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50. The clubs, the road, and heaven

Mausala to Svargārohaṇa (मौसल · महाप्रस्थानिक · स्वर्गारोहण)

Mausala (मौसल). Decades later the curse Gāndhārī spoke on the field comes due. Visiting sages, Viśvāmitra, Kaṇva, and Nārada, come to Dvārakā. The Yādava youths mock them. They dress Kṛṣṇa's son Sāmba as a pregnant woman and ask what she will bear. A pestle of iron is born from the mockery. They grind it to powder and scatter it. The powder becomes reeds. At Prabhāsa, in a drunken quarrel, they pull the reeds and kill one another. This page says they destroyed themselves. It does not describe the blows. Balarāma leaves the world. Kṛṣṇa is struck by a hunter who mistakes his foot for a deer, and he leaves. The charioteer of the Gītā is gone. Dvārakā goes under the sea. The divine actor of the poem does not get a cleaner end than the men he counseled.

Mahāprasthānika (महाप्रस्थानिक). The five brothers set Parīkṣit on the throne and walk north, Draupadī with them, toward the mountains and out of the kingdom. They fall in an order Yudhiṣṭhira explains and does not soften. Draupadī first. He says she loved Arjuna more than the others. Sahadeva, for pride in his wisdom. Nakula, for pride in his beauty. Arjuna, because he boasted he would finish his enemies and could not. Bhīma, for his eating and the pride of his strength. These are the poem's reasons, and they are severe. A dog follows and does not fall. Yudhiṣṭhira does not turn the walk into a rescue. Indra comes with a chariot to take him up, and tells him the dog cannot enter heaven. He refuses heaven without the creature that walked with him. The dog is Dharma, his father, and the refusal was the test.

Svargārohaṇa (स्वर्गारोहण). In heaven he is shown a heaven that contains Duryodhana, and a hell that contains his brothers and Draupadī, and he prefers the hell. That too is a test. The vision lifts. The poem's last moral is not that the winners were clean. It is that he would not abandon the ones who fell, including a dog, including the brother who broke a thigh, including the wife the hall had dragged. The chronicle ends where the hearing began. A story told at a snake sacrifice, about a family that could not find a clean heir, has been heard through. What it leaves is not a model. It is a witnessed cost.

नेपालीमा

मौसल। दशकौंपछि गान्धारीले मैदानमा दिएको श्राप पूरा हुन आयो। विश्वामित्र, कण्व र नारद द्वारका आउनुभएको थियो। यादव युवाहरूले साम्बलाई गर्भवती स्त्री बनाएर ऋषिहरूको गिल्ला गरे। गिल्लाबाट फलामको मूसल जन्मियो; तिनीहरूले त्यो पिसेर छरे, र त्यो नरकट भयो। प्रभासमा रक्सीको झगडामा तिनीहरूले नरकट उखेलेर एकअर्कालाई मारे। यो पृष्ठले तिनीहरू आफैँ सिधिए भन्छ। प्रहार लेख्दैन। बलराम यो संसारबाट जानुभयो। शिकारीले कृष्णको खुट्टालाई मृग ठानेर हान्यो, र उहाँ जानुभयो। द्वारका समुद्रमुनि गयो। महाप्रस्थानिक। परीक्षितलाई सिंहासनमा राखेर पाँच भाइ र द्रौपदी उत्तरतिर हिँडे। उनीहरू एकपछि अर्को ढले, जसको क्रम युधिष्ठिरले नलुकाई बताए। द्रौपदी पहिले ढलिन्, अर्जुनलाई बढी माया गरेकोले। सहदेव बुद्धिको घमण्डले। नकुल रूपको घमण्डले। अर्जुन शत्रु सिध्याउँछु भनेर घमण्ड गरेकोले, तर सिध्याउन नसकेकोले। भीम भोजन र बलको घमण्डले। कुकुर पछि लाग्यो, र ढलेन। इन्द्र रथ लिएर आए, र कुकुर स्वर्ग पस्न पाउँदैन भने। युधिष्ठिरले साथमा हिँडेको प्राणीविना स्वर्ग अस्वीकार गरे। कुकुर धर्म थिए, उनका पिता, र त्यो अस्वीकार नै परीक्षा थियो। स्वर्गारोहण। युधिष्ठिरलाई दुर्योधन भएको स्वर्ग र दाजुभाइ र द्रौपदी भएको नरक देखाइयो, र उनले नरक रोजे। त्यो पनि परीक्षा थियो। दृष्टि हट्यो। कविताको अन्तिम नैतिकता विजेता सफा थिए भन्ने होइन। ढलेकाहरूलाई उनले छाडेनन्, कुकुरसमेत, सभाले तानेकी पत्नीसमेत। कथा सर्पयज्ञको सुनाइमा सकिन्छ। कविताले छोड्ने कुरा आदर्श होइन। साक्षी भएको मूल्य हो।

Where it sits

The eighteen parvas are mapped on the Mahābhārata hub. The Gītā is the verse shelf. The last three parvas share this sitting so that the walk stays fifty.