The various episodes in the life of Viswamitra are narrated in the Mahabharata in many places, and Bhishma cites one while offering advice to an agitated Yudishtra, said Goda Venkateswara Sastrigal in a discourse.
Viswamitra, who was a king, happened to visit Sage Vasistha, and with Viswamitra was his entire army. Vasistha provided food to all the visitors. Viswamitra was puzzled. Vasistha was a sage who owned nothing, and yet he was able to provide food to an army, which turned up on his doorstep unannounced.
When Viswamitra discovered that it was the divine cow Nandini that had provided food to all the men through its divine powers, he felt that the cow would be of greater use to a king than to a sage. So he asked Vasistha for the cow. Vasistha, however, said that the cow had just been loaned to him temporarily to provide milk for his yagas, and once the yagas were done the cow would go back. So how could he give something that was not his?
Angered, Viswamitra tried to take Nandini away by force. But the cow now turned out a huge army from its body, and this army defeated all of Viswamitra’s men.
Had the cow been with Viswamitra, he would have used it to provide his people with an unlimited supply of milk, with no effort on their part. The message for Yudishtra through this story is that a king’s duty is not to give away things free, but to motivate his people to work hard. Yudishtra now has the task of rebuilding the economy of his country, which has been destroyed by the war. Yudishtra must motivate his people to do productive work. That is the reason Bhishma chooses this story when he advises Yudishtra.
