The Dialogue of the Pool

Near the end of the long exile came its final and greatest test, and it fell, fittingly, upon Yudhishthira, the son of Dharma, and it took the form of a series of questions beside a forest pool.

A magic deer had run off with a brāhmaṇa's fire-sticks, and the Pāṇḍavas pursued it deep into the forest but lost it, and found themselves exhausted and burning with thirst. Yudhishthira sent Nakula to find water, and Nakula came to a beautiful clear pool; but as he bent to drink, a bodiless voice warned him that the pool belonged to it, and that he must answer its questions before he drank, or die. And Nakula, maddened by thirst, ignored the warning and drank, and fell dead.

And one after another Sahadeva, then Arjuna, then Bhīma came seeking him, and each ignored the same warning, and each drank and fell dead beside the pool.

At last Yudhishthira came, and found his four brothers lying dead by the water, and mastered his grief, and when the voice, the voice of a Yaksha, gave its warning once more, Yudhishthira bowed and said: ask your questions; I shall answer to the limit of my understanding. And the Yaksha put to him a swift series of deep questions, and Yudhishthira answered them, and his answers are among the treasures of the epic. What makes the sun shine? The power of the Eternal. What rescues a man in danger? Courage. What is higher than the sky? The father.

What is more sustaining than the earth? The mother. What is the greatest wonder in all the world? And Yudhishthira answered: that every day men see other creatures die and depart to the abode of Death, and yet those who remain behind live as though they themselves will live forever; this is the greatest wonder. And what accompanies a man in death? Not his wealth, not his kin, not his fame, but dharma alone; that alone goes with the soul.

And the Yaksha, pleased with his wisdom, offered to restore one of the four dead brothers to life, and told Yudhishthira to choose which. And Yudhishthira chose Nakula. And the Yaksha, surprised, asked why he chose Nakula, a son of Mādrī, over his own full brothers, the mighty Bhīma or the great Arjuna.

And Yudhishthira answered: I am the son of Kuntī, and one son of Kuntī, myself, still lives; but Mādrī, my father's other wife, has no living son; and justice between my two mothers requires that a son of Mādrī should live as well as a son of Kuntī. Let Nakula live, that both my mothers may have a son.

And the Yaksha was delighted beyond measure with this answer, for it showed a perfect and impartial justice, a fairness that held even between his own blood and his stepmother's, even in the extremity of grief; and he revealed himself as Lord Dharma, Yudhishthira's own divine father, come to test his son; and he restored all four brothers to life, and blessed them, and gave them a boon that they should pass their coming thirteenth year unrecognized. So the long exile drew toward its end, and Yudhishthira, tested to the last, was found true.