Yudhishthira Asks Narada to Describe Divine Assembly Halls
After a discourse on dharma, Yudhishthira looks around his own magnificent hall and is seized by a question. He asks the world-traveling sage Narada if he has ever seen a sabha to rival it. Narada smiles and agrees to describe the assembly halls of the gods themselves.
The sage Narada had finished speaking on dharma (righteousness) in Yudhishthira’s hall. The Pandava king had worshipped him, agreed with his teachings, and confessed that while he wished to walk the ancient righteous path, he felt unequal to the self-controlled kings of old. Then he fell silent.
He sat there, the soul of dharma, for a while. He was in his own sabha (assembly hall) — a bejewelled marvel, the wonder of the world of men. Narada, the sage who traveled all worlds at the speed of thought, sat comfortably before him. Yudhishthira, the host, sat respectfully below his guest.
Looking from the sage to the splendour surrounding them, a curiosity filled him. He addressed Narada in the hearing of all the assembled kings.
“You travel the many and varied worlds Brahma created,” Yudhishthira said. “You move like a witness to everything. O brahmana, I ask you: have you ever seen, anywhere, a sabha like this one? Or one superior to it?”
Narada smiled at the question. He replied in soft words.
“O son, O king of the Bharatas, I have never seen nor heard of an assembly hall like this bejewelled one of yours in the entire world of men.”
He paused, letting the compliment settle. Then he offered more.
“But I shall describe to you the sabhas of the king of the ancestors, the wise Varuna, Indra, and the one who dwells on Kailasa.” He meant Yama, Varuna, Indra, and Kubera. “O bull among the Bharatas, if your mind wishes to hear it, I will also describe Brahma’s own divine sabha — the one that dispels all fatigue.”
Yudhishthira and his brothers — Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva — immediately joined their hands in salutation. Their eagerness was plain.
The great-souled Dharmaraja Yudhishthira spoke for them all. “Describe to us all those assembly halls. We wish to hear from you. O brahmana, what are those sabhas made of? How long are they, how wide? Who waits upon the grandfather in his sabha?” — the grandfather was Brahma — “Who waits on Vasava, the king of the gods, and who on Vaivasvata Yama? Who wait on Varuna and Kubera in their sabhas? O devarshi (divine sage), tell us. We wish to hear all this exactly. We have been filled with great curiosity.”
Thus addressed by Pandava, Narada replied, “O king, then hear about those divine sabhas, one by one.”