Man in the Forest
The Man in the Forest is a well-known upākhyāna (illustrative account) told by Vidura to Dhṛtarāshṭra in the Jala Pradāna Parva of the Strī Parva of the Mahābhārata. It shows a man who runs from a fearsome forest and falls into a well. He holds on to a vine, and the honey of a beehive drips onto his face while serpents and a great beast threaten him. It pictures the condition of the ātmā in saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death). It is one of the clearest descriptions of saṃsāra in the Mahābhārata.
Context
Dhṛtarāshṭra had heard of the death of Duryodhana and the end of the Kuru army, and he was overcome with grief. Vidura, who was always his counsellor, came to him. He taught Dhṛtarāshṭra a long series of lessons on karma, on impermanence and on the nature of saṃsāra.
The Man in the Forest is the centre of these lessons. Vidura told it to help Dhṛtarāshṭra see why grief over what is natural cannot be the base of wisdom. Death, loss and the end of one’s kin are natural. The account is in Chapters 2 to 7 of the Strī Parva.
The parable
A man wanders into a huge and fearsome forest full of tigers and serpents. He is terrified of the beasts that chase him. He runs blindly and falls into a great well. As he falls, he grabs a vine growing from the wall of the well. He hangs there, between the dark depths below and the open world above.
His position is terrible:
- At the bottom of the well lies a great serpent, huge and patient.
- On the walls of the well crowd many other serpents, watching him with cruel eyes.
- A great black-and-white rat gnaws without rest at the vine he hangs from. (In some accounts it is a great bear.)
- Wild elephants push and trample around the mouth of the well.
- Above his head hangs a beehive. A thin stream of honey drips from it onto his face.
His position is hopeless, with the serpent below, the rat gnawing, the elephants and the serpents on the walls. Still he does not let go of the vine. He stretches his tongue up to catch the dripping honey. In that danger, the sweetness of the honey takes him over so fully that he does not think of his situation.
What each part means
Vidura explains the meaning of the parable part by part.
| Part of the parable | What it means in saṃsāra |
|---|---|
| The huge, fearsome forest | The cycle of existence (saṃsāra) |
| The beasts that chase the man | The troubles and dangers of life |
| The great well | Human birth, life in a body |
| The vine | The length of a human life |
| The great serpent at the bottom | Kāla (time, death) |
| The serpents on the walls | The years, months and days that eat away life |
| The black-and-white rat gnawing the vine | Day and night, always making life shorter |
| The wild elephants at the mouth | The many disturbances of worldly life |
| The beehive | The objects of the senses |
| The honey dripping onto the tongue | The passing pleasures of saṃsāra |
| The man stretching for the honey | The ātmā lost in sense pleasure although death is near |
The teaching
The parable does more than describe. It tells the hearer what to do. Vidura teaches that a wise man sees this situation clearly and does not stretch his tongue for the honey. He uses what is left of his vine, his lifespan, to grow in jñāna (knowledge), tapas (austerity) and dharma. Then, when the serpent of death takes him at last, he rises to the higher lokas or reaches moksha. He does not fall into the darkness below.
Vidura says that Dhṛtarāshṭra’s grief is itself a reaching for honey. It is a taste of the sweetness of attachment to his sons and his kingdom, while the vine of his own life is being gnawed away. The teaching is this: do not grieve, see clearly, and act rightly with what remains.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Strī Parva, Jala Pradāna Parva, Chapters 2 to 7 (Vidura’s teaching to Dhṛtarāshṭra and the parable of the man in the forest)