HOMENEW9

*Yaksha Prashna – 1*
The Mahabharata is the largest poem in the world written on the canvas of the Indic civilization. It covers the great war of the descendants of King Bharata – the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Every generation that the story delves into, reflects an evolving interpretation of Dharma aided by the exploration of the truth of human existence at incredible and unimaginable levels, as never done before!
Many times larger than the two oldest extant works of Western literature written around the 7th/8th century BCE- The Iliad along with Odyssey; this 5000 year old Mahabharata consists of around 100,000 verses divided into 18 chapters with a matrix of stories illustrating power & weakness, love & hatred, greed & sacrifice, aggression & compliance, dishonour & honour, defeat & victory…..; highly influencing the social and political history that the royal family of Hastinapura was a part of.
Among the 18 Parvas (chapters) the Vana Parva presents the life of the Pandavas in the forest during the twelve years of exile, followed by a thirteenth year spent incognito. Here is an insightful, inspiring story from the Vana Parva that extols the intelligence and sense of fairness the oldest brother Yudhishtira was endowed with. The Yaksha Prashna, also known as the Dharma Baka Upakhyana or the Akshardhama, is the story of a question-and-answer dialogue between Yudhishthira and a yaksha.
*Vana Parva*
At the end of their 12 years of exile in the forests, the time had come for the Pandavas to live incognito in Agnata Vasa. As they were discussing their course of action, the princes met a Brahmin who complained that a deer has taken on its antlers his arani— a pair of wooden blocks used to start fire by friction— so he couldn’t light the fire for Vedic rituals. So, the Pandavas set out to retrieve the Brahmin’s arani and followed the hoofprints of the deer.

While following the mysterious deer, Yudhishthira became exhausted and thirsty. So, his brother Nakula set out to fetch water and found a beautiful lake. The lake was devoid of any living creature, except for a crane. When he attempted to take water from the lake, the crane spoke, “O Nakula! The water of this lake will turn into poison if you take it without satisfactorily answering my questions.” Nakula ignored the crane, hastily drank the poisonous water, and died. Nakula’s twin Sahadeva came in search of his brother and found the same lake, saw Nakula dead, and was warned by the crane. But Sahadeva too ignored the crane and died after drinking the water. One after the other, Arjuna and Bhima also met the same fate.
When none of his brothers returned with water, Yudhishthira followed the trail to the lake and found them lying dead. Before searching for his brothers’ killer, he decided to drink some water from the lake. But when the crane warned him, he realised that the crane held the answer to the turn of events, and agreed to answer its questions. The crane then revealed itself as a Yaksha. The Yaksha asked Yudhishthira approximately 125 questions on gods, metaphysics, philosophy, and similar topics.

*Dharma*
Yudhishthira answered all questions in a satisfactory manner, but the Yaksha only allowed him to choose one of his brothers to be restored to life. Yudhishthira chose his younger half-brother, Nakula, the son of his stepmother Madri, reasoning that his own mother, Kunti, had a living son regardless, but his stepmother Madri did not.
The Yaksha was impressed by the way Yudhishthira followed dharma in every little thing he did. Yaksha revealed himself to be Yama-Dharma, the god of death, who was also Yudhishthira’s father. He revealed to that it was he who had disguised himself as a deer and stolen the arani. He blessed Yudishthira, and said that since he had adhered to dharma (righteousness),it would protect the Pandavas and no-one would recognise them during the Agnata Vasa. All the Pandavas were restored to life.

*To be continued ………… Prashnotthari*