How The Pandava Prince Yudhishthira Was Humbled By A Small Mongoose

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It is the characteristic of a true sanyasi to relinquish the world, mind, heart and body with no attachment towards things that he owns. A householder can't be detached in a similar way although it is desirable to be having such a virtue. The Householder amidst all his responsibilities has to preserve his inner peace. Our ancient rishis did it with ease. We could also follow their example and try this and see how we fit into the scheme. This is the story of an ideal householder that won the heart of Lord Dharma who took him to swarga by himself on a golden chariot.

Yudhishthira's Grand Yagnya

As the Mahabharata war concluded Yudhishthira, the eldest Pandava who was also the king of Hastinapur, conducted a grand yagnya after which he gave countless gifts to every needy person. Delicious food was served for many days at a stretch with a lot of love and care. People were all praised for his charitable work.
During the next hour, a mongoose visited the yagnya shala and tried rolling on the floor of the yagna shala for a while. Then disappointedly it rose up to say " indeed I am disappointed about this yagnya too. My body complexion partially had a golden shade after I rolled on the floor of the yagashala of the poor brahmin. I wanted my entire body to have a golden hue now and came here for this purpose but no miracle happened. There is no match to the homa conducted by the poor brahmin family. I don't find the Pandava yagnya a match to the one conducted there at the poor brahmins' house."
Angered priests retorted." How can you say such a thing when everything has been conducted as per norms? What did you see in the Brahmin's yagnya shala that you did not get to see here?"

Mongoose Narrates Its Story

Mongoose spoke thus. "There was a family of a poor brahmin which lived a highly simple life performing great austerities. Even if they had provisions, they would eat one square meal a day. A great famine broke out after a while and brahmins family did not have anything to eat for many days. One day, the poor brahmin somehow got some grains of paddy and brought it home, divided it into four portions and just sat with them to eat it. A knock at the door, just jolted them out of their wits.
There was a guest at the door who asked them for food. Without blinking an eyelid, the brahmin gave his share to the guest as he knew the meaning of Athithi devo bhava. Then the guest asked for some more and in the same manner he ate all their food grains. He felt sad for not being able to serve the guest in a hearty manner. Now the guest smiled and his form changed to that of Lord Dharma and he told them gently, that they had passed the test in flying colours. The poor brahmin was ready to relinquish his life even when gripped by hunger. Usually, it is hunger that makes people commit crimes and lose their mind. But the brahmin rose about the situation and stuck to his values. So, Dharma saying thus, took them all to heaven on his golden chariot. "

Mongoose's Final Words

The Mongoose was present in the brahmin's house when all this happened. So after they left heavenward, the Mongoose went up to the place where the guest was eating his food and rolled on the floor there. Surprisingly that portion of the body which had rolled on the floor turned golden in complexion. From that day onwards, the Mongoose was on a continuous quest to have to change the complexion of the rest of his body in a similar way. He visited many yaga sthalas and rolled on those floors, but it did not work in his favour. So as a last resort he came in to the place where the Pandava yagna had been conducted."
The Mongoose concluded that he could not find any place that was worthy enough to change his colour to golden brown and no one could match the sacrifice of the brahmin family.

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