Nahusha and Yudhishthira Discuss Dharma and Soul
Yudhishthira, searching for his missing brother Bhima, finds himself face to face with a massive serpent coiled at the mouth of a cave. The serpent does not attack. Instead, it begins to speak — about charity, truth, non-violence, and the nature of the soul. Yudhishthira, wary but curious, questions him in return.
The serpent spoke first.
It said: "O descendant of the Bharata lineage! It is my view that one goes to heaven by giving to those who are worthy, speaking the truth, and by always resorting to non-violence."
Yudhishthira, standing before the coiled mass, asked: "Between generosity and truthfulness, which is superior? Between non-violence and good conduct, which is superior and which is inferior?"
The serpent answered carefully. The superiority of one over the other, he said, depends on the effects of the deeds. There are times when truthfulness is regarded as superior to generosity. There are times when generosity is regarded as superior to truthfulness. In the same way, there are occasions when non-violence is superior to kind words, and other occasions when kind words are superior. "If there is anything else that you are thinking of, tell me. I will explain."
Yudhishthira pressed further. "What are the deeds through which one can attain heaven? What are the certain fruits of the disembodied soul?"
The serpent laid out the three end-goals of human action: human birth, residence in heaven, and rebirth as inferior species. Through continuous charity and deeds based on non-violence, one attains heaven. Through the reverse — desire, anger, violence, avarice — a man is reborn as inferior species. But even from that state, he can rise again. "Cattle and horses are seen to have attained divine status. Such is the goal of all animals, depending on one's deeds."
Then Yudhishthira asked about the soul itself: how it is established in a body, how it experiences sound, touch, colour, taste, and smell.
The serpent explained that when the soul takes a physical body and establishes itself in control, it experiences each sense according to its characteristics. Knowledge, intelligence, and the mind are the faculties that determine the soul's enjoyment of the senses. The mind is the cause of all perceptions — but it cannot experience multiple objects at once. The soul itself is established between the eyebrows. It creates intelligence about different kinds of objects, and from that intelligence, different kinds of experience flow.
Yudhishthira asked one more question: "What are the specific characteristics that distinguish the mind and the intelligence? What is the supreme deed for those who wish to know about the soul?"
The serpent replied that intelligence follows the soul through various distractions. Though consciousness is derived from it, intelligence controls the soul. Intelligence is not subject to the different qualities — but the mind has these qualities. "Thus have I distinguished between the mind and intelligence. But you yourself have knowledge about these matters. What do you think?"
Yudhishthira looked at the serpent — at its intelligence, its precision, its knowledge of things no ordinary creature should know. "You are omniscient," he said. "You dwelt in heaven. You were the performer of extraordinary deeds. How did delusion overcome you?" Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 475