The Mother of All Riddles - Part 3

As I mentioned earlier, these answers have guided the lives of Hindus for a thousand and more years. Let us study some of them. Let each of us become a Yudhishthira and face the questions exercising the best in us. Let these questions and the answers to these questions be the torchlights that lead us from darkness, give us peace and comfort at times of stress. Let these questions and answers be talked about, meditated and debated until each of us has had our fill, has satisfied our thirst for this ancient, eternal philosophy of the Hindus. May these questions and answers inspire our children to stand firm and stand tall as they begin to shape their lives in a new land.

Excerpts from The Mahabharata, Vana Parva, Section CCCXI

Continued from Part 2....

So the dialogue between Yaksha and Yudhishthira continued and he asked about hundred question. Yudhishthira answered all of the correctly and wisely, so at the end Yaksha asked:

"What is the greatest suprise?"

"People die everyday making us aware that men are mortal, yet we live, work, play, plan etc as if assuming we are immortal. Kimashcharyam Atahh Parahh? What is more surprising than that?"

To this Yaksha said: You have, O repressor of foes, truly answered all my questions. Tell us now who is truly a man, and what man truly possesses every kind of wealth?

Yudhishthira answered: The report of one’s good action reaches heaven and spreads over the earth. As long as that report lasts, so long is a person to whom the agreeable and the disagreeable, weal and woe, the past and the future, are the same, is said to possess every kind of wealth.

The Yaksha said: You have, O king, answered who is a man and what man possesses every kind of wealth. Therefore, let one only amongst your brothers, whom you may wish, get up with life!

Yuthishthira answered: Let this one that is of darkish hue, whose eyes are red, who is tall like a Sala tree, whose chest is broad and arms long, let this Nakula, O Yaksha, get up with life!

The Yaksha rejoined: This Bhimsena is dear unto you, and this Arjuna also is one upon whom all of you depend! Why, then, O king do you, wish a stepbrother to get up with his life! How can you, forsaking Bhima whose strength is equal to that of ten thousand elephants, wish Nkula to live? People said that this Bhima was dear to you. From what motive then do you wish a stepbrother to revive? Forsaking Arjuna, the might of whose arm is worshipped by all the sons of Pandu, why do you wish Nakula to revive?

Yudhishthira said: If virtue is sacrificed, he that sacrifices it is himself lost. So virtue also cherishes the cherisher. Therefore, taking care that virtue by being sacrificed may not sacrifice us, I never forsake virtue. Abstention from injury is the highest virtue, and is, I think, even higher than the highest object of attainment. I endeavour to practice that virtue. Therefore, let Nakula, O Yaksha, revive! Let men know that the king is always virtuous! I will never depart from my duty. Let Nakula, therefore, revive! My father had two wives, Kunti and Madri. Let both of them have children. This is what I wish. As Kunti is to me, so also is Madri. There is no difference between them in my eye. I desire to act equally towards my mothers. Therefore, let Nakula live.

The Yaksha said: Since abstention from injury is regarded by you as higher than both profit and pleasure, therefore, let all your brothers live!