The Old Woman, the Snake, and Death

The sages told the Pandavas the tale of the old woman Gautami and the snake - a tale of forgiveness in the face of the deepest grief, and of the great truth about who is truly to blame for our sorrows.

There was an old and pious woman named Gautami, gentle and forbearing, who had a son whom she loved above all things. One day the boy was bitten by a snake, and the venom killed him, and he died. Gautami's grief was terrible, as any mother's would be at the loss of her child. As she sat in her sorrow beside the body of her son, a fowler named Arjunaka came by - and seeing what had happened, he went and hunted down the snake that had bitten the boy, and caught it, and bound it with a cord, and brought it back to Gautami, dragging the helpless serpent before her.