Why did Kauravas go to heaven and Pandavas to hell? Is it true?

Why did Kauravas go to heaven and Pandavas to hell? Is it true? It is partly true, and a great deal misleading. After the war. Pandavas rule Hastinapura for 36 years, with Yudhisthira and Draupadi as the king and queen respectively. During their last days, Yudhisthira renounces the throne and crowns Parikshita (Abhimanyu's son) as the king. Pandavas and Draupadi then leave Hastinapura to go on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas. During their ascent to Mount Sumeru (considered to be the highest peak of Himalayas), one by one, Draupadi, Sahadeva, Nakula, Arjuna, and Bhima fall down and die. Only Yudhisthira is able to complete the journey, and is granted entry into the Heaven in his mortal form. Yama (Lord of death/Lord of justice) shows him around, and Yudhisthira notices that Duryodhana and other Kauravas have been granted seats of honor among the deities and the sages. He is enraged and questions the fairness of the gods. Yama gently rebukes him, and asks him whether he will keep feeding his fires of hatred and bitterness even after the death and destruction of his kinsmen. He further explains that the Kauravas have paid for their sins with their blood on the battlefield, and that there is no enmity in afterlife. Chastened, Yudhisthira enquires about his brothers and Draupadi. He is told that Pandavas, Draupadi, and Karna are in hell — Pandavas because of their vanity, Draupadi because of her partiality towards Arjuna, and Karna because he could not stay true to his friend Duryodhana (Karna had vowed to kill only Arjuna in the war; to this end, he spared the lives of the remaining four brothers when he had a chance to kill them). Yudhisthira is given a choice between heaven and hell, and he chooses to remain with his brothers and wife in hell, rather than abandon them in their time of misery. Yama then appears before him and reveals that all this was an illusion created by the gods to test him. He also informs him that Pandavas, Draupadi, and Karna are already in heaven waiting for him. He (Yudhisthira) beheld Govinda (Krishna) endued with his Brahma-form … Blazing forth in that form of his, he was adorned with celestial weapons, such as the terrible discus and others in their respective embodied forms. He was being adored by the heroic Phalguna (Arjuna), who also was endued with a blazing effulgence. […] In another place, the delighter of the Kurus (Yudhisthira) beheld Karna, that foremost one among all wielders of weapons, resembling a dozen Suryas (suns) in splendour. In another part, he beheld Bhimasena of great puissance, sitting in the midst of the Maruts, and endued with a blazing form. He was sitting by the side of the God of Wind in his embodied form. Indeed, he was then in a celestial form endued with great beauty, and had attained to the highest success. In place belonging to the Ashvinis, the delighter of the Kurus beheld Nakula and Sahadeva, each blazing with his own effulgence. He also beheld the princess of Pancala (Draupadi), decked in garlands of lotuses. Having attained to Heaven, she was sitting there, endued with a form possessed of solar splendour.[1] Keep in mind that most of what we see in Swargarohanika Parva is from the point of view of Yudhisthira. And most of what he sees is an illusion cast by the gods to test him. In fact, there is an engaging conversation between Yudhisthira and Indra (chief of the demigods)[2]: न च मन्युस्त्वया कार्यः शृणु चेदं वचो मम | अवश्यं नरकस्तात द्रष्टव्यः सर्वराजभिः ||११|| शुभानामशुभानां च द्वौ राशी पुरुषर्षभ | यः पूर्वं सुकृतं भुङ्क्ते पश्चान्निरयमेति सः ||१२|| पूर्वं नरकभाग्यस्तु पश्चात्स्वर्गमुपैति सः ||१२|| भूयिष्ठं पापकर्मा यः स पूर्वं स्वर्गमश्नुते | तेन त्वमेवं गमितो मया श्रेयोर्थिना नृप ||१३|| व्याजेन हि त्वया द्रोण उपचीर्णः सुतं प्रति | व्याजेनैव ततो राजन्दर्शितो नरकस्तव ||१४|| यथैव त्वं तथा भीमस्तथा पार्थो यमौ तथा | द्रौपदी च तथा कृष्णा व्याजेन नरकं गताः ||१५|| What Indra is telling Yudhisthira is that humans — be they commoners or persons of royal lineage — accumulate both good and evil in their lifetimes. Thus, they must visit both heaven and hell in afterlife. There are those whose good deeds exceed the bad, and there are those whose bad deeds outweigh the good. The former experience hell first (for a time), and the latter experience heaven first (for a time). That is why Draupadi, Arjuna, Bhima, Nakula, and Sahadeva — and Yudhisthira himself — had to experience hell momentarily before ascending to their final abode in the heaven. This leads me to believe that Duryodhana and other Kauravas, though glimpsed by Yudhisthira (and remember that Yudhisthira is only seeing what the gods want him to see) to be living in bliss in heaven, were there only for a time. It is quite possible, even likely, that Duryodhana and his brothers were sent to hell after their time in heaven, especially since we don’t see Duryodhana’s afterlife described in the final passages of the epic (which describes in great detail — apart from Pandavas and Karna — Bhishma, Drona, Dhrishtadyumna, and many other warriors from both the Kaurava and Pandava camps).