QUESTION:
I recently heard an online claim that Vishnu granted the Pandavas immortality after their victory and that they are still alive today. Is there any truth to this?
LEE'S ANSWER:
This is a "superficial interpretation" of the concept of liberation from the bonds of dharma and the cycle of rebirth. From our perspective, these figures underwent ascension, raising their vibrational frequencies to a non-physical level. Consequently, remaining in the physical world no longer serves a purpose for them as those specific personalities, the Pandava brothers. Furthermore, the epic includes Chapter 17 of the "Book of the Great Departure," which recounts the "instructive stories" of each brother's death on their journey toward the "peak of the gods." This book serves a specific purpose, acting as a preamble to the theme of the onset of the Kali Yuga.
The essence is that the story of the Pandavas in the epic serves as a guide through the Kali Yuga to the present day. Its conclusion marks the proclamation of the process's beginning, the start of the journey. The immortality of these epic heroes does not lie in their physical survival, but in their archetypal presence throughout the Kali Yuga.
There was, however, one immortal figure, though his status came from Shiva’s will rather than Vishnu’s blessing: Ashwatthama. Krishna subsequently transformed his immortality into a curse of eternal wandering. A film on this subject was recently released in India; it was produced as a mega-epic, though the result was... debatable. Yet even this character is not eternal, but merely immortal until the end of the Kali Yuga. This is precisely what the filmmakers were exploring, utilizing their complex system of interpreting this era.
Regarding Ashwatthama, there is a suggestion that he is not truly human, just as that particular "Shiva" is not the true Shiva.
