Svargarohana Parva

Svargarohana Parva(Sanskrit: स्वर्गारोहण पर्व) or the Book of the Ascent to Heaven, is the last of eighteen books of the Indian Epic Mahabharata. It has 5 chapters. It is one of the shortest books in the Mahabharata.

Svargarohana Parva describes the arrival of Yudhishthira in heaven, his visit to hell and what he finds in both places. Yudhishthira is upset when he finds evil people in heaven and good people in hell. He demands he be sent to hell where people who love him are. The gods then reveal the fake hell and the real heaven to Yudhishthira. The Parva ends with Yudhishthira happy.

Svargarohana Parva(book) has 5 adhyayas(sections, chapters) and has no secondary sub-parvas(sub-books or little books). It is the second smallest book of the Epic.

After entering heaven, Yudhishthira is frustrated to find people in heaven who had sinned on earth. He then asks for a visit to hell and there he finds people who he thought were good and virtuous on earth. He questions whether gods were fair at all, whether virtue during earthly life means anything ever and then in anger demands that he be sent to hell so he can be with those people who were good, just, virtuous, who he loved and who loved him. The gods then remove the fake hell they had created for show. Deity Dharma appears and congratulates Yudhishthira for always standing up for justice, truth, virtue and other aspects of Dharma.

Yudhishthira is happy. He meets Krishna next, in his form as Vishnu. He sees Draupadi in heaven who is revealed as Shakti. He meets Arjuna, Bhima, Bhishma, Nakula, Sahadeva and others who are happy and shining like sun, all in heaven. He finds the 16, 000 wives of Krishna as happy Apsaras of heaven. He also meets Karna, the Kauravas and is happy to see them all.

Svargarohana Parva was composed in Sanskrit. Several translations in English are available. Two translations from 19th century, now in public domain, are those by Kisari Mohan Ganguli and Manmatha Nath Dutt. The translations vary with each translator's interpretations.

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