child of Surya be, I desire to see him.  Alas, his relationship with us being unknown, I caused him to be slain by Arjuna.  Bhima also of terrible prowess and dearer to me than my life-breaths, Arjuna too, resembling Indra himself, the twins also that resembled the Destroyer himself in prowess, I desire to behold.  I wish to see the princess of Pancala, whose conduct was always righteous.  I wish not to stay here.  I tell you the truth.  Ye foremost ones among the deities, what is Heaven to me if I am dissociated from my brothers?  That is Heaven where those brothers of mine are.  This, in my opinion, is not Heaven.

“The gods said, If thou longest to be there, go then, O son, without delay.  At the command of the chief of the deities, we are ready to do what is agreeable to thee.

Vaishampayana continued:  Having said so, the gods then ordered the celestial messenger, O scorcher of foes, saying, Do thou show unto Yudhishthira his friends and kinsmen.  Then the royal son of Kunti and the celestial messenger proceeded together, O foremost of kings, to that place where those chiefs of men (whom Yudhishthira had wished to see) were.  The celestial messenger proceeded first, the king followed him behind.  The path was inauspicious and difficult and trodden by men of sinful deeds.  It was enveloped in thick darkness, and covered with hair and moss forming its grassy vesture.  Polluted with the stench of sinners, and miry with flesh and blood, it abounded with gadflies and stinging bees and gnats and was endangered by the inroads of grisly bears.  Rotting corpses lay here and there.  Overspread with bones and hair, it was noisome with worms and insects.  It was skirted all along with a blazing fire.  It was infested by crows and other birds and vultures, all having beaks of iron, as also by evil spirits with long mouths pointed like needles.  And it abounded with inaccessible fastnesses like the Vindhya mountains.  Human corpses were scattered over it, smeared with fat and blood, with arms and thighs cut off, or with entrails torn out and legs severed.

“Along that path so disagreeable with the stench of corpses and awful with other incidents, the righteous-souled king proceeded, filled with diverse thoughts.  He beheld a river full of boiling water and, therefore, difficult to cross, as also a forest of trees whose leaves were sharp swords and razors.  There were plains full of fine white sand exceedingly heated, and rocks and stones made of iron.  There were many jars of iron all around, with boiling oil in them.  Many a Kuta-salmalika was there, with sharp thorns and, therefore, exceedingly painful to the touch.  The son of Kunti beheld also the tortures inflicted upon sinful men.

“Beholding that inauspicious region abounding with every sort of foulness, Yudhishthira asked the celestial messenger, saying, How far shall we proceed along a path like this?  It behoveth thee to tell me where those brothers of mine are.  I desire also to know what region is this of the gods?