To Be Faithful

This is part of my ongoing series on the Mahabharat, an epic poem of ancient India. For links to all previous Mahabharat posts go here. Or you can simply click on the Mahabharat page link above.


I want to thank you all for giving me your thoughts on this Mahabharat series. It was wonderful to read your comments and garner your thoughts. If you missed that post then go here to get the low down.

Some of you asked where my questions were coming from so I need to clear that issue up. My questions stemmed from several causes:
1. The mental and emotional fatigue that came crashing down on me this winter.
2. My sudden curiousity to know if what I was doing had any effect or point.
3. Personal issues that were messing with my head and making me turn down weird and twisted thought processes.
4. A freakish reminder of how time was passing and that it was already 2011 and holy crap did I need to shake things up a bit?

After hearing what you had to say and contemplating the issue all week, I've decided to continue writing the series. It gives me such joy and I also don't want to allow any personal nonsense to get in the way of what is a beautiful relationship between us here at this blog.

So without further ado, here's this Friday's installment:


Long after the war, after Yudhistira had ruled Hastinapur for many years, the Pandavas and Draupadi recieved word that Krishna had left the mortal realm. Krishna - their friend, their saviour, their one true comfort in the world - was gone, having returned to his divine abode.

The Pandavas decided that it was time for them to leave too. They had lived long and arduous lives and they were tired. And without Krishna, the material world seemed pointless.

Yudhistira put their only grandson, Pariksit, on the throne and blessed him that he have a long and prosperous and peaceful rein.

Then the Pandavas and Draupadi left Hastinapur for the Himalayas. Their goal was to find the entrance to Swarg, the heavenly realm, and thus they climbed those harsh mountains. Higher and higher they ascended and along the way they acquired a friend who walked with them. It was a black dog, wild, that silently followed their footsteps no matter how treacherous the climb or cold the wind.

Draupadi was the first to fall. Sahadev, Nakula, Arjun and Bhima reached out to save her but she'd fallen too far and lay dying on the jagged rocks and snow. The four younger brothers looked at each other in horror, not knowing what to do. But Yudistira, the eldest, walked on.

"Don't stop," he told them. "Don't look back. We will see her in the next realm."

They continued to climb. Sahadev fell. Then Nakula. Still Yudhistira walked on. Arjun also fell. Then finally mighty Bhima, leaving Yudhistira alone. And still he walked on. He didn't stop. He didn't turn back. He climbed higher and higher, through the cold and the thin air.

There was only one who remained with him on this journey. It was the black dog who braved the wind and the snow to remain at Yudhistira's side.

Then finally, in a hidden peak high up on the roof of the world, Yudhistira came to the doorway of Swarg. It was an opening into a golden world, full of warmth and light and joy.

A celestial being stood at the opening to welcome him. His shining form blinded Yudhistira's eyes.

"Yudhistira," Indra said, "we've been waiting for you."

Yudhistira blinked through his icicle covered eyelashes, focusing with difficulty at the King of the Celestials. "For me?"

"Of course," Indra replied. "You are Dharmraj, the King of Righteousness on Earth. You have restored peace and truth and justice to the people. Tales of your noble deeds will live on throughout the ages. Therefore, the honour of entering Swarg while still in your mortal body has been granted to you. Such an honour is granted to very few."

Yudhistira looked down upon his body, absorbing this news. So this was why Draupadi and his brothers had fallen. They'd not been meant to enter with their mortal bodies.

"Come," Indra told him. "It is time for you to reach your destination. But first you must choose where your destination will be."

Yudhistira frowned in confusion but then saw that the opening was splitting in two. One half was still the warm golden world that smelled of lotus blossoms and sweet fresh water. The other half was dark and cold, smelling of sour urine and death like the deepest dungeon.

Indra gestured to the golden world. "This is where the Kauravas reside." Indra gestured to the dark world. "This is where your brothers and Draupadi are."

Yudhistira staggered back on hearing it. His brothers, his wife... They were in hell? That dark foul-smelling place? And the evil Kauravas, his enemies... They were in heaven? They were rewarded while Yudhistira's family suffered?

"Choose, Yudhistira," Indra told him. "Where do you wish to be?"

Yudhistira looked at the golden world. All its joys would mean nothing to him without those he loved. "I want to be where my brothers are. Where my Draupadi is."

The dark half of the opening vanished and Indra glided down upon the black rocks of the Himalayan peak. He stood shining in the wind and cold. "Well done, Yudhistira. We wanted to see if your virtue was true and you passed our test. You may now ascend with me into Swarg and join your family."

Yudhistira was weak with relief to know that his family were not suffering in hell. He closed his eyes in a prayer of thanks.

"Now, leave behind that dog and come to your reward."

On Indra's words Yudhistira's eyes snapped open. Then he turned to the black dog who was quietly standing at his side, a silent companion. "You want me to leave this dog?" The harsh wind blew, freezing Yudhistira down to his bones.

Indra was unaffected by the wind. "A lowly dog may not enter the heavenly realm."

Yudhistira shook his head. "But he has followed me all this way. How can I leave him alone here and go with you?"

"If you do not abandon that dog you cannot enter Swarg."

Yudhistira gazed upon his faithful friend. It looked back up at him, patient, accepting. He put his hand on the dog's head. "Unless this dog can walk into Swarg beside me, I will not enter."

Indra raised his eyebrows. "You would reject Swarg for this lowly animal? Have you lost your mind?"

"Perhaps. But I have not lost my heart. Even if this dog is lowly in your eyes he is great in mine. He is my friend and I will not abandon him."

Yudhistira stepped away from Indra's shining form. He turned to go back down the mountain, turning from that place of absolute joys.

"Yudhistira," a deep voice said.

Yudhistira looked to his side where the black dog had been but there was no dog now. Instead there was a divine being. His eyes flashed like lightning and his dark body glowed like a burning ember. Yudhistira gasped.

"My son," the divine being said, smiling at Yudhistira.

Yudhistira fell at his father's feet. And it was his father, Dharmraj, the Lord of truth and righteousness. Yudhistira had seen him by a lake once, long ago, in what Yudhistira had come to think of as a dream.

Dharmraj lifted him up. "I wanted to test your loyalty so I became that humble dog. And you did not disappoint me, my dear. You were faithful to the one who followed you, even at great cost to yourself."

"I could do no less, Lord," Yudhistira said.

"Then it is time," Dharmraj said, and they turned to the doorway of Swarg for the final time.

Yudhistira felt himself enveloped by light and warmth and peace. He was home.


This, one of the final stories of the Mahabharat, is an explanation of the journey all people must go through to prove their worthiness for heaven.

As each of his loved ones fell in the climb up the mountains, Yudhistira did not waver in his search for salvation. However, the Mahabharat is not saying that Yudhistira was heartless, although many have interpreted it that way. The epic is instead showing how we must all, in leaving this world, let go of our attachments to it. Yudhistira left his throne, his wealth, his power. He left it all behind. But Draupadi and the younger Pandava brothers were Yudhistira's deepest attachments. In seeking salvation, he had to leave even them behind. That's not to say that he cast them out of his heart. No, he cast his material attachment for them out of his heart. He understood that they were greater than their bodies - that they had spiritual identities.

Indra explained that only Yudishtira was allowed to enter Swarg in his mortal body. The others had had to let go of their material selves, becoming completely spiritual. This is what we call death. Yudhistira, on the other hand, had lived such an exemplary life while in the mortal world that he did not need to shed his body because his body was not material but spiritual. His body was thus compatible with the heavenly realm and he could enter without having to go through "death".

Yet he still had to be tested. Yudhistira had to choose between heaven without those he loved or hell with them. And Yudhistira - in direct contradiction to those who think of him as heartless - chose hell. That's a serious declaration of love. He said: "I want to be where my brothers are. Where my Draupadi is." He proved that, as faithful as his brothers and Draupadi had been to him all their lives, he was just as faithful to them.

But then the second test came. Yudhistira was faced with a choice - to join his beloved family in heaven or to stay in the cold mortal realm with a dog. He chose the dog. His heart wouldn't allow him to abandon one who had stood by him. This is what it means to be faithful.

The most profound revelation, however, is that the dog was not just a dog at all. It was Dharmraj. The Lord of Truth. God.

It was God who was with Yudhistira in his arduous climb, who stood by Yudhistira in the cold and wind and snow, who was Yudhistira's silent companion right to the end.

When asked to abandon that companion in favour of rewards and joy, Yudhistira refused. He'd cast out all his material attachments but he would not cast out his faith. He could not. This was the final test and Yudhistira passed it.


Go here for the last Mahabharat post entitled Tell Me.

Go here for next week's post entitled Ranchod.