Mahabharata — Svargarohana Parva, Shloka 15
Svargārohaṇa-parva Adhyāya 5 — Karmaphala-Nirdeśa and Phalāśruti (कर्मफलनिर्देशः फलश्रुतिश्च)
पत्नीभ्यां सहित: पाण्डुमहेन्द्रसदनं ययौ । विराटद्रुपदौ चोभौ धृष्टकेतुश्न पार्थिव:
patnībhyāṃ sahitaḥ pāṇḍu-mahendra-sadanaṃ yayau | virāṭa-drupadau cobhau dhṛṣṭaketuś ca pārthivaḥ viśveṣāṃ devatānāṃ te viviśur nara-sattamāḥ |
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: King Pāṇḍu, accompanied by his two wives, went to the mansion of Mahendra (Indra). Likewise King Virāṭa and Drupada, and the royal Dhṛṣṭaketu—those best of men—entered into the state of the Viśvedevas. And Niśaṭha, Akrūra, Sāmba, Bhānu, Kampa, Vidūratha, Bhūriśravā, Śala, Bhūri—the lord of the earth—Kāṁsa, Ugrāsena, Vasudeva, and Uttara with his brother Śaṅkha: all those foremost among men were united in the form of the Viśvedevas.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse emphasizes the culmination of human life in its appointed end: worldly status and royal power are impermanent, while one’s final ‘going’ (gati) is aligned with cosmic order. The narrative frames death and posthumous attainment not as mere loss but as integration into a higher, divinely ordered reality, reinforcing the Mahābhārata’s ethical insistence on dharma as the enduring measure of a life.
In the closing movement of Svargārohaṇa, the narrator lists the posthumous destinations of key figures. Here, Pāṇḍu proceeds with his two wives to Indra’s abode, while other eminent kings—Virāṭa, Drupada, and Dhṛṣṭaketu—are said to enter the state of the Viśvedevas, indicating their transformation/absorption into specific divine orders.