Reading Notes: Mahabharata, Part D

Yudhisthira and the final test before ascending to the heavens. Source: Wikipedia.

The Afterlife
Once in heaven, Yudhishthira faced one final test of his virtue: he saw only the Dhartarashtra Clan in heaven, and he was told that his brothers were in hell. He insisted on joining his brothers in hell, if that were the case! It was then revealed that they were really in heaven, that this illusion had been one final test for him.

The epitome of all that is virtuous and righteous, Yudhishthira refused Indra’s offer. He said he couldn’t travel to heaven without Draupadi and his brothers. To this, Indra told him that they all ascended to heaven after falling to their deaths. It was a test of dharma and Yudhishthira had once again proved his righteousness by not abandoning people who stayed with him throughout.

Yudhisthira loyally went to Naraka (hell) to meet his brothers, but the sights and sounds of gore and blood horrified him. Tempted to flee, he mastered himself and remained on hearing the voice of his beloved brothers and Draupadi...calling out to him, asking him to stay with them in their misery. Yudhisthira decided to remain, ordering the Divine charioteer to return..preferring to live in hell with good people than in a heaven of evil ones. At that moment the scene changed. This was yet another illusion to test him on the one hand, and on other hand to enable him to atone for his sin of using deceit to kill Drona. Indra and Krishna appeared before him and told him that his brothers were already in Heaven, along with his enemies, for earthly virtues and vices don't hold true in heavenly realms. Krishna yet again hailed Yudhisthira for his dharma, and bowed to him, in the final defining moment of the epic where divinity bowed down to humanity.

COMPARISON OF THE SETTINGS: Direct quotes from the reading.

"He entered the forest of the nether regions, where the leaves were like to sharp weapons and the path was covered with knives. Darkness hung heavily, and the way was miry with blood and strewn with foul and mutilated corpses. Shapes of horror flitted round about like to shadows; fierce birds of prey feasted upon human flesh. The damned were burning in everlasting fires, and the air reeked with foul odors. A boiling river went past, and Yudhishthira saw the place of torture with thorns, and the desert of fiery sand: he gazed mutely upon each horror that was unfolded before his eyes."

"Then Yudhishthira was led to the heavenly Ganges, and having bathed in its sacred waters, he cast off his mortal body and became a celestial. Then, rejoicing, he entered Swarga, the celestial city of Indra, and was welcomed by Krishna in all his divine glory, and by his brethren and by Draupadi, and all whom he had loved upon earth."