I was overhearing the rhymes 'Johny Johny' while my son was listening to it and wondered if anyone ever really figure out whether Johny had eaten the sugar or not. The rhymes ends with a 'ha ha ha' and does not really tell you what the 'papa' found out in his mouth. So, I guess nobody other than Johny and his papa will ever find that out.
I started wondering if any Hindu Puranas have instances like this, where someone has eaten/drank something but you never know if they really did. Of course! Not just one, there seem to be quite a few stories that never answer such question. Ambiguity prevails till the end of the story, if that someone really eat/drank something.
1) Mahashiva drinking poison that rose from the ocean churning. Since it got stopped in his throat itself, we cannot be really sure if we can call it drinking.
2) Rahu drinking Amruta and getting his head severed just in time to cut him into two yet live after that. Cutting heads of other Gods and demi Gods won't kill them or separate them out forever. But it did for Rahu; to form two separate entities Rahu and Ketu. But they did not die either. So, we will probably never logically conclude if they really drank it or not.
3) Bheema during the Kurukshetra war, slays Duhshaasana and breaks open his ribs as the blood oozes out. Takes the blood in his hands and drinks it. He starts explaining the taste of the blood and the sweetness of the revenge to exceed the taste of his mother's milk or anything he has ever drank. He 'informes' his brother Yudhistira later that he has completed his vow of slaying Duhshaasana and drinking his blood (Karna Parva: Chapter 83). Many people seeing the scene dropped unconscious while many others ran for life seeing the inhumanity. But after the war and past many years, later when Kunti, Vidura, Dhritarastra and Gandhaari decide to go to vaanaprasta (retirement into forest life), during that time, Gandhaari asks Bheema if he had actually drank her son's blood. Bheema clearly says 'No' and that he only took the blood almost near his mouth (Ashramavasika parva. Ch.24). Both, saying he did drink the blood and that he did not, finally makes it an 'unknown'. Only Bheema would know if he did or not.
4) Krishna drinking poisonous breast milk of Putana. Only Krishna or Putana would know. Not even Kamsa could know leave alone kamsa's like us (kamsa = arc > incomplete. krutsnaa = full circle > complete). Apart from this instance there may be a few others too.
5) But the most similar one is that of Krishna eating mud and Yashomayya trying to look inside him. It is said she saw the entire Universe within, but it does not say if Yashomayya saw if mud was in Krishna's mouth or not.
Instead of tring to find answers, we should just enjoy the question that will never have an answer. I am trying to teach this Sanskrit rhyme that I composed to my son which can be sung in the same tune that of Johny Johny Yes Papa. I do not vouch for the correctness in the grammar, but hey, they are kids' rhymes and can tolerate minor grammatical mistakes.
ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಕೃಷ್ಣ
ಕಾ ಮಾತಾ
ಭುಂಕ್ತ್ವಾ ಮೃತ್ಸ್ನಾ
ನ ಮಾತಾ
ವದತಿಯಸತ್ಯಂ
ನ ಮಾತಾ
ಕಿಂ ತೇ ಅಂತಃ
ಃ ಃ ಃ
(Ha Ha Ha / ಭೂರ್ಭುವಃ ಸುವಃ)
कृष्ण कृष्ण
का माता
भुंक्त्वा मृत्स्ना
न माता
वदतियसत्यं
न माता
किं ते अंतः
ः ः ः
(Ha Ha Ha / भूर्भुवः सुवः)
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