The Yaksha continued with his questions.
Sacrifice
The Yaksha asked a number of questions that dealt with the rituals of sacrifices as elucidated in the scriptures. In order to understand these questions and the import of Yudhishthir’s answers the knowledge pertaining to sacrifices is essential. Hence in this recounting of the Yaksha Prashna these questions are being omitted.
On the other hand the Yaksha asked some extremely simple questions that required common sense answers and in these also Yudhishthir was equal to the task.
What Is…
The first set of questions were
What is weightier than the earth itself?
What is higher than the heavens?
What is fleeter than the wind?
And what is more numerous than grass?
Yudhishthir answered that the mother is weightier than the earth and the father is higher than the heavens. Weightier is used in the sense of bearing a heavier burden and the mother bears the burden of bringing up the family, usually with insufficient resources. In most ancient religions, including Hinduism, the first deity to be worshipped was the Mother Goddess. And we also refer to the earth as Mother Earth. The father is the head of the family, the figure that the family looks up to for guidance. The answers to these two questions reflect the esteem in which parents are held in Hindu society.
Yudhishthir’s answers to Yaksha’s next two questions were that the mind is fleeter than the wind and our thoughts are more numerous than grass. In the Vedas and the Upanishads the mind has been given these attributes and these answers reflect Yudhishthir’s knowledge of the scriptures.
The next set of questions in the Yaksha Prashna were
What is that which does not close its eyes while asleep?
What is that which does not move after birth?
What is that which is without heart?
And what is that which swells with its own impetus?
The answers given by Yudhishthir were self-explanatory and need no clarification. They were, “A fish does not close its eyes while asleep; an egg does not move after birth; a stone is without heart and a river swells with its own impetus.”
Friend
Who is the friend of the exile?
Who is the friend of the householder?
Who is the friend of him that ails?
And who is the friend of one about to die?
Exile is used to denote someone voluntarily living in a foreign land. Yudhishthir replied that the friend of the exile in a distant land is his companion. Companion refers to a person from the same country as the exile. Even today we find that different communities in a foreign country form clusters so that they can realize a sense of their native land.
The householder refers to a man who is in the second stage of life – the Grahasta Ashram. His friend is his wife who is his partner in life. In the Hindu marriage the seventh and final vow is, “Let us be true companions and remain lifelong partners by this marriage.”
Yudhishthir’s reply to the third question was that the friend of the sick is the physician. The Yaksha’s fourth question got the reply that the friend of him who is about to die is charity. It is the good deeds that ensure us a better position in our next life and ultimately pave the way for our eternal salvation.
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