Procrastination, Yudhishtira and Bhima

There is another interesting story about Yudhishtira and Bhima.
Yudhishtira was Dharma personified. He never did anything that was not
right or dharma. A poor man came to the court of King Yudhishtira and
asked for some financial help. King told him: "Please come tomorrow. I
will give you a good amount of money to help you." The man thanked the
king and left.

Bhima also was present in the court. He immediately laughed in his
mind and went out, called all the ministers and servants and told them
that there is something to celebrate. He did not tell the reason for
the great celebration. Since it was a celebration, everybody knew that
Bhima was very happy about something. So they all got excited and
started preparing for the big celebration. After some time King asked
these people running in and out of the palace about their sudden
excitement. They told him that Bhima wanted them to get ready for a
big celebration. King was really surprised that Bhima is arranging
something with out his knowledge.

He called Bhima and asked him why he is doing this with out letting
him know about the reason for the celebration. Bhima very
sarcastically said: my dear brother, you have gained victory over
death for one whole day. I heard you, the great king Yudhishtira,
promising a poor man some financial help. I heard you asking him to
come back tomorrow.  So I assume that you are sure that you will live
until tomorrow. Other wise you cannot promise him  help. I know
Dharmaputhra, my respected brother, never deviates from Dharmam and
his promise is a promise. So I want to announce the world about your
victory over death because no one else I know has this confidence. May
be this confidence is because you are the son of Dharma Raja.
Congratulations!"

Now Yudhishtira understood the sarcasm of his brother. He immediately
ordered the poor man to come to his palace and gave him much more than
what he asked for. Then he told the audience: "please do pranaa to my
beloved brother Bhima. He taught us that any good deed must be
performed as soon as possible. If we procrastinate, we may change our
mind and decide not to do the good deed. Also this teaches us that all
unpleasant or cruel or retaliating actions should not be executed
impulsively. Procrastinate those bad actions as much as possible. We
may change our mind and never commit the bad action! Postponement or
procrastination of action is sometimes good and sometimes bad
depending on the action."

There is another some what similar story of Daanaseelan Karnan and
Krishna Bhagawan. I will try to put it into words tomorrow.

Let God help us not to postpone kind and benevolent actions and bless
us to postpone unkind actions until we change our mind and transform
those into good actions.