When the Pandavas were exiled with Draupadi in the forest, they kept getting visitors from all over the country to discuss the injustice meted out to them. They came to discuss matters with the Pandavas and show their support.
Draupadi found it very difficult to extend the customary hospitality to these numerous guests because the Pandavas were destitute in exile and living in the forest where nothing was available.
During the Pandavas’ exile, Durvasa and several disciples arrived at Hastinapura. Duryodhana with his maternal uncle Shakuni managed to convince the sage to visit his cousins in the forest knowing that the Pandavas would then have nothing to feed him.
So Durvasa and his disciples visited the Pandavas in their hermitage in the forest, as per Duryodhana’s request. Since there was no food left to serve him, the Pandavas were very anxious as to their fate should they fail to feed such a venerable sage.
Among those that came with Durvasa was Krishna. The Pandavas received him with great affection and as he and his retinue sat down for a meal, he found that Draupadi hadn’t come to greet him and stayed in the kitchen. Sensing that something was wrong, he went in to see her, he found her weeping.
When asked by Krishna, Draupadi showed him her empty bowl of rice, that she had. She told him that she had no food to feed him, as they were banished to the forest with not enough food for their guests.
“This is all I have left in my kitchen” said Draupadi “ the bowl is empty and I don’t have any more rice” she added.
“Look again” said Krishna, is it really empty? “Can my sister’s kitchen be ever devoid of food?” He said. Draupadi looked again in the bowl and found a single grain of cooked rice stuck to it.
“Even if a single grain is offered with humility and love, it feeds the universe”
Krishna ate just that single grain and at that day at that time the whole universe was fed and felt satiated. The day was Akshay Tritiya.
That bowl from there on, became the Akshay Patra bowl and from that day on, it never was empty. There was always food in it to feed everyone who was hungry. Draupadi’s bowl never went empty from that day on.
The point of this story is to encourage you to open your heart to the less fortunate, and your Akshay Patra will always stay full.
I wish all of you a Happy Akshay Tritiya!!!
