The Dog who followed the Pandavas on their Final Pilgrimage- Read The Full Story

If you have followed Mahabharata then you must have read Mahaprasthanika, the second last chapter of the book. It involves narrating the final times of the Pandavas along with their journey to the Himalayas. On their journey, they all departed one by one. 

In Mausala Parva, you would find stories of Arjuna being in a disturbed state as he was unable to save innocent lives of the innocent during the epic battle. Pus losing Balarama, Sri Krishna along with the submersion of Dwaraka into the sea all pile up on their mind making them lose interest in everything and the world. It all put a lot of stress on Pandavas. 

The Least-Known Story of Pandavas and A Dog Following Them to Heaven

In a state of sadness and depression, Nakula, Arjuna, Yudhistira, Draupadi and Sahadeva all decide it is time to leave the world. After crowning Pariksit as the King of Hastinapur, Yudhistira leaves the kingdom along with the rest of the group for their last journey to the Himalayas. 

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While traveling, the Pandavas stopped at many holy places to worship before ahead with their final journey. In Rishikesh, they installed a Shivelingam and offered their prayers to Lord Shiva. 

While traveling they were accompanied by a dog. As they were moving forward, Draupadi was the first one to depart followed by Sahadeva. After that, Nakula drop and died. The reason behind his death as given by Yudhistira was being the most beautiful person in the world his pride overtook his mind thus departing midway through the journey. 

Now the rest of the people were instructed not to look back and continue their journey with devotion. After this Arjuna was next to die. The reason behind his death given by Yudhistira was that he was overconfident at the beginning of the Kurukshetra war saying he would kill every  Kauravas. Overproud of his archery skills, he was unable to fulfill everything he said and raged the war in just 18 days. 

Now the people who were left were Bhima, Dog, and Yudhistira, they started with the rest of the journey. The next one who fell was Bhima. 

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After losing everyone on their journey, the only thing left with Yudhistira was Dog. One day Indra appeared and indicated dogs can’t go to Heaven. However, Yudhistira was adamant that he would not go to heaven without his dog as he was the only one who remained loyal to him throughout his journey, especially during the time of great looses of his brothers. 

With this, the Dog transformed into Dharma, the God of righteousness. It was the test for Yudhistira who by the end of his journey won. He was never distracted from the path of Dharma, thus allowing him to enter heaven in his human form.