Kubera

While Yudhishthira and Bhimasena are locked in conversation, Vyasa appears — having perceived Yudhishthira's hidden fear about the Kuru warriors. He promises to show how Bhishma, Drona, and the others can be legitimately killed, then teaches Yudhishthira the secret knowledge called pratismriti and tells him that Arjuna must go to the gods for weapons.

Shiva disappears from the Himalayan peak, and Arjuna is still reeling from having seen the god face to face — when the sky lights up and four more gods arrive. Yama, Varuna, Kubera, and Indra have come to reveal who Arjuna really is, what he is meant to do, and to arm him for the war that awaits.

Yudhishthira asks the sage Lomasha about his travels. Lomasha is pleased to reply — he has been sent by Indra himself with news of Arjuna. He tells Yudhishthira that he saw Arjuna seated on half of Indra's throne, that Arjuna has obtained the Brahmashira weapon from Rudra and other divine weapons from the guardians of the world, and that he has mastered the gandharva veda. Then Lomasha delivers Indra's message: Arjuna will return after accomplishing a great task for the gods, Yudhishthira should devote himself to austerities, his fear of Karna will be dispelled, and he should accept Lomasha's guidance on tirthas.

Bhima enters Kubera's pleasure garden and begins taking the fragrant sougandhika lotuses for Draupadi. The rakshasas guarding the pond warn him that even gods must seek permission before sporting there. Bhima refuses to beg, plunges into the water, and when the rakshasas attack, he meets them with his club — slaying hundreds and routing the rest.

The defeated rakshasas flee to Kailasa and report Bhima's strength and valour to Kubera, expecting punishment. Instead, Kubera laughs and tells them to let Bhima take as many lotuses as he wishes for Draupadi — he knows the reason. The rakshasas return, their anger controlled, to find Bhima sporting happily alone in the pond.

Kubera's guards arrive at the pond — gigantic, armed with rocks, ready for battle. But when they see Yudhishthira, Lomasha, and the assembled brahmanas, they do not attack. They prostrate themselves in humility, and Yudhishthira pacifies them.

Yudhishthira asks Kubera why the great sage Agastya's anger did not consume him entirely. Kubera explains: his friend Maniman, flying overhead, spat on the meditating Agastya from the sky. The sage's curse was precise — Maniman and his armies would die by a human hand, and Kubera would grieve until that same human freed him.

Surviving rakshasas flee to Kubera's abode, wailing in distress — their arms lost, their garments besmeared with blood. A single man, they report, has killed all their warriors including Maniman. Kubera's eyes turn red with anger. He orders his chariot yoked with gandharva horses and departs with one crore yakshas to confront the intruder.

Kubera arrives on the mountain summit with his yaksha and gandharva retinue. The Pandavas, knowing they have committed a crime, bow in obeisance. But Kubera is pleased. He tells Yudhishthira not to be angry at Bhima's deed — the rakshasas were already marked for death by destiny. Then he turns to Bhima: "You have freed me from a terrible curse. No crime attaches to you."

The Pandavas, having established themselves on Mount Gandhamadana, are waiting for Arjuna to return from obtaining divine weapons from Indra. They live on the mountain, performing austerities, rituals, and yoga, while constantly thinking of Arjuna and counting every day and night as a year in his absence. A month passes in melancholy; the Pandavas remain in grief-stricken waiting, their happiness absent since Arjuna left Kamyaka forest.

After spending the night through Tryambaka's favours, Arjuna meets the brahmana who had guided him earlier. The brahmana tells him he will see the lords of the worlds and receive weapons from Indra. That afternoon, all the lokapalas — Kubera, Yama, Varuna, and Indra — appear before him, and Arjuna receives their celestial weapons according to prescribed rites.

After ten years of exile — four of them on Gandhamadana mountain with Arjuna returned — Bhima sees that Duryodhana has stolen their happiness while they wait. In private, he urges Yudhishthira to end the peaceful forest life, spend a year incognito, and then attack. Yudhishthira listens, then circumambulates Kubera's abode — and prepares to leave.

Duryodhana sends his servants ahead to build pleasure houses at Lake Dvaitavana, but the gandharva king has already arrived from Kubera's realm and barred entry. When his servants are turned back, Duryodhana dispatches war-crazy soldiers to evict the gandharvas — who laugh at the demand and threaten death to anyone who repeats it.

Ravana, burning with desire, approaches Sita in the ashoka grove where she sits sorrowful and guarded by rakshasis. He adorns himself splendidly and offers her his wealth, power, and lineage — only to be rejected so utterly that even he, the rakshasa king, cannot bring himself to take her against her will.

Ravana's son Indrajit binds Rama and Lakshmana with boon-granted arrows, trapping them like birds in a cage. Sugriva and the monkeys stand guard helplessly until Vibhishana arrives with the prajna weapon to revive them, and Kubera sends consecrated water to grant them the power to see invisible beings.