This is the most beautiful story of the Mahaabhaarat, as you will go through it. One day the Paandav were dead beat walking in the forest and were dying of thirst. So Yudhishthir asked Sahadev to look for some water around. Sahadev climbed up a tree and looked out for a source of potable water and found a lake not too far away. So Yudhishthir asked him to bring some water for them. He reached the lake, took two handfuls of water and just as he was about to drink it, a Yaksh, a semi-celestial being, rose from the lake and said to the prince - "O, Whoever you are, listen to me. This is my lake so answer my questions first before you drink the water; if you refuse and drink this water, you will drop dead." Paying no heed to the Yaksh, Sahadev drank the water only to fall dead.

When Sahadev didn't return within a reasonable time, Yudhishthir sent Nakul to find out what had happened to Sahadev. Nakul too was too proud to listen to the Yaksh and so he also fell dead on the bank of the lake. When Nakul did not come back, he sent Arjun and then Bheem who met with the same fate as Nakul and Sahadev. Now worried, Yudhishthir, himself trekked to the lake. When he saw his all brothers lying dead without any mark of struggle or fight,  or wound or injury, he could not understand as what might have had happened to his those mighty brothers. But he understood that there was something in the lake.

However he also tried to drink water from the lake that he also heard the Yaksh's voice. He took the Yaksh's warning seriously and asked him to ask his questions and that he would answer them to the best of his abilities. The Yaksh then started asking his questions and Yudhishthir started answering them - some with pronto and others after due deliberation and thought. Here are some of the gems of those questions and answers, verbatim, for your benefit.

Q: How is it possible for a man always to have a second companion?
A: Steady intelligence serves man as a helpful companion always.

Q: Braahman are ranged with Divine beings. How are they then, different from Divine beings?
A: Braahman are mortal and divine beings are not. It is this liability to die that makes them not quite Divine.

Q: Tell me about sacrifice. What is meant by the Saam in a sacrifice? And Yaju? There is something which is the refuge of sacrifice. What is it? What is essential for sacrifice?
A: Life is the Saam and mind is the Yaju. Rig is the refuge of sacrifice and it is Rig which is essential for sacrifice.

Q: There is found a person who enjoys all the objects of the senses. He is intelligent. The world holds him in esteem and he is quite popular. And yet, though this man breathes, it is said that he does not live. Why?
A: A man, though he breathes, is considered to be not alive if he does not offer anything to the gods, guests, servants and the Pitri.

Q: What is heavier than the earth itself?
A: The mother

Q: What is higher than the Heavens?
A: The father.

Q: What is faster than wind?
A: The mind is faster than the wind

Q: What is more numerous than grass?
A: The thoughts that arise in the mind of man

Q: What is the highest refuge of virtue
A: Liberality is the highest refuge of virtue.

Q: And of fame?
A: Gift is the highest refuge of fame

Q: And of heaven?
A: Truth is the highest refuge of heavens

Q: And of happiness?
A: Good behavior is the highest refuge of happiness

Q: Who is the best friend granted by gods to man?
A: A wife is the best friend bestowed on man by the gods

Q: The best of all things that are praised: what is it?
A: The most praiseworthy thing is skill.

Q: The most valuable of all possessions?
A: Knowledge

Q: The best of all gains?
A: Health

Q: The best of kinds of happiness?
A: The Contentment

Q: What is the highest duty in the world?
A: To abstain others from injury is the highest of all duties.

Q: What is it, controlling which lead to no regret?
A: The mind, if controlled, will never lead to regret

Q: What is that, which, when renounced, makes one agreeable?
A: Pride, when renounced, makes one agreeable.

Q: Renouncing what does one become wealthy?
A: Desire, when renounced, makes one wealthy

Q: What is it, when renounced, leads to no regret?
A: Wrath, when renounced leads to no regret

Q: Renouncing what does make one happy?
A: Avarice, when renounced, makes a man happy.

Q: What is The Way? By whom is it constituted?
A: Those that are constituted by good people is The Way.

Q: True restraint?
A: The restraint of the mind is true restraint

Q: What is the essential feature of forgiveness?
A: Forgiveness consists in enduring enmity

Q: What is shame?
A: Shame is withdrawing from all unworthy acts

Q: What is tranquility?
A: True tranquility is that of the heart.

Q: What is mercy?
A: Mercy means wishing happiness for all

Q: What is simplicity?
A: Simplicity is equanimity of the heart

Q: Can you tell me what enemy is invincible?
A: Anger

Q: What disease is incurable?
A: Covetousness is an incurable disease.

Q: Which man is considered honest?
A: He who desires the good of all creatures is honest.

Q: Which man is dishonest?
A: One who is not merciful is dishonest

Q: And pride?
A: Pride is a consciousness of one's being himself an actor or sufferer in life

Q: What is idleness?
A: Not discharging one's duties is idleness

Q: Grief? What is grief?
A: Ignorance is grief

Q: What is patience?
A: Patience is subjugating the senses

Q: What is real ablution?
A: A true bath consists in washing the mind clean of all impurities

Q: What is charity?
A: Charity consists in protecting all creatures

Q: What is wickedness?
A: Wickedness is speaking ill of others.

Q: By what does one become a Braahman? Is it behavior? Or birth? Or study? Or learning?
A: Neither birth nor study nor even learning makes a man Braahman. It is his behavior that makes a man Braahman. If his behavior is faultless the man is faultless too. Bad conduct damns a man for ever. Study of the Ved is not enough if a man does not conduct himself properly.

Q: What is the reward for one who always speaks agreeable words?
A: So simple, he becomes agreeable to all

Q: When he acts with judgment?
A: He gets whatever he seeks

Q: When he has many friends?
A: He lives happily

Q: What is the most wonderful thing this world?
A: Day after day there enter into the Temple of Death, countless lives. Looking on this spectacle, the rest of them, those who remain, believe themselves to be permanent, immortal. Can anything be more wonderful than this?

Q: What is the Path?
A: That alone is the Path along which the Great have trod.

Q: Who is truly a Man?
A: The report of one's good actions reach heaven and it is spread over the earth. As long as that report lasts, so long as that person called a Man.

Q: Which is the man who is considered to possess every kind of wealth?
A: The man to whom the agreeable and the disagreeable, weal and woe, the past and future, are the same, is considered to possess every kind of wealth.

These are the answers that transcend TIME; incredible pearls of wisdom, they were indeed. Mighty pleased with Yudhishthir's correct answers, the Yaksh asked him "If I were to bring back alive one of your dead brothers, which one would you choose and why?" Yudhishtir answered without hesitation - "Sahadev - for two reasons: (1) he is the youngest brother among us and (2) if he were to come back to life there will be two brothers alive in the family one each from both mothers - Maadree, my step-mother, and the other one me, born of Kuntee."

Pleased with this reply too, the Yaksh granted him his wish, and asked him another question - "If you want another dead brother back alive, whom would you choose and why? Yudhishthir said - "Nakul because he is the second son of Maadree. By your doing so, I wouldn't be accused of being partial towards my own brothers born of Kuntee, our biological mother." Yaksh was overwhelmed by his answer and brought back to life his all brothers.

Yudhishthir then observed that the man who had brought alive is all brothers couldn't have been an ordinary Yaksh because a Yaksh cannot bring any dead person alive so he said - "May I ask you one question now?" "Sure." he asked "You are not a Yaksh, who are you?" Then the Yaksh revealed himself as Dharm Raaj or Yam, the Lord of Righteousness and Death, who was Yudhishthir's father, and who wanted to see his son and test his wisdom and fairness, and hence the stage-managed drama.