Religion and Social Values :24.

3: The Reason for Birth and Death : 3.



“Where are you taking me?” asked Yudhishthira to the Great Ones.

“We are taking you to the place where your brethren and your queen are.”

“Is this the way to the place where they are staying?”

“This is the way.”


He could not understand. His brain did not function. He felt it was no more tolerable. He was suffocated with the stink of the place, and he was walking on slippery ground, knowing not what was around him. Then only he heard a faint cry.

“Save us! Save us! Wait here for a few minutes. Don’t go.” This was the voice of his brother. It was Bhima’s voice, Arjuna’s voice, Draupati crying.

“What is all this?” cried out Yudhishthira to Narada and the others.

“Well, you wanted to see your relatives. They are here. This is the paradise, this is the heaven in which your brethren are,” said the celestials. “This is what they deserve. But your destination is different. Turn away from this place. This is not your place. You are destined for heaven, and they are destined for this for their own deeds. Return! Why do you stand here? We shall take you to the paradise of Indra, which is and which shall be your glory.”


Yudhishthira said, “What do you mean by asking me to return to paradise when my brothers and my queen are here in this stink? I will stand here as long as they are here.”


There was a lot of argument. “This attitude of yours is not proper. Whatever one deserves, one gets. This is what they deserve, and you deserve another thing. Go from here,” said the celestials.


Yudhishthira would not budge from that place. “No, I am here, and I shall not move from this place. I shall be where my brothers are, where my queen is.”


Suddenly the curtain lifted. It was all blazing light. The resplendence and the fragrance and perfume of the paradise were instantaneously there. He was surprised. “Am I seeing things properly?”


He found his own brothers and his queen seated in the highest glory of paradise. Yudhishthira asked, “What is this? Are you making me mad? What am I seeing? What was I seeing, where was I standing, and where am I now?”


The angels said, “These are things which you are not supposed to understand. You are still in a mortal body. You have come bodily to the heavens, and your affections and your aversions, which are common to human beings, are still with you. You are not thinking like a celestial. You are thinking like a mortal. Take a dip in this river.”


Yudhishthira took a bath, and suddenly he shone with a fire-like body, and he no more thought like Yudhishthira. It was a new outlook altogether, a new vision, a new understanding, freed from the loves and hatreds which are inseparable from mortal existence.

To be continued  ...