The King Who Chose Hell

The deathless sage Markandeya told the Pandavas the tale of King Vipashchit, who, offered the bliss of heaven, chose instead to remain in hell so long as his presence could ease the suffering of the damned - a tale that the Pandavas would one day find written, in a fashion, into the very end of their own story.

Vipashchit was a king of perfect righteousness, who had ruled with justice and truth, performed his sacrifices, protected his people, and lived all his life in the keeping of dharma. He was, by any reckoning, one of the most virtuous of kings, a man whose place after death should surely have been in the highest heaven. And when at last he died and his soul left his body, the messengers of Yama, the Lord of Death, came to conduct him to his appointed place beyond.