YUDHISHTHIRA

 

YUDHISHTHIRA … Fusion of Dharma + Karma

 

“Yudhishthira” the name itself depicts, the one who remains STABLE / STHIR under all the circumstances, including WAR / YUDHA, who doesn’t get deviated from his path of justice, under any circumstances, whose entire life was based on honesty, justice, tolerance and good behavior.

 

After the Kurukshetra war ended, the Pandavas ruled over Hastinapur for over 36 years and thereafter following the 4 phases of life cycle, decided to advance to Vanaprastha ashram, gave away everything to Arjuna's grandson Parikshit, in order to renounce the world and begin their ultimate journey towards Swarga / Heaven, to achieve MOKSHA. Vanaprastha stage is considered as a transition phase from a social life to one with greater emphasis on Moksha / spiritual liberation. Yudhishthira believed that as they all have truly upheld Dharma / Karma in their lives, then their bodies too will not die and they will enter the realm of the Gods with their existing flesh / body.

 

Accompanied by a dog, their final journey began. Well, one has to leave behind their old body, for entering the new world, but Yudhishthira was the only one who qualified to enter the new world, along with his old body. On their journey, one by one, everybody died, starting from Draupadi being the first and then followed by Sahadeva, Nakula, Arjuna and finally Bheem.

 

Draupadi for her partiality towards Arjuna as she preferred Arjuna over her other husbands, was the first one to depart, followed by Sahadeva for being arrogant about his knowledge, followed by Nakula for being proud that he was the most handsome person in the world, followed by Arjuna for having pride that he was the most skilled & powerful warrior in the world and finally Bheema for overreacting & pride on his immense strength. Finally, it was only Yudhisthira who was able to reach the new world, with the dog accompanying him.

 

On reaching the top, Lord Indra asked him to abandon the dog before entering the Heaven. But Yudhishthira refused to do so, citing the dog's unflinching loyalty as a reason. Lord Indra said he let his family die, but Yudhishthira said he could not prevent their deaths, but to abandon a poor creature was a great sin. Lord Indra smiled with blossoming happiness, saying that the dog was none other than “Yama” angel himself, escorting you all to head towards your final destination.

 

As mentioned in my earlier article specifically on YAMA, the way we humans picturise Yama, by showing him with horns, black in colour and riding a buffalo, is a big sin, as YAMA is the most beautiful and powerful angel, that assists all the souls to reach their designated destination, with all the love and care. He is not the cause of death, but rather he is the one who accompanies us after death, to make us reach our designated AASMANS.

 

As soon as Yudhishthira entered Swarga / New World, he sees 100 Kauravas, including Duryodhana & Dusshasana, spreading their arms to welcome him. He was shocked, disgusted and gets angry and asks Lord Indra, how the Kauravas, the adharmis get a place in heaven. They were the cause of the war. To further spice up his surprise, he didn’t found any of his Pandavas members there and upon asking Lord Indra about their whereabouts, he was taken to Narka / New World where they were been staying.

 

Yudhishthira loyally went to Naraka to meet his brothers, but the sight of gore and blood horrified him. After hearing the voices of his beloved brothers and Draupadi calling out to him, asking him to stay with them in their misery, he remained. Yudhishthira ordered the divine charioteer to return. He preferred to live in hell with good people than in a heaven with his enemies. Eventually this turned out to be another illusion to test him and also to enable him to atone for his sin of deceiving his guru Draunacharya during the war, where he half-lied to Draunacharya about Ashwatthama's death.

 

Yudhishthira feels that compared to the sins committed by the Kauravas, these are very small faults. He becomes extremely angry about this apparent injustice and refuses to go back to heaven. After seeing this, Lord Indra started laughing and says to Yudhishthira: “Hadn’t you renounce everything? You didn’t even look back at your brothers when they died”. You have given up everything including your clothes, your kingdom, but not your anger and hatred towards Kauravas. You defeated them in the war and killed them, punishing them for their misdeed and ruled over their kingdom for 36 years. Isn’t that enough for you. You still have not forgiven them. You are carrying your past baggage and are still attached to your negative emotions. So how can you be in heaven? Immediately Yudhishthira realized and corrected himself, making Lord Indra smiled and all of the Pandavas were back in Heaven / Swarga.

 

So, having committed one innocent error in Satyuga, the great BHISHMA had to payback during Kalyuga, after taking 101 rebirths, with similar painful death, whereas the error / sin committed in by Yudhisthira was paidback on much faster track, being undertaken in Kalyuga. That’s the reason; we observe that whatever wrong doings that humans undertake now-a-days, are paid back in multiples on immediate basis, without waiting too long even for a rebirth.

 

Whatever the story may be, it explains an extremely important concept that unless and until we relinquish / give up all our anger, hatred, greed, ego and become completely stable, we can never achieve heaven / mental peace. It is not about the physical heaven or hell, it is the state of mind, whereby heaven represents peace & pleasure and hell represents suffering. So if we want to be happy and attain peace of mind, then let go all our anger, ego and hatred towards others. No doubt, attaining the stature of YUDHISHTHIRA (stable state of mind under all the circumstances) is not that easy, but at least one can attempt for it.

 

COURTSEY: WORSHIPCOSMETIC.COM