It is interesting to note that Mahabharatham starts and ends with the story of a dog. Let us go to the beginning of Mahabharatham. With the Upaparvam or subsidiary section known as Paushya parvam, story of Mahabharatham starts. King Parikshith had four sons namely JanamEjayan, ShrutasEnan, UgrasEnan and BheemasEnan. They were doing the yaagam called Sarpasathram to punish the whole snake species as a retaliation to the heinous action of the poisonous snake Thakashaka who killed their father King Parikshith. One day a dog came in to the Yaagashaala or the building where the worship was going on. Beaten severely by King JanamEjaya's brothers, the dog came running to his mother, the divine dog Sarama. Sarama asked him whether he did something mischievous to deserve this kind of punishment and the dog said he did not do anything and he was beaten for no mistake of his. This made Sarama angry and she cursed King Janamejaya: "an unknown calamity will befall on your family". After this incident Maharaja was worried and actually searched for a priest or purohitha who could do some Prrayaschittham or atonement for their wrong doing!
Described above is the opening story of Mahabharatha. From this we can see that even a dog has the power to protest against adharmam of a king. That is why it is said that Dharmam is the foundation of Mahabharatha and the whole story is to make people realize the importance of Dharmam. With this incident of Sarama, Veda Vyasa Maharshi reinforces the saying :"Ahimsa paramao Dharma: the greatest dharma is non-violence. So the story of the dog is to emphazize that kindness should be extended to all living beings.
Now let us look at the last scene of Pandavas on earth which is called "mahaaprasthaanam". All of them and Draupadi were walking and first Draupadi fell dead, then Sahadeva, Nakula, Arjuna and Bheema. The only person left was King Yudhishtira and his dog. So Indra came there to take him to heaven and King told him that he wanted the dog also to come with him. Indra told him that dogs were not allowed in heaven. King Yudhishtira told Indra that he did not want heaven if he had to leave the helpless dog who guarded them all it's life. The dog was dependent on him and it was adharmam to disown him for enjoying the heavenly pleasures. Suddenly dog appeared as Dharmadeva and extolled the glory of King Yudhishtira.
Through these two incidents Vedavyasa Maharshi brings out the importance of following Dharma, which is the essence of Mahaharatha. Dharmo rakshathi rakshithaa: meaning "dharma protects those who protect dharma".
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