The Yaksha's Questions

The five Pandava brothers were living in exile in the forest. One hot day, after a long chase through the trees, they sat down to rest. They were tired and terribly thirsty.

"Nakula," said Yudhishthira, the eldest, "climb a tree and see if there is water nearby."

Nakula climbed up and looked around. "I can see cranes, and green plants," he called. "There must be water close by."

"Go and fetch some for us," said Yudhishthira.

The lake and the voice

Nakula soon found a lake of clear, sparkling water. He knelt at the edge and was about to drink, when a voice spoke from the air.

"Do not be rash, child. This lake is mine. Answer my questions first, and then drink, and take as much water as you like."

Nakula was so thirsty that he ignored the voice. He drank. And at once he fell to the ground, as if dead.

When Nakula did not return, Yudhishthira sent Sahadeva. Then Arjuna. Then Bhima. Each one heard the voice. Each one ignored it, or tried to fight it. Each one drank, and fell beside the water.

At last Yudhishthira went himself. He found the lake, and his four brothers lying motionless on its shore. His heart filled with grief.

Then he saw a crane standing on a rock in the water.

"I am a crane, living on small fish," said the voice. "It was I who brought your brothers down. If you do not answer my questions, you will be the fifth."

Yudhishthira did not reach for his bow. He did not run to the water. He folded his hands.

"Who are you?" he asked gently. "A crane could never do this."

The crane changed. In its place stood a huge and shining being, a Yaksha, a spirit of the waters, tall as a palm tree.

"I will answer your questions as well as I can," said Yudhishthira. "Ask."

The questions

The Yaksha asked question after question, and Yudhishthira answered each one calmly.

The Yaksha asked what is faster than the wind. The mind, said Yudhishthira.

He asked what is more numerous than blades of grass. Our thoughts, said Yudhishthira.

He asked what is weightier than the earth. A mother, said Yudhishthira. And what is higher than the sky? A father.

He asked what is the best of all gains. Good health. What is the best kind of happiness? Contentment.

He asked who is a friend to a traveller far from home. A companion, answered Yudhishthira. And who is a friend to someone who is sick? The doctor.

Then the Yaksha asked his hardest question. What is the greatest wonder in the world?

Yudhishthira thought for a moment. Every day, he said, people see others leave this world. And yet those who remain go on living as if they will live forever. What could be more wonderful than that?

One brother

The Yaksha was pleased.

"You have answered well," he said. "In return, one of your brothers may live. Choose which one."

Yudhishthira looked at his brothers lying on the shore. Bhima, the strongest. Arjuna, the greatest archer. Either of them would make his army mighty.

"Let Nakula live," he said.

The Yaksha was surprised. "Why Nakula? Bhima and Arjuna are your full brothers, and the strongest. Nakula is only your half-brother."

"My father had two wives," said Yudhishthira, "Kunti and Madri. I am Kunti's son, and I am alive. Let one son of Madri live too, so that both mothers still have a son."

The reward

When the Yaksha heard this, he was delighted.

"Because you value fairness and kindness above strength," he said, "let all your brothers live!"

And one by one, the four brothers sat up, as if waking from sleep, healthy and strong again.

Then the Yaksha revealed who he really was. He was Dharma himself, the god of righteousness and justice, and Yudhishthira's own father. He had come to test his son. And his son had passed the test.

About this story

This famous episode, known in Sanskrit as the Yaksha Prashna, the Yaksha's questions, comes from the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata. The full original has many more questions and answers than are told here. People in India still quote Yudhishthira's answers today. This version is a shortened, simplified retelling.