with life!’ Yudhishthira answered,—­’Let this one that is of darkish hue, whose eyes are red, who is tall like a large Sala tree, whose chest is broad and arms long, let this Nakula, O Yaksha, get up with life!  The Yaksha rejoined,-’This Bhimasena is dear unto thee, and this Arjuna also is one upon whom all of you depend!  Why, then, O king dost thou, wish a step-brother to get up with his life!  How canst thou, forsaking Bhima whose strength is equal to that of ten thousand elephants, wish Nakula to live?  People said that this Bhima was dear to thee.  From what motive then dost thou wish a step-brother to revive?  Forsaking Arjuna the might of whose arm is worshipped by all the sons of Pandu, why dost thou wish Nakula to revive?’ Yudhishthira said,—­’If virtue is sacrificed, he that sacrificeth it, is himself lost.  So virtue also cherisheth the cherisher.  Therefore taking care that virtue by being sacrificed may not sacrifice us, I never forsake virtue.  Abstention from injury is the highest virtue, and is, I ween, even higher than the highest object of attainment.  I endeavour to practise that virtue.  Therefore, let Nakula, O Yaksha, revive!  Let men know that the king is always virtuous!  I will never depart from my duty.  Let Nakula, therefore, revive!  My father had two wives, Kunti and Madri.  Let both of them have children.  This is what I wish.  As Kunti is to me, so also is Madri.  There is no difference between them in my eye.  I desire to act equally towards my mothers.  Therefore, let Nakula live?’ The Yaksha said,—­’Since abstention from injury is regarded by thee as higher than both profit and pleasure, therefore, let all thy brothers live, O bull of Bharata race!”

SECTION CCCXII

Vaisampayana continued,—­“Then agreeable to the words of the Yaksha the Pandavas rose up; and in a moment their hunger and thirst left them.  Thereupon Yudhishthira said, ’I ask thee that art incapable of being vanquished and that standest on one leg in the tank, what god art thou, for I cannot take thee for a Yaksha!  Art thou the foremost of the Vasus, or of the Rudras, or of the chief of the Maruts?  Or art thou the lord himself of the celestials, wielder of the thunder-bolt!  Each of these my brothers is capable of fighting as hundred thousand warriors, and I see not the warrior that can slay them all!  I see also that their senses have refreshed, as if they have sweetly awaked from slumber.  Art thou a friend of ours, or even our father himself?  At this the Yaksha replied,-’O child, I am even thy father, the Lord of justice, possessed of great prowess!  Know, bull of the Bharata race, that I came hither desirous of beholding thee!  Fame, truth, self-restraint, purity, candour, modesty, steadiness, charity, austerities and Brahmacharya, these are my body!  And abstention from injury, impartiality, peace, penances, sanctity, and freedom from malice are the doors (through which I am accessible).