During the exile Bhima was vain of his muscular power. He opined that none was superior to him in strength. One day, the wind dropped a fragrant flower near Draupadi, who wanted more of such flowers. Bhima set off to find more flowers for her. On the way, a huge monkey lay across the path, blocking his way. He couldn’t persuade or frighten the monkey to get out of his way.
The monkey said that Bhima should jump over him and go ahead. “Scriptures forbid that, otherwise I would have gone over you,” said Bhima. The monkey asked him to move his tail as he was feeble and walk past him. Bhima tried to pick up the tail, but he found he couldn’t move it an inch. He struggled till he was exhausted. With both his palms joined in reverence he asked, “Forgive me, Sir. Who are you?” “Your brother, Hanuman,” replied the monkey, who like Bhima was also Vayu’s (Wind-god’s) son. Then the monkey turned into his original form and spoke thus, “This path is meant for the gods, not for humans.” Thereafter Hanuman told Bhima the whereabouts of the flower Bhima was looking for. He blessed Bhima to be victorious and disappeared from there. Bhima with the flower returned to Draupadi. Thus Bhima’s ego was shattered.
One day, Bhima, looking for food, came to a large cave on mountain-side. A huge python lived in the cave and caught unwary passers-by. As soon as it saw Bhima, it shot out towards him and, before he could do anything, it had coiled itself around him tightly. Bhima was unable to do anything.
He introduced himself and asked the python why it was holding him in a stranglehold. “My name is Nahusha,” replied the python, “And I am one of your ancestors. I had insulted some Brahmins once and was cursed by sage Agastya to change into a python. Now, I must eat you unless you can answer my questions correctly.” Meanwhile, Yudhishthira and sage Dhaumya came looking for Bhima. Finding him in the coils of the python, Yudhishthira answered all the python’s questions correctly. Immediately, the python’s curse nullified and, changing into prince Nahusha, he was set free to go to heaven.
