Yudhishthira and Yaksha

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“Time as a concept has engaged the attention of thinkers for a long time. Every waking second in our life is an encounter with time. For both the person of accomplishments and an average person, the day consists of just twenty-four hours. Nothing more, nothing less. But most people have a feeling of time breathing down their neck. Everyone experiences time according to his or her own mental disposition. Just as people regret their past, they also fear their future. The stream of life carries everyone to the one certainty amid all uncertainties: death-though people hardly think about it.

 

 

There is an interesting incident in the Mahabharata (‘Vanaparva’). During their stay in the forest, Yudhishthira and his four brothers were once seized with thirst and were on the lookout for water. Yudhishthira asked his brother Nakula to climb a tree and look for any water source. He located a beautiful pool of water surrounded by rich vegetation. When he want there and was about to quench his thirst with his palms full of water, he heard a voice without a form (Yaksha): This pool belongs to me. If you need water from this pool, you have to answer my questions first’. Nakula did not heed those words, drank the water, and drooped down dead. Concerned about his brother, Yudhishthira sent Sahadeva next. He set out, discovered the pool and was sorry to see Nakula’s condition. Nonetheless, not responding to Yaksha’s warning, he too met with the same fate as Nakulas’. Arjuna and Bhima followed him one after the other. They rebuked the voice challenging its owner to reveal himself to be taught a lesson. But they too lost their lives in trying to drink the water from the pool, unheedfull of the warning. Deeply anxious, Yudhishthira went in search of his brothers. He was beside himself with grief on seeing his beloved brothers unconscious on the bank of the pool. His throat fully parched, he approached the pool to quench his thirst. It was Yaksha again: This pool belongs to me. If you want its water, you should first answer my question. Else, your fate will not be different from that of your brothers.

 

A man of discrimination that he was, Yudhishthira told Yaksha: ‘Well said. Since you own this pool, I don’t have a right to drink this water without your permission. Kindly ask your questions. Yudhishthira’s brilliant answers to Yaksha constitute the important portion of the Mahabharata called ‘Yaksa Prasna’. The story goes that, pleased with Yudhishthira’s answers, Yaksha finally revived all his brothers.

 

Two important questions and their answers relate to our theme here. The first: What is the news? Yudhishthira’s answer: The news is: Time is cooking all created beings in a huge cauldron of great delusion with the sun as the fire, day and night as fuel, and with months and seasons as the ladle to stir the brew.

 

The other question illustrates the inevitability of death and people’s attitude to it. Yaksha asked Yudhishthira: What is wonderful? He replied: Every day people go to the abode of Yama (they die). Still the rest of the world desires to live forever. What could be more wonderful than that?’

 

http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/The-Challenge-of-Time-1.aspx