After knowing the dialogue that took place between Yaksha and Yudhishthira, you will surely be surprised. You too must be looking for answers to some questions in your life. If so then definitely read it till the end. This is not only a question related to spirituality, philosophy, and religion, it is also a question related to your life.
The Pandavas were roaming in the forests during their thirteen-year exile. Then they once looked for water to quench their thirst. The responsibility of managing water was first handed over to Sahadeva. He saw a reservoir nearby he reached there to get water from it.
The invisible Yaksha, the owner of the reservoir, stopped them through Akashvani and put a condition to answer some questions first. Ignoring the Yaksha, Sahadeva started taking water from the reservoir. Then the Yaksha made Sahadeva lifeless. When Sahadeva did not return, Nakula, Arjuna, and then Bhima respectively took up the responsibility of bringing water. They reached the same reservoir and became lifeless for disobeying the conditions of the Yaksha. In the end, worried Yudhishthira himself reached that reservoir. The invisible Yaksha appeared and warned him and asked him to answer his questions. Yudhishthira showed patience. He not only listened carefully to all the questions of the Yaksha but also gave their logical answer, hearing which the Yaksha was satisfied. After being satisfied, what did the Yaksha do and what were those questions, read it till the end to know it… Although there are more questions only a few are given here.
The Yaksha asked- “Who makes the sun rise? Who walks around it? Who sets him and in what sun is established?”
Yudhishthira replied- “O Yaksha! Brahma makes the sun rise. The gods walk around it. Dharma sets him down and he is established in truth.”
The Yaksha again asked- “How does a man become a listener? Who gets the position of Mahat? By whom does he become Brahmaroop and by whom does he become wise?
Yudhishthira’s reply was- “Man becomes listener through hearing. He receives greatness from memory. Through penance he becomes second and by the service of the Gurus, he becomes wise.
The next question of the Yaksha was- “What is the divinity among Brahmins? What is a saint-like religion in them? What is the human spirit and what is the behavior of unscrupulous men?
In response to these questions, Yudhishthira said- “The self-study of the Vedas is the divinity among the brahmins. Their austerity is the same religion as the good men. Death is a human emotion and blasphemy is the behavior of unscrupulous men.
The Yaksha again asked- “Which one thing is sacrificial material? Which one thing is a sacrificial Yajuh? Which one thing chooses a sacrifice, and which one does not violate the sacrifice?”
Yudhishthira said – “Life is a sacrificial material. A mind is an object of sacrifice. Only one Rik chooses to perform Yagya and only one Rik does not transcend the Yagya.
Yaksha Question: Who am I?
Yudhishthira Answer: You are neither this body, nor the senses, nor the mind, nor the intellect. You are pure consciousness, the consciousness that is omniscient.
Yaksha Question: What is the purpose of life?
Yudhishthira Answer: The purpose of life is to know that consciousness that is free from the bondage of birth and death. Knowing it is salvation.
Yaksha Question: What is the cause of birth?
Yudhishthira Answer: Unsatisfied desires, desires, and results of actions are the cause of birth.
Yaksha Question: Who is free from the bondage of birth and death?
Yudhishthira Answer: One who has come to know himself and the soul, is free from the bondage of birth and death.
Yaksha Question: What is the relation between lust and birth?
Yudhishthira Answer: As the desires, so are the births. If the desires are like that of an animal, then birth as an animal. If the desires are like human, then birth as a human.
Yaksha Question: Why is the reason for sorrow in the world?
Yudhishthira Answer: Greed, selfishness, and fear are the causes of the suffering of the world.
Yaksha Question: Then why did God create sorrow?
Yudhishthira Answer: God created the world and man created sorrow and happiness by his thoughts and deeds.
Yaksha Question: Is there a God? Who is that? Is she a woman or a man?
Yudhishthira Answer: No action is without cause. This world is the proof of the existence of that cause. That’s why you are there, that great reason has been called God in spirituality. It is neither a woman nor a man.
Yaksha Question: What is the form of God?
Yudhishthira Answer: God is Sat-Chit-Anand, and is the formless one who expresses himself in all forms.
Yaksha Question: What does that amorphous (formless) Himself do?
Yudhishthira: That God creates, maintains and destroys the world.
Yaksha Question: If God created the world, then who created God?
Yudhishthira Answer: He is the unborn nectar and without cause.
Yaksha Question: What is fate?
Yudhishthira Answer: Every action, every work has a result. The result can be good, it can also be bad. This result is luck. Today’s effort is tomorrow’s luck.
Yaksha Question: What is the secret of happiness and peace?
Yudhishthira Answer: Truth, virtue, love and forgiveness are the causes of happiness. Renunciation of untruth, incest, hatred, and anger is the way to peace.
Yaksha Question: How is it possible to control the mind?
Yudhishthira Answer: Desires create agitation in the mind. Victory over desires is victory over mind.
Yaksha Question: What is true love?
Yudhishthira Answer: To see oneself in all is true love. True love is to see oneself as omnipresent. True love is to see oneself as one with all.
Yaksha Question: Then why does man not love everyone?
Yudhishthira Answer: One who cannot see himself in all cannot love all.
Yaksha Question: What is attachment?
Yudhishthira Answer: In love, there is demand, expectation, possession, and attachment.
Yaksha Question: What is intoxication?
Yudhishthira Answer: Attachment.
Yaksha Question: What is liberation?
Yudhishthira: Liberation is only non-attachment (opposite of attachment).
Yaksha Question: Who is intelligent?
Yudhishthira Answer: One who has a conscience.
Yaksha Question: Who is the thief?
Yudhishthira Answer: Attractions of the senses, those ho take away the senses are thieves.
Yaksha Question: What is hell?
Yudhishthira Answer: The slavery of the senses is hell.
Yaksha Question: Who is asleep even while awake?
Yudhishthira Answer: One who does not know the soul is asleep even when he is awake.
Yaksha Question: What is temporary like water lying in a lotus leaf?
Yudhishthira Answer: Youth, wealth, and life.
Yaksha Question: What is the cause of misfortune?
Yudhishthira Answer: Pride and ego.
Yaksha Question: What is the cause of good luck?
Yudhishthira Answer: Satsang and friendship towards all.
Yaksha Question: Who can destroy all sorrows?
Yudhishthira Answer: One who is ready to give up everything.
Yaksha Question: Who tortures till death?
Yudhishthira Answer: A crime committed in secret.
Yaksha Question: What should be considered day and night?
Yudhishthira Answer: Of the fleetingness of worldly pleasures.
Yaksha Question: Who conquers the world?
Yudhishthira Answer: One who has truth and faith.
Yaksha Question: How is it possible to get rid of fear?
Yudhishthira Answer: With dispassion.
Yaksha Question: Who is free?
Yudhishthira Answer: One who is beyond ignorance.
Yaksha Question: What is ignorance?
Yudhishthira Answer: Ignorance is the absence of self-knowledge.
Yaksha Question: Who is free from sorrows?
Yudhishthira Answer: One who never gets angry.
Yaksha Question: What is that which exists or may not exist?
Yudhishthira Answer: Maya.
Yaksha Question: What is Maya?
Yudhishthira Answer: The mortal world with name and form.
Yaksha Question: What is the ultimate truth?
Yudhishthira Answer: Brahma.…!
Yaksha Question: By whose command does the sun rise?
Yudhishthira Answer: By the command of the Supreme Soul i.e. Brahm.
Yaksha Question: On what does one’s being a Brahmin depend? On his birth or on his modesty?
Yudhishthira Answer: Brahminhood is not attained because of clan or education. Brahmanism is dependent on modesty and nature. One who does not have modesty cannot be a Brahmin. One who has bad addictions, no matter how educated he may be, is not a Brahmin.
Yaksha Question: Who supports man?
Yudhishthira Answer: Patience is the companion of man.
Yaksha Question: The Yaksha asked Yudhishthira what is called stability? What is patience? What is bathing? And what is the real meaning of charity?
Yudhishthira answers: ‘Stability in one’s religion is stability. Controlling your senses is patience. To renounce Manomalinya is bathing and the feeling of protecting mere beings is actually a charity.
Yaksha Question: Which scripture is studied by which a man becomes intelligent?
Yudhishthira Answer: There is no such scripture. Man becomes wise only by the company of great people.
Yaksha Question: What is heavier than the earth?
Yudhishthira Answer: The mother who holds the child in the womb is heavier than the land.
Yaksha Question: Who is higher than the sky?
Yudhishthira Answer: Father.
Yaksha Question: Who is faster than the wind?
Yudhishthira Answer: Mind.
Yaksha Question: What is lesser than grass?
Yudhishthira Answer: Anxiety.
Yaksha Question: Who is the companion of a person traveling to foreign?
Yudhishthira Answer: Vidya.
Yaksha Question: Who is the companion of the one who lives in the house?
Yudhishthira Answer: Wife.
Yaksha Question: Who is the friend of a dying old man?
Yudhishthira Answer: Donation, because it walks with the living being alone after death.
Yaksha Question: Which is the largest of the pots?
Yudhishthira Answer: Land is the biggest vessel in which everything can be contained.
Yaksha Question: What is happiness?
Yudhishthira Answer: Happiness is that which is based on modesty and honesty.
Yaksha Question: When a person should leave behind to become dear to everyone?
Yudhishthira Answer: When egoism is released, a person becomes all-loving.
Yaksha Question: When something is lost, there is sorrow?
Yudhishthira Answer: Anger.
Yaksha Question: By losing what does a man become rich?
Yudhishthira Answer: By losing greed.
Yaksha Question: What is the biggest wonder in the world?
Yudhishthira Answer: Seeing how many creatures die in front of their eyes every day, human beings still dream of immortality. That’s a great surprise.
Yaksha Question: Who is blissful or happy?
Yudhishthira Answer: O Jalchara (Yakshas who live in the reservoir), the person who eats cooked vegetables (vegetables) in his house on the fifth-sixth day, on whom there is no debt and who does not have to live in foreign countries, he is the same. Mudit is happy. If we don’t give importance to Yudhishthira’s literal answer and pay attention to its meaning, then the meaning of this statement is that one who is able to be content with limited resources while living in the midst of his family is really happy.
Yaksha Question: What is the wonder of this creation?
Yudhishthira Answer: Here the living beings depart from this world to Yamaloka every day, that is, the death of all is seen one by one. Yet those who remain here hope to stay here forever. What could be a bigger surprise than that? The meaning is that the death of whoever is born is inevitable and everyone should be present for the realization of that death. But every person is lost in the business of life in such a way that death will not make him his grasp.
Yaksha Question: Which is the right way to live life?
Yudhishthira Answer: There is no well-established logic to determine the real way of life, Shrutis (Shastras and other sources) also talk of different types, there is no such sage/thinker/thinker whose words can be called proof. In fact, the essence of religion is hidden in the cave, that is, it is very esoteric. In such a situation, the path adopted by a respected person in society is exemplary. Talks are often made of following the path shown by ‘big’ people. Here, a person of eminence or greatness does not mean one who has acquired wealth, or who has advanced greatly commercially, or who is endowed with administrative or other authority, etc. Distinguished is one who is of character, does not neglect duties, is sensitive to others, is devoted to the interests of the society, etc.
Yaksha Question: What is an interesting talk?
Yudhishthira Answer: Kaal (i.e. time in constant flux) is cooking the living beings, turning the months and seasons, in a majestic cauldron in the form of the ocean, which is heated by the fire of the sun and the fuel of night and day. This is the main talk (news). In this statement, there is a mention of a serious philosophy of life. Along with the night-day and month-seasons, there is a continuous period of upheaval in the life of the animal kingdom. Creatures are like the food being cooked by Kaal’s hands, which have to be absorbed in the cheeks of Kaal one day or the other. This is the latest news every day.
In this way, the Yaksha asked Yudhishthira many more questions and Yudhishthira gave proper answers to all those questions.
Pleased with this, the Yaksha said – “O Yudhishthira! You are the knower of all the meanings of religion. I am satisfied with your answers. So I give life to one of your brothers. Tell which brother of yours should I bring alive?
Yudhishthira said- “You bring Nakula back to life.”
On this, the Yaksha said – “Yudhisthir! Why didn’t you ask for the life of Mahabali Bhima or Trilok victorious Arjuna, instead of asking for Nakula to be alive?
Yudhishthira answered Yaksha’s question in this way – “O Yaksha! Dharmatma Pandu had two queens – Kunti and Madri. Kunti was the mother of Mary, Bhima, and Arjuna and Madri is the mother of Nakula and Sahadeva. Therefore, while I am Kunti’s son and I am alive, Mother Madri’s one son Nakula must also survive. That’s why I have asked for Nakul’s life donation.”
Hearing the words of Yudhishthira, the Yaksha was pleased and said- “O Vatsa! I am very pleased with your thoughts, so I bring to the life of all your brothers. In fact, I am your father Dharma and came here to test you.”
After saying this, all the Pandavas got up as if they had woken up from a deep sleep. Yudhishthira touched the feet of his father Dharma and took his blessings.
Then Dharma said- “I am very pleased with you, so ask me for a boon as per your wish.” Yudhishthira said – “O tat! Our twelve years of exile is coming to an end and now we are going to go into exile for one year.
Therefore, you give this boon that no one can recognize us in that unknown abode. At the same time, give me this boon that my attitude should always be in you i.e. religion. Dharma disappeared from there by giving Yudhishthira both his desired boons.
