The Arjuna and the Crocodile Story for Kids

The great Mahabharata war, fought between two groups of brothers 1000's years ago, teaches us lots of values today. The Mahabharata consists of more than 2 Lakh verses, and its verse is a piece of rich literature and morals. Similarly,  Arjuna and the Crocodiles is a famous story that describes Arjuna helping a few sages by pulling out the crocodiles in their bathing pond. Arjuna in this verse is portrayed as a very praised character with the right morals, addiction, power, and qualities. He is an ideal brother, son, and husband.

Story of Arjuna and the Crocodiles in English

After losing their whole big palace to Kauravas, Pandavas move out into the forest, roaming here and there. All five Pandavas used to roam in the forest to collect food, wood, and other essential supplies. One day, while roaming the dense forest, Aruna came across a big ashram. He was very happy as he thought he would ask for some food from the ashram. As he went inside, he saw many sages, and all of them were in tension.

As the sages saw Arjuna, they ran toward him and began begging for help. On asking about the problem, one of the sages said, " In this ashram, we had 5 small ponds that we used for bathing purposes, but now there are crocodiles inside the pond. Each pond has one crocodile, and whoever goes near the pond is killed by the crocodile.

Arjuna heard their problem and immediately decided to help them. Arjuna once received a blessing from Ulupi, the princess of the snake kingdom, that no water or aquatic animal could defeat him. Therefore he bravely enters the pond, catches the first crocodile, and throws it out of the pond.

Crocodiles in Mythology

As the crocodile fell to the ground, it turned into a beautiful woman. The woman told everyone that she was Varga, a fairy under Kuber. One day while roaming in the forest, she and her 4 friends disturbed a sage who was in meditation, and he cursed them to turn into a crocodile. She added, “But today, you took me out of the pond and freed me from the curse”.

She asked Arjuna, “Can you please help my other friends - Saurabha, Samichi, Lata, and Budbuda?” Arjuna then went into the rest of the pool and threw out all the crocodiles one by one. All the fairies returned to their normal look and thanked Arjuna for saving their lives.

Crocodile Turning Into a Beautiful Woman

Moral of the Arjun and the Crocodile Story

The moral of this short story is that one should always help people in need if he/she is capable of it. Like Arjuna had the boon of never getting killed by water creatures, he was capable of helping the sage, so he did. Similarly, it teaches us that we should not disturb elders and people in their work because it can lead to problems.

Tips for the Parents

Parents are advised to dictate such short stories to their kids during bedtime or on the occasion of any festival. Mythological stories are full of imagination, powers, and exciting characters that are loved by young kids. Mythological stories promote love for culture, traditional language, beliefs, and ethics.