Gaṅgā Tīra Darśana – Warriors Rise from the Gaṅgā

This is the great vision at the end of the Āśramavāsika Parva of the Mahābhārata. Bhagavān Vyāsa told Gāndhārī and Dhṛtarāshṭra that every warrior who fell at Kurukshetra had truly been a deva, a gandharva or another divine being. They had come down in an aṃśa (a part of themselves) to lighten the earth’s burden. Then Vyāsa led the whole household, the Kauravas, the Pāṇḍavas, the ṛshis and the widowed queens, to the bank of the Gaṅgā. He entered the water and called up all the fallen. They rose restored, bright and at peace, free of anger and pride. The living and the risen dead met for one night. Then the warriors went back to their lokas, and the widows, at Vyāsa’s word, entered the Gaṅgā and followed their husbands.

Chapter 31: the true identities

This chapter, called Gaṅgā Tīra Gamana, comes after Kuntī’s confession. Vyāsa turned to Gāndhārī and told her what was about to happen.

“O Gāndhārī! You shall see your sons, your brothers and your kinsmen. Your daughters-in-law too shall see their husbands, all of them, as if newly risen from sleep. Kuntī shall see Karṇa. Subhadrā shall see Abhimanyu. Draupadī shall see her five sons, her father’s people and her brothers.”

Vyāsa said that this very thought had come to him when the king, Gāndhārī and Kuntī had together moved him to act. All of those who died were mahātmas (great souls) and best among men, firm in kshatra-dharma (the dharma of warriors). They died as they did because it was devakārya, the appointed work of the devas, and it was bound to happen. They had come to earth as aṃśas of the devas. For this reason gandharvas, apsarases, piśācas, guhyakas, rākshasas, puṇyajanas (a jāti different from the rākshasas), siddhas, devarshis, devas, dānavas and devarshis without pāpa had all fallen together on the field of Kurukshetra.

Who each warrior truly was

Vyāsa then named the warriors one by one and said who each had truly been.

Dhṛtarāshṭra was in his true nature the wise gandharva-king named Dhṛtarāshṭra. In the human world he was Gāndhārī’s husband.
Pāṇḍu, of steady conduct, was born of the gaṇa of the Maruts.
Vidura and Yudhishṭhira were both born of an aṃśa of Dharma. The full account of Vidura’s identity is given in Chapter 28.
Duryodhana was Kali.
Śakuni was Dvāpara.
Duḥśāsana and the other sons of Dhṛtarāshṭra were rākshasas.
Bhīmasena was formed from the gaṇa of the Maruts.
Dhanañjaya (Arjuna), son of Pṛthā, was the ṛshi Nara.
Śrī Kṛshṇa was Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa.
Nakula and Sahadeva, the twins, were the Aśvinī-devatas.
Abhimanyu, Subhadrā’s son, born of Pārtha, a source of great joy to all, was slain by six mahārathas together. He was Candra, who by the power of yoga lived in two forms at once, one in the sky and one on earth.
Karṇa, the foremost of those who give warmth and light to the worlds, was Bhagavān Sūrya himself, who had divided his own body into two.
Dhṛshṭadyumna, who arose together with Draupadī from Agni deva, was a good aṃśa of Agni.
Śikhaṇḍī was a rākshasa.
Droṇa was an aṃśa of Bṛhaspati.
Aśvatthāmā, Droṇa’s son, was an aṃśa of Rudra.
Bhīshma, son of the Gaṅgā, was the Vasu who took on human birth.

“All of these, O radiant one of great intelligence, were devas who had taken human form. Their work is done, and they have again reached svarga. This day I shall remove from all your hearts the śoka (grief) and the fear of the next world that has sat there so long without moving. Go, all of you, to the banks of the Gaṅgā. There you shall see all of those who died in the war.”

Hearing Vyāsa’s word, the whole gathering set out toward the Gaṅgā with a great noise. Dhṛtarāshṭra went with his own attendants, the Pāṇḍavas, the foremost of the munis and the gandharvas who had come. In time the whole ocean of people reached the Gaṅgā and settled there, each as they pleased and in comfort. The king, with his household, his elders and the Pāṇḍavas, camped in a favoured spot. For those who waited all that night to see the fallen kings, the single day seemed like a hundred years. When the sun reached the sacred western mountain, all bathed and did their night-time rites.

Source for this chapter: Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 31.

Chapter 32: Bhīshmādi Darśana, the rising from the waters

That night, after the evening rites, all gathered again before Vyāsa. Dhṛtarāshṭra, pure of heart and steady of mind, sat among the ṛshis with the Pāṇḍavas. Gāndhārī sat with the gathered women. The townspeople and villagers arranged themselves by age.

Then the radiant Vedavyāsa entered the sacred waters of the Gaṅgā and went under. He called all the lokas and summoned the warriors of both the Pāṇḍava and Kaurava sides, and the puṇyātma kings (kings of great puṇya) of many lands who had fallen. At once a great sound rose from the water, like the noise of the Kuru and Pāṇḍava armies at the moment of battle. Then Bhīshma, Droṇa and all the other kings rose from the water by the thousand, together with their armies.

The roll of those who rose

The text names these among those who rose, with their sons and soldiers, bright in body: Virāṭa and Drupada with their sons; Draupadī’s sons; Abhimanyu, son of Subhadrā; the rākshasa Ghaṭotkaca; Karṇa and Duryodhana; the mahāratha Śakuni; Duḥśāsana and the other mighty sons of Dhṛtarāshṭra; the son of Jarāsandha; Bhagadatta; the brave Jalasandha; Bhūriśravas; Śala and Śalya with their brothers; Vṛshasena with his brothers; the king’s son Lakshmaṇa; the sons of Dhṛshṭadyumna; all the sons of Śikhaṇḍī; Dhṛshṭaketu with his brothers; Acala and Vṛshaka; the rākshasa Alāyudha; Bāhlīka; Somadatta; and Cekitāna. Beyond these came an uncountable number of kings whose names are not given one by one, all rising from the water with shining bodies.

Each of these warriors appeared exactly as he had been before death. He had the same dress, the same banner (dhvaja) and the same vehicle (vāhana) by which he was known in life. All wore divine clothes and shone with divine earrings. All were free of vaira (enmity), ahaṃkāra (pride), krodha (anger) and mātsarya (envy). Gandharvas sang, bards recited stotras (hymns of praise), and groups of apsarases waited on them. All were adorned with divine garlands.

The divine sight

Vyāsa, son of Satyavatī, was pleased. By the strength of his own tapas he gave Dhṛtarāshṭra divya-dṛshṭi (divine sight). Gāndhārī, endowed with the power of divine knowledge, likewise saw all her sons and all the others who had fallen in the war. The people watched this amazing, unimaginable, wonderful sight, which made the hair on the body stand up, with unblinking eyes. It was like a great festival, or a painted picture come to life. Dhṛtarāshṭra saw them all with his divine eye by the muni’s grace and was filled with joy.

A commentary on this chapter, attributed to Nīlakaṇṭha, speaks to the question of how the dead, who had been cremated, could be seen again in their former bodies. It says that those who had reached devatā-bhāva (the state of a deva) were again given, by the power of yoga, a form like their earlier appearance, for the sake of this darśana. It was not the cremated body brought back, but a form shown through yoga that matched it, enough for true recognition and reunion and not a mere likeness or dream.

Source for this chapter: Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 32.

Chapter 33: the women go to their husbands’ lokas

All the best of men, now free of anger, envy and pāpa, met one another with joy. They had reached the supreme and auspicious order that the Brahmarshi (Vyāsa) had set up, and their minds were as full of ānanda (bliss) as the minds of the immortals in the world of the devas. Son met father, mother met son, wives met husbands, brother met brother and friend met friend. The Pāṇḍavas joyfully met Karṇa the great archer, and Abhimanyu, and Draupadī’s sons. By the muni’s grace they moved among them with maitrī-bhāva (friendliness), free of all their old enmity.

All that night the best of men moved among their gurus, their kinsmen and their sons, and were filled with joy. It was like the delight of svarga itself, with no śoka, fear, unrest, enmity or disgrace. The women of these warriors joined their fathers, brothers, husbands and sons, reached the greatest harsha (joy) and put aside their duḥkha (sorrow) entirely.

Having thus enjoyed themselves for one night, the heroes and their women embraced one another, took leave and went each to his own abode. As all watched, in one instant they vanished.

Entering the Gaṅgā

Vyāsa, still standing in the water, firm in dharma and full of radiance, spoke to the widowed kshatriya women who were gathered there.

“Whichever of you noble women wish for the lokas of your own husbands, let her enter without hesitation into the waters of the Gaṅgā.”

The noble women trusted his word. They entered the waters of the Jāhnavī, took leave of their elders, and gave up their human bodies. There they reached saṃgama (union) with their husbands. In this way each of these virtuous, faithful wives, one after another, cast off her body and reached the loka of her own husband. She took a divine form like her husband’s, adorned with divine ornaments, garlands and garments, riding in vimānas (flying chariots) and endowed with every good quality.

At that time Vyāsa, kind to those who keep dharma and a giver of varas (boons), granted to each person there the very wish that was in their heart.

The lokas they reached

Vaiśampāyana tells where they went. Some went to devaloka. Some went to Brahmasadana. Others went to Varuṇaloka and others to Kuberaloka. Some kings went to Yamaloka. Some went to the lands of the rākshasas and piśācas, and some to Uttarakuru. All of them, each by his or her own wonderful path, went together with the devas to the lokas they had thereby reached.

Source for this chapter: Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 33.

Sources

Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapters 31–33
Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 28 (Vidura’s identity, mentioned in Chapter 31)