Yudhisthira

The scouts all gathered Friday evening. They all bought their survival gear and everything else they would need on their camping trip. Tents, rope, matches, trail mix, it was all there and they were eager to step off into the wilderness.

"Today we will finally earn our Survival badge, and with that I will have all the badges a scout could earn," the leader of the group ,Yudhisthira, declared. The other three scouts all nodded in excited agreement.

They arrived at the park shortly before sundown and quickly began to set up camp. Arjuna was eager to show off his knot tying skills and created a haphazard shelter of ropes and canvas. Sahadeva attempted to start a fire with his new flint rock, before conceding to use his lighter. The boys told a few ghost stories and quickly fell fast asleep

They woke to the morning sun already beating down upon them. Thirsty, the boys began to look around for their water.

" Hey, who has an extra water bottle? I forgot mine. " Nakula asked.

"I forgot mine too," replied Arjuna.

Quickly the boys all realized they were in trouble and they would have to figure out how to survive if they ever hoped to earn their Survival badges. Yudhisthira attempted to contain the panic, but even he was starting to become worried.

Looking around, he said,"I think there is a pond nearby. Why don't you check it out Nakula?"

Nakula ran off and quickly approached the pond. When he reached the shore, a strange voice began to speak."Before you may drink, riddle me this."

Nakula was to thirsty to be bothered by a talking pond and quickly drank anyway. Almost immediately, he fell over dead.

Worried Sahadeva decided to go investigate. He too reached the pond and saw his friend lying dead. He too heard the voice of the riddling pond, but was so thirsty he decided to drink anyway. He too fell over dead almost immediately.

Next Arjuna grew impatient and went off over to the pond. He saw his two friends lying dead and then the pond spoke to him. Arjuna would not be taunted by a talking pond, and with a mighty "Come at me bra," he began to throw rocks at the pond. When this did nothing he too decided to go ahead and drink from the pond anyway. Unsurprisingly he too fell over dead.

Alone Yudhisthira decided to investigate the pond as well. When he saw his friends dead he began to cry. Suddenly the pond spoke to Yudhisthira as well. "Riddle me this, scout," the pond declared.

"I will answer your riddles, magic pond, but first tell me what happened to my friends," Yudhisthira replied.

The pond was silent for a moment and then said "Your friends died from drinking dirty water from a stagnant pond, look at me, this water is full of all kinds of bacteria. Now for your first riddle: What three things are needed for a fire?"

Yudhisthira remembered his scout training and confidently declared, "Heat, oxygen, and fuel."

Immediately the voice said "If you do not have any water, what should you drink?"

For this question Yudhisthira had to dig deep. He thought about all the Man V Wild with Bear Grylls he had watched. Again he confidently replied, "You drink your own pee!"

The pond then spoke again "What should you do with pond water before you drink it?"

"You should always boil it," Yudhisthira replied.

Suddenly the pond transformed into William Dickson Boyce, the founder of the Boy Scouts."You have passed my test wise scout. You may have two wishes." Said Boyce.

"I wish my friends were alive, and I wish we could all get our survival badge," exclaimed Yudhisthira.

Suddenly all three boys arose and the four of them happily left the forest, shiny new badges in hand.

Image info: The Great Scout Yudhisthira and all his badges.

Yudhisthira Image

Scout Image

The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie (1921). Mahabharata

Author's Note:

I told the story of Yudhisthira from Chapter 50 of the Mahabharata reading: Riddles at the Lake. The story is about five warrior brothers who encounter the God of wisdom disguised as a pond. In the original the warriors are also exhausted and desperate for water. They are in a state of despair but they also discover a nearby pond. One by one they approach the pond, are spoken to by the pond, and decide to drink despite the pond's warnings and riddles. One by one they perish until we reach our hero. Yudhisthia is able to answer the Yaksha's difficult riddles and save his friends. After completion of the riddles he wishes for the resurrection of his brothers and safe passage by them being unrecognizable. I was pretty pleased with how the story turned out. I think telling the story as Boy Scouts worked perfectly and fit the theme of the original story. The story turned out a lot longer than most of mine, but I like the details I was able to include, such as their complete lack of survival skills, and the absurdity of multiple men drinking from the same pond that just killed their friend. This also fits a theme of the original that I wanted to cover: their ability to coast by on luck and chance.