Brihadashva Teaches Yudhishthira the Dice Secrets
Yudhishthira, overjoyed at Brihadashva's offer, asks to learn the secrets of dice. The sage gives him the knowledge that will protect him from future challenges, then departs to bathe at Ashvashira. But no sooner has Brihadashva left than troubling news arrives about Arjuna.
Yudhishthira was extremely happy. He said to Brihadashva: "O illustrious one! I wish to know the secrets about the heart of the dice from you."
The great-souled sage gave the Pandava the secrets of the dice. What exactly those secrets were, the text does not say — only that they were the heart of dice, the knowledge that would destroy Yudhishthira's fear of ever being challenged again by someone skilled with the cubes that had cost him his kingdom.
Having given this gift, the immensely ascetic Brihadashva went to Ashvashira to bathe.
The moment he left, Yudhishthira heard something that drove the dice secrets from his mind entirely. Wise ones — brahmanas and ascetics who had assembled from large mountains and tirthas (sacred pilgrimage sites), rigid in their vows — brought him news.
Savyasachi Partha — Arjuna, the left-handed archer — was engaged in terrible austerities. He was surviving only on air. The ascetics said: "The mighty-armed Partha is engaged in fearful austerities and so terrible are these austerities that the likes of them have not been witnessed before. Partha Dhananjaya is eternally engaged in the vows of an ascetic. The fortunate one is living alone like a hermit and is like the god Dharma personified." Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 375