Week 6 Storytelling, 80. Afterlife

Even though Yudhishthira knew this was heaven, it seemed more like the first level of hell.  In this beautiful place, his jealous and spiteful cousin, the cause of all Yudhishthira’s hardships, sat upon a throne in eternal bliss.  This could not be right, this could not possibly be heaven, especially since there was no evidence of his brothers and wife having resided here. 

To this Indra said, “ You can stay here in eternal bliss, just let go of your ties to earth and you will become perfect, unlike your brothers who fell short of this accomplishment.”

Yudhishthira replied, “I cannot stay here without my brothers and wife, especially not with those who have done me wrong down on earth.

Therefore an angel guided him to a forest of which he entered, though this was no normal forest.  The branches reached out for Yudhishthira like spears, scratching at his arms and clothing, and the forest floor was covered in what seemed like a thousand needles that pricked his feet as he walked.  Within this forest is where his family resided, among the piles of unrecognizable corpses and the fetid smell of putrification.  Vultures feasted upon these corpses with their razor sharp beaks and dark wings, fitting in with the mirk of the forest perfectly.  Beyond the forest was a desert too hot to touch, but he wouldn’t be going that far because here, amid the thorns and horror, his family lived in an everlasting torment of fire and torture, and it would be here he would stay.  He would stay here forever to comfort them in this awful damned place.

He could have turned away, could have left them for the eternal bliss where his cousin Duryodhana sat upon his long envied throne.  However, Yudhishthira was not that man, and at these words, “Leave me here, I cannot leave my family.”  The gods revealed to Yudhishthira that this was indeed not hell, but an illusion to test him of his love.  For passing this test he was allowed to cast off his earthly body within the waters of the Ganges and he assumed his celestial body.

With these he entered Swarga and met happily with Krishna, his brothers, and Draupadi, all of his earthly loved ones.  Everyone awaited him here including: Prativindhya (Yudhishthira’s son), Sutasoma, Shrutakama, Satanika, Shrutasena, Dhritarashtra, Karna, Abhimanyu,  Pandu, Kunti, Bhishma, Drona, and Dharama.  All of these men were valiant warriors who perished in battle and were able to enter heaven through their deeds on earth.  Therefore Yudhishthira entered heaven amongst all his family and friends, wanting for not.

Ascension to Heaven

Reading Diary B

So finally in these scenes the Pandavas brothers reach the end of their fourteen years of exile and wish to receive back their kingdom.  In order to do this, they approach Hastinapur with a small army, however they send a messenger of peace.  However Duryodhana refuses to accept anything except war or defeat due to his hatred, jealousy, and his own evilness.  He even thought to capture Krishna against his will even though he had offered some of his own troops to help Duryodhana's army.

61. Bhishma Falls
In this scene Bhishma is taken down by Arjuna with a volley of arrows.  Arjuna used a charioteer who was born a woman but became a man, which he knew Bhishma could not fight.  However Arjuna was not happy with killing the man he once called "father" , for they were very close when Arjuna was younger.  However Bhishma finally fell and in his absence Drona takes command of the army.

63. Abhimanyu and Jayadratha

In this scene Abhimanyu, Arjuna's son, is killed by Jayadratha and due to this Arjuna vows that he would kill Jayadratha before the end of the next day.  The entire next day Arjuna searched for Jayadratha with Krishna as his charioteer, they drove onward all day and eventually in the last rays of sun that day Arjuna found Jayadratha protected by Karna. By a trick of Krishna's design, Arjuna was able to bypass Karna and kill Jayadratha by way of cutting off his head.

So on and so the battle raged, Drona was lost to the battle, and the Pandavas won back their kingdom as was bound to happen.  Eventually after many visits to the battlefield, Bhishma finally lets himself die after providing advice to the Pandavas while awaiting his death.  Krishna too eventually fell to his death after being shot in the foot by an arrow and his city was swallowed up by the sea.

Death of Krishna

Reading Diary A

Wow, so much has happened in the Mahabharata that it's almost hard to be able to remember the details of each encounter!  As I am a little behind on the reading I've covered a little bit different amount of reading in order to catch up to where I should be.  As such I'd like to cover a couple of the stories that I found to be the most prominent to me.  Something that I've noticed in the Mahabarata is the occurrence of individual adventures of the Pandu brothers, such as when Bhishma married the she-demon and went to live with her for a while, or such as when Arjuna exiled himself for twelve years and came back with another wife.

27. Wife of the five Pandavas

I thought this was really interesting, not just because she was destined to be the wife of all five men, but because they seemed to be really okay with the five of them all sharing the same woman. My interest was really piqued at the way that the brothers even had rules and that there were no mention of jealousies between the brothers when one of the five was with her.  It's a little hard for me to understand how a woman could have five husbands!  Not only that but Draupadi's father actually was okay with the fact that she was marrying five men!

37. The Gambling Match

So this scene was the hardest for me to read, because not only did Yudhishthira agree to gamble knowing that he didn't know how, but he also agreed knowing full well that Shakuni did not gamble fairly.  Then while gambling, Yudhishthira knowingly gambled away all of his kingdom, his brothers, himself, and then the last straw of gambling away their wife Draupadi!  Could he really be so stupid as to not see the plot of Durodhana in this?  It was really hard for me to read knowing how stupid it seemed!

40. The Second Match

Alright, so not only did Yudhishthira lose everything the first time and then get his freedom back through his wife, but he stupidly agreed to a second gambling match!  This time he lost everything again and thus had to go into exile with his brothers and wife for twelve years in the forest!!  Who chose this guy to be king again?

After all this the Pandavas and their wife entered the forest to live with the sages in rags and with only an everful pot of food to keep them from becoming hungry.  While in exile Duryodhana tried to spy on them causing another of his failures where he was defeated by the gandharvas so that the Pandavas had to come rescue him.  This caused Duryodhana to become depressed and he vowed to let himself die for his failure and his embarrassment.  However a goddess carried him from death and gave him a new vigor for life, saying that he would have help in defeating the Pandavas.  So on the struggle between Duryodhana and the Pandavas continues!

Messenger to Pandavas