shows himself as Dharmarāja (Yama), Yudhishṭhira’s own father, who gives three varas (boons), among them that the whole year of hiding passes unrecognised.

The theft of the araṇi (Chapter 311, Mṛgānveshaṇa)

The episode begins in Dvaitavana, where the Pāṇḍavas had returned after the Draupadī-haraṇa episode. A brāhmaṇa came to Yudhishṭhira in great distress. His araṇi (the wood used to light the sacred fire) and his manṭhanakāshṭha (the churning stick) had been hanging on a branch of a tree. A deer came and rubbed against the trunk, and the two fire-sticks caught in his antlers. The deer ran off into the forest at great speed with them. Without them the brāhmaṇa could not do his agnikārya (fire rite).

The five Pāṇḍavas, moved by the brāhmaṇa’s distress, took up their weapons and chased the deer through the thick forest. They shot kārṇī, nālīka and nārāca arrows at it but could not hit it. The deer vanished. Tired, hungry and thirsty, the five brothers sat down in the cool shade of a great banyan tree. Nakula climbed the tree and saw signs of water nearby: trees that grow near water, and the sound of sārasa birds. Yudhishṭhira sent him to fetch water.

The four brothers fall (Chapter 312, Nakulādhipatana)

Nakula went to the clear lake. Parched with thirst, he was about to drink when a voice with no body spoke from the sky: “This lake is under my authority. Do not drink without first answering my questions.” Overcome by thirst, Nakula ignored the warning, drank, and fell senseless to the ground.

When Nakula did not return, Yudhishṭhira sent Sahadeva. He too reached the lake and saw his brother lying like one dead. He heard the same warning from the Yaksha, yet he drank and fell. Then Arjuna came. He shot arrows in all directions at the unseen being, and when he could not find his target he drank, and he too fell. Last came Bhīmasena. He suspected a rākshasa or a Yaksha and made up his mind to fight, but he could not resist his thirst. He drank and fell.

Seeing that none of his brothers had come back, Yudhishṭhira went into the forest alone. He came to a beautiful lake adorned with golden lotuses and bordered by sinduvāra, vetasa, ketakī, karavīra and pippala trees. It looked as if Viśvakarma himself had built it. There he saw his four brothers lying on the ground as if asleep, with no wounds or marks on their bodies.

Grief-stricken, he mourned each one. He mourned Bhīma, who had sworn to break Duryodhana’s thighs, Arjuna, who had never been beaten in battle, and the gentle Nakula and Sahadeva. He reasoned that no poison had been used, for their faces were calm, and that no ordinary enemy could have felled them. He decided that it must be an extraordinary being.

When Yudhishṭhira went into the lake to drink, the Yaksha spoke again: “I am a heron who lives on fish. It was I who killed your brothers. If you drink without answering my questions, you will be the fifth to go to Yamaloka.”

The questions and answers (Chapter 313, Yaksha Praśna)

Yudhishṭhira looked up and saw a huge being seated in a tree. He was as tall as a palm tree, with terrible eyes, blazing like the sun and fire, with a voice like thunder. He was no ordinary creature. Yudhishṭhira spoke to him with respect and offered to answer his questions as well as he understood them.

The Yaksha then asked a long series of questions, and Yudhishṭhira answered each one.

The order of the world

• Who raises the sun? Brahma raises the sun. Who goes with it? The devas go with it. Who sets it? Dharma sets it. In what does it rest? It rests in satya (truth).

What raises a man

• What gives a man the quality of a śrotriya (one learned in the Veda)? Vedic study (svādhyāya). What gives greatness? Tapas. What is a man’s companion? Dhairya (steadiness). What gives wisdom? Service to elders.

The varṇas

• In brāhmaṇas, what is their divinity? What is their noble quality? What is their human quality? What is their ignoble quality? Svādhyāya is their divinity. Tapas is their noble quality. Death is their human quality. Slander is their ignoble quality.
• What makes a brāhmaṇa: birth, learning or conduct? Conduct (ācāra) alone. One who has studied all four Vedas but lacks proper ācāra is lower even than a śūdra. The brāhmaṇa who keeps the agnihotra and controls his senses is the true brāhmaṇa.

What goes beyond the ordinary

• What is heavier than the earth? A mother. What is taller than the sky? A father. What is faster than the wind? The mind. What is more numerous than grass? Worries (cintā).

Creatures and the world

• What does not sleep even when it sleeps? The fish. What does not move even after it is born? The egg. What has no heart? A stone. What grows by moving? A river.

Friends and support

• Who is the companion of the traveller? Fellow travellers. Of the householder? The wife. Of the sick? The physician. Of the dying? Dāna (giving).

Dharma and liberation

• What is the highest dharma? Ahiṃsā, not harming any being. What is the eternal dharma? The dharma set down in the Vedas. By what is the world covered? By ajñāna (ignorance). Why does it not shine? Because of tamas. Why does a man leave his friends? Through lobha (greed). Why does he not reach svarga (heaven)? Through āsakti (attachment).
• What must be given up to become beloved? Pride (ahaṃkāra). To stop grieving? Anger (krodha). To become rich in the true sense? Desires (kāma). To be happy? Greed (lobha).

What brings lasting good

• What does speaking sweetly give? One becomes beloved by all. What does acting with thought give? One wins more victories. What do many friends give? One lives happily. What does devotion to dharma give? One reaches sadgati (a good end).

The four great questions

• Who is happy? One who has no debts, lives in his own country, and eats what is made at home without begging is happy.
• What is the greatest wonder (āścaryam)? Every day beings die and go to Yamaloka, yet those who remain think they will live forever. This is the greatest wonder.
• What is the path? Reasoning (tarka) has no firm ground, the śrutis are many, and the ṛshis differ in what they say. So one must follow the path walked by great men (mahāpurushas). That is the path.
• What is the news? In the great cooking-vessel of this world, with the sun as fire, day and night as fuel, and the months and seasons as ladles, Kāla (Time) cooks all beings. That is the news.

Who is a true man and who is truly rich

• Who is a purusha (a true man)? He whose good deeds are spoken of between svarga and the earth (pṛthivī) is a purusha.
• Who is truly rich? He who can look on pleasure and pain alike, who is not shaken by past, present or future, and who keeps a calm mind (śānta-manas) is the richest of all.

The choice and the revelation (Chapter 314, Nakulādijīvanādi-Varaprāpti)

At the end of the dialogue the Yaksha was pleased and offered to bring one brother back to life. Yudhishṭhira chose Nakula. He did not choose Bhīma, whom he loved most, or Arjuna, on whose strength all their hopes rested. His reason was that his father Pāṇḍu had two wives, Kuntī and Mādrī. As a son of Kuntī, he himself was alive, but Mādrī too should have a son living. To honour both mothers equally, Yudhishṭhira chose Nakula.

The Yaksha, deeply moved, said: “Because you have put karuṇā (compassion) and samatā (evenness of mind) above artha (wealth) and kāma (desire), let all your brothers live.” At his word Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva all rose up as if from sleep, free from hunger and thirst.

Then the Yaksha showed himself: “I am Dharmarāja, your father. I came here because I wished to see you.” He told Yudhishṭhira that he himself had taken the form of the deer and stolen the brāhmaṇa’s araṇi and manṭhana. It was a test of Yudhishṭhira’s conduct and judgment. He now offered three varas (boons).

1. Yudhishṭhira asked that the araṇi and manṭhana be given back to the brāhmaṇa. Dharmarāja said that he had taken them himself as the deer, and he gave them back at once.
2. Yudhishṭhira asked that during the ajñātavāsa (the thirteenth year, to be lived unrecognised) no one should know them. Dharmarāja granted it. Wherever they lived, even in their own forms, no one in the three worlds would know them, and they could take any form by mere saṃkalpa (resolve). The ajñātavāsa was to be spent in the kingdom of Virāṭa.
3. Yudhishṭhira asked that krodha (anger), lobha (greed) and moha (confusion) should not overcome him, and that his mind should always be set on dāna, satya and tapas. Dharmarāja answered that these were already his own natural qualities and they would stay with him.

Dharmarāja then said: “Yama, glory, truth, self-control, purity, straightforwardness, shame, steadiness, dāna, tapas and brahmacarya are all my own forms. You already hold five of these virtues: śama, dama, uparati, titikshā and samādhāna. And you have conquered the shatpada, the six afflictions of hunger, thirst, grief, moha, old age and death.”

He then vanished. The Pāṇḍavas went back to the āśrama, gave the araṇi and manṭhana back to the brāhmaṇa, and made their plans for the ajñātavāsa.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Āraṇeya Parva, Chapters 311–315
• Chapter 311, Mṛgānveshaṇa
• Chapter 312, Nakulādhipatana
• Chapter 313, Yaksha Praśna
• Chapter 314, Nakulādijīvanādi-Varaprāpti