The Elders Go to the Forest

Fifteen years passed. Yudhishthira never let Dhritarashtra want for anything, but Bhima still carried old wounds and sometimes spoke cutting words. Dhritarashtra felt it was time to leave worldly life. He asked Yudhishthira's permission to go to the forest and do penance. Yudhishthira was deeply saddened, but agreed when Vyasa advised him to.

With Dhritarashtra and Gandhari went Vidura, Sanjaya and, to everyone's surprise, Mother Kunti too. The Pandavas wept and tried to stop her. Kunti said, 'I did not urge you to war so that I could enjoy palace comforts. I wanted you not to live in humiliation, and to do your dharma. Now my dharma is vanaprastha.'

Some time later the Pandavas went to visit them in the forest. There they saw Vidura, worn thin by penance. Vidura gazed steadily at Yudhishthira and, through yoga, merged his life into Yudhishthira. In tradition, both are seen as forms of Dharma.

Then Vyasa came, and at Gandhari's request showed them a wondrous night. He called everyone to the bank of the Ganga. In the night, all the warriors killed in the war rose from its waters in divine form, free of all hatred: Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Duryodhana, Abhimanyu, Draupadi's sons. Mothers met sons and wives met husbands for one night. At dawn they all returned.

Two years later the sage Narada came to Hastinapur with sad news. A great fire had swept the forest. Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti did not flee; they sat in meditation and peacefully gave up their bodies in that fire. Sanjaya went away towards the Himalayas. Yudhishthira offered water rites for them on the bank of the Ganga.