[[Mohan K.V 2015-04-26, 08:14:55 Source]]
सदास्वादः
75
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कः पन्थाः?
(kaḥ panthāḥ?)
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Meaning
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Literally, “What is the Way?” In the original, as with most Indian languages, the symbolic ‘weight’ attached to the word ‘way’ is quite obvious from context; in English, we have to resort to using ‘the’ and capitalizing it. Be that as it may, who’s asking?
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Context
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This chapter’s phrase is from the famed Yakśa-praśnā of the Mahābhārata. It appears in the Vana-parva, at the end of the Pāṇḍavas’ 12 year exile and just as they are about to commence their 1 year of ajñāta-vāsa, living incognito.
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[There is considerable variation in the details across various editions. We have referred mainly to the most expansive one we have found, the Gorakhpur edition, where it appears in chapters 312 and 313. The BORI critical edition has it in chapters 296 and 297, but the content is much truncated.]
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In the course of their travels one day, Yudhiṣṭhira becomes thirsty and exhausted, and requests his youngest brother Nakula to go fetch some water for him. Nakula goes out in search, and finds a calm, beautiful lake. Just as he is about to scoop out some water, he hears a voice:
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मा तात साहसं कार्षीः मम पूर्व-परिग्रहः ।
प्रश्नान् उक्त्वा तु माद्रेय ततः पिब हरस्व च ॥
mā tāta sāhasaṃ kārṣīḥ mama pūrva-parigrahaḥ |
praśnān uktvā tu mādreya tataḥ piba harasva ca ||
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“Don’t make haste, my boy. This is my property.
Answer my questions, and you may drink as much as you want.”
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Nakula ignores the voice, and as soon as he touches the water he drops dead. The other brothers get worried while waiting for him, and one by one make their way to the same lake, and face the same fate. Finally, Yudhiṣṭhira makes his way there, and finds his four brothers dead on the banks, with no apparent signs of a struggle. As he laments, he hears the voice and its warning.
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Almost every character of the Mahābhārata has a few ‘niche scenes’ where it shines particularly brightly. For the valorous, skilled Arjuna, or the manly, emotional Bhīmasena, such niche scenes are plenty in the war-ridden epic; but Yudhiṣṭhira needs special care. At the outset, Yudhiṣṭhira’s strengths are actually rather hard to even recognize, let alone appreciate: forget scaling the heights of valour, at most times he’s just plain cowardly; leave alone leadership, Draupadi’s foremost complaint was that he was ‘possessed by the ghost of righteousness’; and manliness be damned, there isn’t a single major character Yudhiṣṭhira doesn’t constantly whine to.
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What Yudhiṣṭhira does possess is a fine, sensitive, intellectual understanding of what is ‘right’. The Yakṣa praśna, almost structured like a quiz game show, is the perfect opportunity to let such an understanding shine. Yudhiṣṭhira, true to his character, refrains from any bravado and respectfully tells the Yakṣa that no ordinary power could level his brothers the way he has done, and that he recognizes that he’s dealing with something extraordinary. There’s something to be said about his genuine humility working with his instinct for knowing when he’s in trouble, a combination his brothers acutely lacked.
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The conversation between them then begins. There are some true gems of insight to be found:
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किंस्विद् एकपदं धर्म्यं किंस्विद् एकपदं यशः।
किंस्विद् एकपदं स्वर्ग्यं किंस्विद् एकपदं सुखम् ॥
kiṃsvid ekapadaṃ dharmyaṃ kiṃsvid ekapadaṃ yaśaḥ|
kiṃsvid ekapadaṃ svargyaṃ kiṃsvid ekapadaṃ sukham ||
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“In one word, what is Dharmic? What is fame?
Heaven? Happiness?”
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Yudhiṣṭhira’s answers:
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दाक्ष्यम् एकपदं धर्म्यं दानम् एकपदं यशः।
सत्यम् एकपदं स्वर्ग्यं शीलम् एकपदं सुखम् ॥
dākṣyam ekapadaṃ dharmyaṃ dānam ekapadaṃ yaśaḥ|
satyam ekapadaṃ svargyaṃ śīlam ekapadaṃ sukham ||
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“Efficiency is Dharmic. Giving is fame.
Truth is Heaven. Character is happiness.”
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The conciseness of the reply is hard to port to English and impels us to dig deeper. ‘dākṣya’ is in the space of ‘cleverness, expertise, efficiency, intelligence, etc.’; we have chosen ‘efficiency’ here as a catch-all. It is surprising that Yudhiṣṭhira – certainly an authority on Dharma – chose this space to describe the most important concept in his world. It wasn’t religiosity or the Vedas or the śāstras that came to his mind – it was the plain old right-feeling of being good at what one does. Lord Kṛṣṇa shares much the same view in the Gīta: yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam (‘All Yoga is simply being skilled in one’s duty’). From this lens, all of Dharma is simply an interplay of what is best for an individual, a family and a society.
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Far too often, men gain fame from how much they’ve taken; how they wrested more than their peers from some unsuspecting corner of society. Why, we even see perverse situations where a list of ‘most corrupt officers’ sorted by how much they looted is seen with envious, competitive and even grudgingly admiring eyes; but it is fame of a very different cut that arises from what one has given. It is apt that Yudhiṣṭhira identifies that as the only fame worth aspiring for; “we make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”
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Yudhiṣṭhira’s comments on the Truth reminded us of a very practical observation by Lincoln: “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar” :-) Forget the spiritual, emotional, moral dimensions; it is simply too much work to lie. Truth is Heaven simply because it is effortless and bounded. After all, “almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them.” :-)
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Regarding character and happiness, we recall an old proverb that goes, “the softest pillow is a clear conscience.” :-)
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Later, to the question, ‘Till when does a man live?’, Yudhiṣṭhira replies:
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दिवं स्पृशति भूमिं च शब्दः पुण्यस्य कर्मणः |
यावत् स शब्दो भवति तावत् पुरुष उच्यते ॥
divaṃ spṛśati bhūmiṃ ca śabdaḥ puṇyasya karmaṇaḥ |
yāvat sa śabdo bhavati tāvat puruṣa ucyate ||
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“A man lives as long as talk of his good deeds remain in heaven or earth.”
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In his book I am a Strange Loop, professor Douglas Hofstadter talks about the heart-wrenching experience of coming to terms with his wife Carol’s passing. He makes a strong case of how our very existence is about imprinting onto people’s minds; how so much of ‘Carol-ness’ was still alive in his mind that in a way she was still alive. From an appreciation of the book:
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Carol’s death brought home that when people communicate, they send out little flares into each other’s brains. Friends and lovers create feedback loops of ideas and habits and ways of seeing the world. Even though Carol was dead, her habits and perceptions were still active in the minds of those who knew her.
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Carol’s self was still present, Hofstadter sensed, even though it was fading with time. A self, he believes, is a point of view, a way of seeing the world. It emerges from the conglomeration of all the flares, loops and perceptions that have been shared and developed with others. Douglas’s and Carol’s selves overlapped, and that did not stop with her passing.
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We think Yudhiṣṭhira’s answer is in the same space.
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The Yakṣa and Yudhiṣṭhira go on in this vein for over a hundred questions. There’s a wide variation in the questions’ ‘quality’; a few, like the ones above, hit upon eternally relevant themes and the gravity of the Content matches that of the Form. But the bulk of the conversation is very repetitive and uninsightful (talking over and over again about ideas of svadharma, the qualities of various varṇas, etc.); some are downright silly, appearing to be straight out of a badly-edited trivia book (“What sleeps with its eyes open?” “Fish!”). All this suggests that this section of the work has been worked over multiple times, and that the original core was probably much smaller.
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The best questions of the conversation appear at the end, and Yudhiṣṭhira’s responses are justly famous:
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को मोदते किम् आश्चर्यं कः पन्थाः का च वार्तिका ।
वद मे चतुरः प्रश्नान् मृता जीवन्तु बान्धवाः ॥
ko modate kim āścaryaṃ kaḥ panthāḥ kā ca vārtikā |
vada me caturaḥ praśnān mṛtā jīvantu bāndhavāḥ |||
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“Who is happy? What’s surprising? What’s the Way? And what’s the news?
Answer these questions, and your brothers will live again.”
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Just think for a minute before proceeding – with no context at all, and with the highest level of abstraction, how would we answer these questions?
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Yudhiṣṭhira does a fine job:
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पञ्चमे ऽहनि षष्ठे वा शाकं पचति स्वे गृहे ।
अनृणी चाप्रवासी च स वारिचर मोदते ॥
pañcame ‘hani ṣaṣṭhe vā śākaṃ pacati sve gṛhe |
anṛṇī cāpravāsī ca sa vāricara modate |||
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“Someone who can cook his food not too long after midday,
who isn’t in debt, and who’s not forced to wander about – that man is happy”
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This may seem like a very unambitious list, but over a long enough time horizon, the absolute basics seem to be all that matter. Charlie Munger, business partner to Warren Buffett and one of the richest and most successful businessmen of past century, remarked that “a lot of success in life and business comes from simply knowing what you want to avoid”; in his view, the cause of his immense success was “… not brilliance. It’s just avoiding stupidity.”
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अहन्यहनि भूतानि गच्छन्तीह यमालयम् ।
शेषाः स्थावरम् इच्छन्ति किम् आश्चर्यम् अतः परम् ॥
ahani ahani bhūtāni gacchanti iha yama-ālayam |
śeṣāḥ sthāvaram icchanti kim āścaryam ataḥ param ||
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“Day after day, beings enter the abode of Death.
And yet, the rest wish to be here forever – that’s what’s surprising”
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‘kim āścaryaṃ’ and this answer are the signature of the whole Yakṣa-praśna!
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तर्को ऽप्रतिष्ठः श्रुतयो विभिन्ना
नैको ऋषिर् यस्य मतं प्रमाणम् ।
धर्मस्य तत्त्वं निहितं गुहायाम्
महाजनो येन गतः सः पन्थाः ॥
tarko ‘pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnā
naiko ṛṣir yasya mataṃ pramāṇam |
dharmasya tattvaṃ nihitaṃ guhāyām
mahājano yena gataḥ saḥ panthāḥ ||
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“Logic wants a foundation; Scriptures differ;
There is no one Rishi whose word can be taken as the standard;
The Truth of Dharma is deeply hidden –
The path trod by great people is The Way”
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The last line has become something of a proverb in many daughter languages of Sanskrit. Yudhiṣṭhira goes for a dash of imagery for the last question:
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अस्मिन् महा-मोह-मये कटाहे
सूर्याग्निना रात्रि-दिवेन्धनेन ।
मासर्तु-दर्वी-परिघट्टनेन
भूतानि कालः पचतीति वार्ता ॥
asmin mahā-moha-maye kaṭāhe
sūryāgninā rātri-diva-indhanena |
māsartu-darvī-parighaṭṭanena
bhūtāni kālaḥ pacati iti vārtā ||
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“In this giant pan of ignorance,
using the Sun as fire, and days and nights as fuel,
Mixing it up with the ladle of seasons,
Time is cooking everyone alive – this is the news”
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So far, there has been a lot of insight, but not very much poetry. That appears to be reserved for the end, and it happens to be of the best kind – one demonstrated by action, not words. Hearing his answer, the Yakṣa is pleased and asks Yudhiṣṭhira to choose one brother to resurrect. Yudhiṣṭhira thinks for a bit, and asks for Nakula to be brought back to life!! Nakula, a relative ‘bunny’ in pretty much everything! Certainly, it wasn’t that Yudhiṣṭhira was indifferent to Nakula and Sahadeva, but his bond to Bhīma and Arjuna was at another level entirely! The Yakṣa is very surprised, too:
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प्रियस् ते भीमसेनो ऽयम् अर्जुनो वः परायणम् ।
स कस्मान् नकुलो राजन् सापत्नं जीवम् इच्छसि ॥
priyas te bhīmaseno ayam arjuno vaḥ parāyaṇam |
sa kasmāt nakulo rājan sāpatnaṃ jīvam icchasi ||
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“O King, Bhīma is so dear to you; Arjuna is the very essence of the Pāṇḍavas!
Why then have you chosen to resurrect Nakula, a step-brother?”
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Yudhiṣṭhira replies,
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धर्म एव हतो हन्ति धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः ।
तस्माद् धर्मं न त्यजामि मा नो धर्मो हतो ऽवधीत् ॥
dharma eva hato hanti dharmo rakṣati rakṣitaḥ |
tasmād dharmaṃ na tyajāmi mā no dharmo hato ‘vadhīt ||
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“Dharma, when destroyed, destroys; Dharma, when protected, protects;
therefore, I strive to uphold it, so that we may be protected”
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[The phrase ‘dharmo rakṣati rakṣitaḥ’ is commonly used even today.]
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कुन्ती चैव माद्री च द्वे भार्ये तु पितुर् मम ।
उभे सपुत्रे स्यातां वै इति मे धीयते मतिः ॥
kuntī caiva mādrī ca dve bhārye tu pitur mama |
ubhe saputre syātāṃ vai iti me dhīyate matiḥ ||
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“My father had two wives, Kuntī and Mādrī.
I only wish that both of them have living children.”
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What a poignant moment! What must it feel like to have to weigh one’s love for one’s dear brothers against one’s duty as a step-son, and to take a calm, reasoned decision? This is the defining trait of Yudhiṣṭhira: a fine, sensitive, intellectual understanding of what is ‘right’.
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The Yakṣa is then very pleased, and brings all the brothers to life; he also reveals himself to be Yama, Yudhiṣṭhira’s godly father and blesses them all, and the story moves on.
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Yudhiṣṭhira’s behaviour, which sees constraints and a tight balance at every step, and constantly evokes a cautious, conscious compromise, is best contrasted with that of the hot-blooded Duryodhana. One of the best scenes to delineate his character is his last one in the epic. As he lay on the battlefield after losing to Bhīma in an unfair one-on-one, with his thighs broken and bleeding profusely, what was he thinking? Was there a shred of introspection, of remorse? A shadow of the ‘bound-in-chains’ thinking of Yudhiṣṭhira? Hell no!
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इष्टं भृत्या भृताः सम्यग् भूः प्रशास्ता ससागरा |
मूर्ध्नि स्थितम् अमित्राणां को नु स्वन्ततरो मया ||
iṣṭaṃ bhṛtyā bhṛtāḥ samyag bhūḥ praśāstā sasāgarā |
mūrdhni sthitam amitrāṇāṃ ko nu svantataro mayā ||
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यातानि परराष्ट्राणि नृपा भुक्ताश् च दासवत् |
प्रियेभ्यः प्रकृतं साधु को नु स्वन्ततरो मया ||
yātāni pararāṣṭrāṇi nṛpā bhuktāś ca dāsavat |
priyebhyaḥ prakṛtaṃ sādhu ko nu svantataro mayā ||
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[Gorakhpur edition Śālya.61, BORI Śālya.60]
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“I was the protector of my loyal servants, and master of the sea-girt earth!
I stamped on the head of my enemies – who could possibly have a more fortunate end than me!
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I conquered nations, and had their kings serve me like slaves!
I rewarded my friends amply – who could possibly have a more fortunate end than me!”
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[In contrast, Yudhiṣṭhira could not even claim to have protected his own wife, forget anyone else! The rest of Duryodhana’s assertions are also equally contrasting.]
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देवार्हा मानुषा भोगाः प्राप्ता असुलभा नृपैः |
ऐश्वर्यं चोत्तमं प्राप्तं को नु स्वन्ततरो मया ||
devārhā mānuṣā bhogāḥ prāptā asulabhā nṛpaiḥ |
aiśvaryaṃ ca uttamaṃ prāptaṃ ko nu svantataro mayā ||
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यद् इष्टं क्षत्र-बन्धूनां स्वधर्मम् अनुतिष्ठताम् |
निधनं तन् मया प्राप्तं को नु स्वन्ततरो मया ||
yad iṣṭaṃ kṣatra-bandhūnāṃ svadharmam anutiṣṭhatām
nidhanaṃ tan mayā prāptaṃ ko nu svantataro mayā
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“I enjoyed pleasures worthy of gods, impossible for kings to conceive.
I relished lordship of the highest order, who could possibly have a more fortunate end than me!
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That which is so highly prized by Kṣatriyas steadfast in their ways,
I have it now [a valorous death on the battlefield] – who could possibly have a more fortunate end than me!”
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He even ends with a harsh curse:
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स-सुहृत्-सानुबन्धश् च स्वर्गं गन्ताहम् अच्युत |
यूयं विहत-सङ्कल्पाः शोचन्तो वर्तयिष्यथ ||
sa-suhṛt-sānubandhaś ca svargaṃ gantāham acyuta |
yūyaṃ vihata-saṅkalpāḥ śocanto vartayiṣyatha ||
“Together with my dear friends and relatives, I am off to heaven.
With all your hopes destroyed, you live on in grief!”
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Duryodhana, friend of friends and enemy of enemies, doing what he pleased at every step, abiding only by his personal morals and feeling completely vindicated at the very end; and Yudhiṣṭhira, always walking the edge of a sword in his adherence to a higher, impersonal Dharma, always filled with doubt, constraint and that deflating feeling of compromise as the head overrules the heart; we can’t help but ask ourselves, kaḥ panthāḥ?
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Parting Thought
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In the middle of the conversation, the Yakṣa asks a set of ‘via negativa’ questions:
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किं नु हित्वा प्रियो भवति किं नु हित्वा न शोचति ।
किं नु हित्वार्थवान् भवति किं नु हित्वा सुखी भवेत् ॥
kiṃ nu hitvā priyo bhavati kiṃ nu hitvā na śocati |
kiṃ nu hitvārthavān bhavati kiṃ nu hitvā sukhī bhavet ||
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“Abandoning what does one become dear? Escape sorrow?
Become rich? Become happy?”
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मानं हित्वा प्रियो भवति क्रोधं हित्वा न शोचति।
कामं हित्वाऽर्थवान् भवति लोभं हित्वा सुखी भवेत् ॥
mānaṃ hitvā priyo bhavati krodhaṃ hitvā na śocati|
kāmaṃ hitvā’rthavān bhavati lobhaṃ hitvā sukhī bhavet |||
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“By letting go of Pride, one becomes dear; by letting go of Anger, one escapes sorrow.
By letting go of Desire, one becomes rich; by letting go of Avarice, one becomes happy”
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The second half reminds us of an observation an old engineering professor of ours used to make: “Happiness is the fraction of what you have divided by what you want. The Western Way is to maximize the numerator; the Eastern Way is to minimize the denominator” :-)
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