Welcome to the Good Place
YUDHISHTHIRA [wakes up confused and disoriented. Reads the wall in front of him]: "Welcome! Everything is fine"...Where am I?CHITRAGUPTA [walks out from office and motions for Yudhishthira to come into his office]: Yudhishthira Pandava, come on in. [Chitragupta sits down at his desk and Yudhishthira sits down across from him.] CHITRAGUPTA: So, Yudhishthira, you are dead. But don't worry, you earned quite a bit of good karma in your past lives and secured yourself a spot in the Good Place. My name is Chitragupta. I work for Yama, the god of justice. My job is to keep track of the karmic balance of all humans and send each of you to where you belong after you die. We're excited to have you here; your life as Yudhishthira was very impressive. Do you have any questions so far?YUDHISHTHIRA: Wow, so I'm dead...I don't remember dying or how I got here. How did I die?CHITRAGUPTA: You don't remember dying because we wipe everyone's memory of their death and the events leading up to their death in case it was a traumatic experience. Are you sure you want to know how you died?YUDHISHTHIRA: Yes, I want to know.CHITRAGUPTA [opens file]: Let's see...Ah-ha! It looks like you died a relatively natural death on a hike to Mount Meru. You got lucky! I've seen some crazy death stories here. One lady got run over by a shopping cart. How embarrassing! Unfortunately, she's in the Bad Place. YUDHISHTHIRA: So how long do I get to stay in this Good Place? When do I have to be reborn into another life again?CHITRAGUPTA: Well, you're in Indra's Good Place, so you get to stay here as long as you have good karma points. You don't quite have enough points yet to attain moksha and escape samsara. When you run out of points, you'll be sent back to earth with a different identity. Why don't I show you around and we can discuss more afterwards? Follow me![Chitragupta and Yudhishthira get up to leave Chitragupta's office. Yudhishthira reaches for the door, but Chitragupta slaps his hand before he can open it.]CHITRAGUPTA: Don't touch that! You'll burn your hand! That's the door to the Bad Place. You aren't allowed in there.YUDHISHTHIRA [cradles his hand]: Well then maybe you guys should put a "do not enter" sign on it![Chitragupta opens the door to the Good Place and a glowing white light fills the room. They walk through the door and enter the Good Place.]CHITRAGUPTA: Welcome to the Good Place! As you can see, Indra has spent a lot of time making sure this place is everything you humans could ever dream of. You guys seem to love frozen desserts, so this building to your left serves the most heavenly kulfi in the universe. 
[Lightning flashes.]CHITRAGUPTA: If you look in the direction of the lightning, you'll see Indra, the architect of this Good Place. Also, over there sitting on the throne is Duryodhana. Your file says that you knew him in your most recent life, and it seems you also might know them [points to Kauravas].YUDHISHTHIRA [eyes widen and jaw drops]: Duryodhana and the Kauravas never acted in accordance to Dharma! How could Duryodhana be a king in the Good Place?! Where are my brothers and Draupadi?!CHITRAGUPTA: Let me check. [flipping through files] It looks like all of your loved ones ended up in the Bad Place.YUDHISHTHIRA: That has to be a mistake. Even if they weren't perfect, they were more aware of Dharma than the Karuavas!CHITRAGUPTA: Hmmm...It is possible that a mistake was made, but if so, it is still a justified result of karma since karmic consequences continue even in the afterlife.YUDHISHTHIRA: Can I talk to them? What exactly is the Bad Place? CHITRAGUPTA: They are currently being tortured, so you are not allowed to talk to them. I am also not permitted to show you the Bad Place, but I can play you a brief audio clip of what is going on there right now:YUDHISHTHIRA [turning pale]: My beloved family was noble! They do not deserve to endure such torture! If there was a mistake, we have to do something to help them!CHITRAGUPTA: My boss has instructed me to remain detached and allow karma to do its job, so there is not much I can do to help. I suggest you leave your past life in the past and enjoy your time here. Your memory will be wiped when you are reborn, but I can arrange to have your memory wiped now so you won't have to feel any distress during your stay in the Good Place. YUDHISHTHIRA [defensively]: Helping the helpless is just as important to Dharma as remaining detached is. It might even be more important here since we are outside of the illusions of Earth. If there is any possibility that they are suffering due to a mistake unrelated to them, it is our duty to help them.CHITRAGUPTA [slightly annoyed]: Well, if you would like, I can have my boss meet with you to discuss the placements, but I don't think he will give you a different answer than what I have already told you. [Yudhishthira nods reluctantly and Chitragupta leads them back to his office.]CHITRAGUPTA: I'll go get my boss. Wait here. [Yudhishthira stood anxiously for a moment, then saw the door to the bad place he almost opened earlier.] YUDHISHTHIRA [talking to himself]: I know Chitragupta told me not to go through that door, but this is my only hope to save Draupadi and my brothers from their unjustified torture. After hearing what is going on in the bad place, I know that they are helpless there and that I am the only one willing to help them. Even if it means jeopardizing my own happiness here in the Good Place, it is my duty to save them so I must go. A Good Place with the Kauravas and without my family is no Good Place to me. I would rather suffer in the Bad Place alongside my family than be surrounded with the luxuries of the Good Place knowing my loved ones are suffering.[Yudhishthira decides to help his family. He touches the doorknob to the Bad Place and it burns his hand.]YUDHISHTHIRA [yells]: OW!CHITRAGUPTA [from the other room]: What's going on in there?[Chitragupta rushes back into the room and sees Yudhishthira cradling his burned hand and realizes he tried to open the door. Chitragupta starts running towards Yudhishthira. Yudhishthira, ignoring the pain of his burning hand, opens the door to the Bad Place and leaps through it.]
Author's Note: The story format is based on the first episode of The Good Place television show (more details on home page). In The Good Place television show, a recurring theme is the abundance of frozen yogurt shops in the Good Place. I included this element, but with kulfi, a traditional Indian frozen dairy dessert. Chitragupta mentioning the lady that got ran over by the shopping cart is a shoutout to Eleanor, one of the main characters of The Good Place and the woman that appears in the banner image. The audio clip I inserted is straight from the television show (see trailer on home page). The portal-like doors are inspired by The Good Place television show.
Most details in this story are inspired by The Afterlife portion of the Mahabharata from Donald A. Mackenzie's Indian Myth and Legend (1913). Like in the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira ends up in Indra's Swarga (heaven). In the original story, Yudhishthira sees Duryodhana and all the Kauravas (his wicked, earthly enemies), but can't find Draupadi or his brothers. Chitragupta doesn't write the content in the files since he is just the accountant for karma, so he simply reads the information in Yudhishthira's file that says he knew Duryodhana and the Kauravas, unaware that he is twisting the knife in the wound for Yudhishthira.
Instead of Indra, Chitragupta is the one to encourage Yudhishthira to forget the troubles from his past life and focus on being in paradise. Just like in the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira cannot just accept the fate of his loved ones. In the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira is willingly taken to the nether regions by celestials, but in this story, Yudhishthira had to break the rules and find his own way there.
In the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira exemplifies his understanding of dharma by acting appropriately according to the situation. On page 160 of Devdutt Pattanaik's Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata, the Pandavas save the Karuavas, their enemies, because Yudhishthira explains to his brothers that helping the helpless is part of Dharma. In other instances, he teaches his brothers to accept the consequences of karma in order to avoid creating more bad karma.