When Arjuna was sinless why did he have to go to hell?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So when Krishna certifies that Arjuna is sinless then why does the Mahabharata say that Arjuna had to go to hell, the Pandavas had to go to hell I got the point that Yudhishthira sees himself for a few moments and other Pandavas are already in hell so how does that happen there are two things over here first is that the Mahabharata war is a time when many ethical lines are crossed so the Pandavas generally are very ethical and the Kauravas are very unethical that’s how the storyline is till the Mahabharata war in the Mahabharata war the Pandavas Duryodhana says that you should remember the codes of war and not break them he tells the Pandavas the Pandavas, commander Dhristadyumna says that you know we will not be the first to break the codes but if you break them then we will not let these codes hold us back from hitting back at you so basically during the course of the war several ethical lines are crossed from both sides so when Krishna says that Arjuna is Anagha at one level it is still that point Arjuna is Anagha but during the Kurukshetra war he does do some things he shoots at Bhishma from behind behind he attacks Bhurishrava when Bhurishrava is fighting with Satyaki he attacks Karuna when Karuna is unarmed so now we can understand this at two levels these actions of Krishna that these actions of Arjuna one is at the Karmakanda level and the other is at the Bhakti level so based on these two two ways of looking at things the whole narrative that unfolds towards the end of the Mahabharata can vary so the Mahabharata itself gives one narrative and the Bhagavatam gives a different narrative there are several places where the Mahabharata and the Bhagavatam differ in the description of the events in the life of the Pandavas so for example the Mahabharata says the Pandavas they leave home and they climb up and they go to heaven I mean when all of them are fallen Yudhishtira ultimately rises up to the top of the Himalayas and from there he ascends to heaven the Bhagavatam seems to indicate that the Pandavas go to the spiritual world in their self same bodies so the understanding is that the Mahabharata reveals truths at different levels to different people for people who have faith in Karmakanda not everybody can practice pure Bhakti so in Vedic culture there is Paradharma and there is Aparadharma there is pure spiritual religion and there is material piety which also helps in spiritual growth but it is gradual so the Mahabharata itself stresses more on Karmakanda and the idea is that by doing Punya you will go to Swarga, by doing Paap you will not be able to go to Swarga so that is the focus and from that perspective because the Pandavas act do some wrong things so although their overall life is a life of virtue because of some wrong things that they have done especially during the Kurukshetra war, they have to endure hell temporarily so the point is the danger of the Karmakanda way of living, even in the Bhagavatam we have the story of Maharaj Nruga who because of a minor indiscretion which is not even intended he has to get a hellish body like that of a lizard for some time so from that perspective the Pandavas have to suffer for some point for some time because among the Pandavas Yudhishthira stays the most virtuous Yudhishthira just sees hell whereas others they have to be in hell for some time in contrast if we look from the Bhagavatam’s perspective the Bhagavatam’s perspective is that the so called sinful activities that the Pandavas did during the Kurukshetra war they were actually not immoral or sinful they were trans-moral because they were done for the service of Krishna under his guidance or instruction directly so the Pandavas are actually rewarded like Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavatam sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam sharanam vraja he doesn’t say sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam sharanam vraja that means that for the service of Krishna not only is the bad adharma to be given up but when required for the service of Krishna even the good dharma also needs to be given up so truthfulness is a dharma the Kshatriya codes is a dharma that to not attack a warrior who is unprepared to fight that is a dharma but for Krishna’s sake, if Krishna tells even that can be given up that should be given up that is a higher principle so from this perspective the idea is that the whole notion of the Pandavas going to hell that is actually a depiction or narration primarily to illustrate the dangers of Karmakanda but actually the Pandavas directly go to heaven not go to heaven, they directly go to spiritual world so now, how are these to be reconciled there are different ways there are Acharyas who talk about kalpa-bhed bhed means difference, kalpa is the kalpas the time divisions in the life span of Brahma so the Bhagavatam could well be depicting incidents from one kalpa and the Mahabharata is depicting incidents from another kalpa so from the Karmakanda point of view because even wrong actions do bring reactions so from that perspective, Arjuna although the Bhagavata tells him to be sinless till that point that sinless primarily applies to till that point but during the course of the war because he violates some ethical codes, so he also has to go to hell temporarily for that but as devotees, we focus more on the Amalapurana the spotless Purana, Bhagavatam which focuses on the Paradharma