Shloka 15
Svargārohaṇa-parva Adhyāya 5 — Karmaphala-Nirdeśa and Phalāśruti (कर्मफलनिर्देशः फलश्रुतिश्च)
पत्नीभ्यां सहित: पाण्डुमहेन्द्रसदनं ययौ । विराटद्रुपदौ चोभौ धृष्टकेतुश्न पार्थिव:,विश्वेषां देवतानां ते विविशुर्नरसत्तमा: । राजा पाण्डु अपनी दोनों पत्नियोंके साथ महेन्द्रके भवनमें चले गये। राजा विराट, द्रपद, धृष्टकेतु, निशठ, अक्रूर, साम्ब, भानु, कम्प, विदूरथ, भूरिश्रवा, शल, पृथ्वीपति भूरि, कंस, उग्रसेन वसुदेव और अपने भाई शंखके साथ नरश्रेष्ठ उत्तर-ये सभी सत्पुरुष विश्वेदेवोंके स्वरूपमें मिल गये
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. The passage underscores the epic’s closing moral arc: after the exhaustion of worldly power and conflict, even renowned rulers attain their destined divine stations, suggesting the transience of sovereignty and the primacy of one’s ordained end (gati) shaped by dharma.
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.