Did the Pandavas go to heaven or the spiritual world?
Question, did the Pandavas go to heaven or to the spiritual world? This question is from Shyam Vihari Prabhu. You mentioned in your Mahabharata classes that the Mahabharata mentions the Pandavas went to swarga as mentioned in the Mahabharata 18th parva.
But then they are pure devotees. Won't they go back to the spiritual world? Answer, every scripture has its particular focus, its particular purpose and everything within that scripture is presented in harmony with that purpose. So, the Bhagavatam is a book that talks about Paradharma.
It puts aside all subordinate dharmas and focuses on the transcendental dharma and in that sense it is a spiritual history which takes accounts that focus on the transcendental reality, on the transcendental purpose of life and how people can achieve that transcendental reality, ultimately Krishna. The Mahabharata primarily is a book of dharma, artha, kama and moksha. Its focus is on understanding what is dharma and dharma that is understood in the Mahabharata.
There is of course within the Mahabharata Bhagavad Gita which gives the conclusive dharma of pure devotional service. But overall the Mahabharata is more of a world affirming book which focuses on action in this world and its focuses on how to live in this world not how to leave the world although that is also there in the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata is a huge encyclopedia and various levels of dharma are there in it including the highest dharma also.
But the two books have different focus point and different focuses and different purposes. So, with this basic understanding we also need to know that the same incidents are described differently in the two books. So, one such incident which is described differently is the ultimate is the departure of the Pandavas.
So, in the Mahabharata there is a whole Parva which describes how the Pandavas ascend to heaven and ultimately the Pandavas they are going towards the north all the Pandavas fall away one by one except Yudhishthira who ultimately goes to heaven and there he meets he has he goes for a few minutes to hell and then he eventually along with his brothers returns to heaven. So, that is a whole elaborate talk which will come in the later part of the which comes towards the end of the Mahabharata. But suffice it to say here that actually the Mahabharata describes this the Bhagavatam describes that the now the Mahabharata describes Pandavas left with Draupadi then Bhagavatam describes that the Pandavas just left and Prabhupada talks about that how all of us have to fly our plane alone in the purport in that section and then it also the Bhagavatam says that they went back to the spiritual world.
So, we understand that the Bhagavatam that how do we understand these different narratives there are multiple ways in which this can be understood. So, first is as I said because they have different focuses the standard way the Acharyas explain differences within the scripture is by understand by talking about a hierarchy of scripture. So, there is a Shastra Taratamya.
Taratamya means a hierarchy of scripture. So, there is a higher level scripture which is called the Nirnayak Shastra and there is a lower level scripture which is called the Nirnayatar Shastra. So, the Bhagavatam clearly is the Nirnayak Shastra.
Nirnayak means the highest that which will decide and Nirnayatar is that which is to be decided. The Bhagavatam is written by Vyasadev in his maturity. So, that gives the conclusion.
So, whenever there is a conflict with the scripture the Nirnayak Shastra is considered to be highest but the Nirnayatar Shastra's version is reconciled it is not rejected with the highest understanding. So, we understand that the Pandavas went to the spiritual world. Now, how do we understand the Mahabharata's narrative then? The standard explanation that the Acharyas give is that this is referring to a Kalpabhed that is talking about a different age.
The Mahabharata is talking about a different time when Krishna descended, the Pandavas descended. Bhagavatam is talking about a different time. So, some stories can just have different focuses and the same story can be understood from different perspectives.
Some can be referring entirely to different millennia, different Kalpas when the events happened and Madhvacharya also says in his Mahabharata Akpari Nirnayak that the Mahabharata is interpolated. It is such a huge book that the possibility of interpolation is there and because he says that it is interpolated so much that its conclusion is difficult to discern. So, he gives the conclusion Mahabharata Akpari Nirnayak.
So, there is also the possibility that some stories within the Mahabharata could be interpolated. So, in general, we because we understand that the Bhagavatam is the highest authority, it is in Shastra Tartami, Jiva Goswami explains it is the Sarva Pramana Chakravarti Bhuta. It is the emperor among all Pramanas.
So, therefore that is the Pramana that we should focus on and we accept that Pramana's authority is the highest. So, the Pandavas did go to the spiritual world but in some other Kalpa which the Mahabharata refers to, they went to heavens and were they not pure devotees in that Kalpa? No, the point is the Mahabharata is depicting reality in a particular way. So, people who are attracted to Mahabharata, they are attracted to the lives of kings and how they struggle and how they attain success in Dharma, Artha, Kama.
So, for the Karmakand days, the success in life is to attain heaven. So, when they see the Pandavas have attained heaven, then they feel vindicated in their determination to practice Karmakand and that is also at one level good. Yes, that is not desirable from the highest perspective of transcendence but those who are not ready for transcendence, for them a gradual path to elevation is not just desirable but essential.
So, for them, the Bhagavatam depicts, the Mahabharata depicts their attainment of success of heaven. Now, the Mahabharata doesn't depict what happened to them after they attained heaven. So, the Mahabharata also describes that in heaven they saw Krishna.
Now, if Krishna is there then it is not heaven, it is Vaikuntha. So, now of course, in heavens Krishna is present in various manifestations. He is also there as, he is there as Vamana, he comes there as the younger son of Aditi and as Upendra as he is called sometimes in the Vishnu Sahasranam.
So, the point is that the Pandavas because they were devotees of Krishna and they remembered Krishna even if they attain heaven then that because they are remembering Krishna they are seeing, they are in the presence of Krishna as the Bhagavatam also mentions, as the Mahabharata mentions. So, they are in a transcendental situation and from heaven eventually they will attain the spiritual world. So, the Mahabharata is depicting, is largely at a Karmakanda level and its Swarga Arohan Parva depicts success at the level of Karmakanda but it doesn't depict the ultimate reality and it doesn't depict the ultimate destination of the Pandavas.
The Pandavas in some other Kalpa can, by Krishna's plan, be doing the service of demonstrating Karmakanda and the success of Karmakanda, of success in Karmakanda for Lokahitamrupa. No, for Lokasangraham eva, for setting an example for others, for those who cannot practice devotion then at least let them practice gradual elevation to Karmakanda and if that is Krishna's will, the Pandavas as pure devotees may demonstrate that also. In fact, the Bhagavatam also talks about this, that King Pruthu or other kings, when they were kings they would perform Karmakanda sacrifices as was expected of kings at that time but Vishwanath Chakradaku says that in his commentary that in their minds they were actually remembering that the demigods are representatives of Krishna and they were offering all the sacrifices not to the demigod but to Krishna.
So, because of their inner conception it was actually a devotional activity but still for the general people often they were setting an example of doing Karmakanda. So, the scriptures have a multiple level plan for gradual elevation as well as rapid elevation and we need to understand this plan carefully to understand why certain narratives are depicted in one way in one scripture and another way in another scripture.