While the Pandavas were living in the forest, one day Bhima roamed about enjoying the magnificent natural scenery all around. Suddenly he found himself in the grip of a huge python which had coiled itself around his body. In spite of his tremendous strength Bhima was not able to extricate himself from the grip of the python.

Just then Yudhishthira, who had set out in search of his brother, happened to reach that spot and was horrified to see Bhima’s plight. He pleaded with the python to release Bhima, offering to get some other prey for it, but the python refused.

The python then told Yudhishthira that it was, in its previous life, none other than Nahusha, an ancestor of Yudhishthira. He had become a python as the result of a curse on him by sage Agastya because in his overbearing haughtiness born of wealth and power he had insulted some Brahamanas.

The python then offered to release Bhima if Yudhishthira was able to give proper answers to some questions that it would put to him.

The Crucial Test

Python: Who is a Brahmana and what is the truth that is worth knowing?

Yudhishthira: A Brahmana is one who possesses the qualities of truthfulness, generosity, forbearance, good conduct, total absence of cruelty, self-control and compassion.

The only truth that is worth knowing is the supreme Brahman, which is beyond joy and sorrow and by knowing which man becomes free from all feeling of incompleteness.

Python: The qualities mentioned by you may be found even in a person who is a Sudra by birth. Can he also then be considered to be a Brahmana? As regards your statement that the truth that is worth knowing is free from joy and sorrow, I think there is no state which is free from these two.

Yudhishthira: If the qualities such as truthfulness which I have mentioned are found in a Sudra and are not found in a Brahmana, that Sudra is not a Sudra and that Brahmana is not a Brahmana. O Python! That person should be considered a Brahmana in whom the qualities such as truthfulness exist and he who does not have such qualities should be considered a Sudra.

As regards your statement that there is no state that is beyond joy and sorrow, that is no doubt correct as far as anything that is attainable by action (karma) is concerned. But just as water can never by nature be hot and fire can never by nature be cold, that truth which is attained by the removal of ignorance and is realized as non-different from oneself can never be touched by the joys and sorrows of this world.

Python: If conduct is the test to decide who is a Brahmana, then birth loses significance in the case of a person whose conduct is not what a Brahmana’s should be.

Yudhishthira: In my opinion it is very difficult to decide on he basis of birth, because there is considerable admixture of castes nowadays.

When a child is born certain sacraments are performed. Till the sacraments are performed and the boy is taught the Vedas he is only like a Sudra. Swayambhuva Manu also has said so.

If even after the performance of sacraments and the study of the Vedas, the boy has not acquired good qualities and conduct, then it means that that there is strong admixture of castes in him. This is what has been decided after careful thought. I have already said that a Brahmana is one in whom good qualities and conduct have blossomed after the performance of sacraments.

The python was very pleased with the answers given by Yudhishthira.

Yudhishthira’s doubts

Yudhishthira then asked the python: “ O Python, you know all the Vedas and Vedangas. Please tell me, by the performance of what karmas is the highest state attained?

Python: My view in this matter is that by giving gifts to deserving persons, by speaking truly and pleasantly and by being ever devoted to non-injury by thought, word, and deed, one goes to heaven.

Yudhishthira: Between truth and liberality, which is more important? Between non-injury and pleasant speech, which is greater?

Python: In some situations truth is more important and in others liberality. Similarly, pleasant speech is of greater value than non-injury in some situations and in some others it is the opposite. The answer to your question will therefore depend on the circumstances.

Yudhishthira: On death a person leaves his body here. How does he go to heaven without a body and how does he experience the inevitable results of his actions?

Python: O King, in accordance with one’s own karma, each one attains one of these three--- heaven, birth as a human being, or birth as an animal, bird, etc. If a human being practises non-injury and performs such auspicious deeds as giving gifts to the deserving, then by means of the merit he acquires he goes to heaven. If his actions and conduct are to the contrary, he will be born as an animal, or a bird, or sometimes as a human being.

Yudhishthira: I see that you have a mighty intellect. You know all that deserves to be known. You have performed wonderful deeds and you have resided in heaven. In spite of all this what prompted you to insult Brahmanas, because of which you are now in this sad plight?

Python: Wealth and power delude even the most intelligent and learned. My experience is that every one who leads a life of

pleasure becomes overcome by delusion. Pride born of wealth and power leads inevitably to downfall, as has happened in my case.

I shall narrate to you what happened to me so that you may draw a lesson from it. When I was the king of heaven, I used to move about in the skies in a divine aerial car. All the gods and sages used to pay obeisance to me.

I had so much power in me that I could draw away the prowess of any one on whom I cast my eyes. I became so haughty and my misdeeds were to such an extent that I used to make one thousand sages carry my palanquin.

Once, when sage Agastya was one of the palanquin-bearers, I kicked him. In anger the sage cursed that I would become a snake and fall down on the earth. Immediately I fell down from the palanquin in the form of a python. I then begged the sage for forgiveness for what I had done.

The compassionate sage took pity on me and said that Yudhishthira would release me from the effect of the curse when my pride and the consequences of my sin got attenuated. You have now released me from the curse. I am releasing Bhima now.

Nahusha then got back his divine form and departed for heaven.

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