Episode of the lake - Dharmaraja's questions

During the period of exile in the forest, Yudhistira finds that his brothers have been killed while attempting to drink water from a lake. The killer is a mysterious celestial entity, who tells him that he cannot drink the water without answering all his questions or he will face the same consequences as his brothers. This is a defining point of transformation in the great epic Mahabharata. By gambling away his kingdom, his brothers and staking his wife on a game of dice, he showed that he was unworthy of being a king, an elder brother, and a husband. He had no right to stake his brothers, his wife, or his kingdom because they were not his property. A king is merely a custodian and protector of the kingdom. He is a servant of the people and they are not his servants. It is the duty of the husband to protect his wife and by gambling away her dignity and self-respect he had proved to be unworthy of being a husband.

The lake episode is the event in which Yudhistira atones for his sins of gambling away his brothers and himself and thereby proves himself worthy of being a king in the future. His brothers died after drinking the water. They were warned by the celestial entity and told that they cannot drink the water unless they answered his questions, but they were so consumed by pride that they thought they could take whatever they needed by force. The brothers paid for their pride, but Yudhistira revived them by his wisdom and knowledge of dharma. Yudhistira had theoretical knowledge of virtue and righteousness but he had not applied it in practice. This episode was one where he had begun the process of applying his theoretical knowledge. During the gambling episode, Yudhistira broke the rules of dharma by not just staking his brothers, but by staking his brothers who were sons of Madri before staking his brothers who were sons of Kunti. However, when he was asked which brother he would revive if he could revive first, he chose Nakul, because he should be fair to Madri. This gesture atoned for the previous sin of staking Nakul before staking sons of Kunti. Because he upheld virtue, the mysterious entity, who was the king of Dharma blessed him with victory, because victory is always with the one who is the guardian of dharma.