Kṛshṇa’s Return to Dvārakā

Kṛshṇa Dvārakā Āgamana · kṛshṇa-dvārakā-āgamana, “Kṛshṇa’s coming to Dvārakā”

Sārasvata has other meanings too: see all meanings of Sārasvata. Satyavatī has other meanings too: see all meanings of Satyavatī.

Kṛshṇa‘s return to Dvārakā is the account, in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapters 10 and 11, of how Śrī Kṛshṇa went home after the Bhārata war. Sūta Maharshi tells it to Śaunaka and the ṛshis of Naimisha. When Śrī Kṛshṇa had seated Dharmarāja Yudhishṭhira on his throne and stayed some months in Hastināpura to ease the Pāṇḍavas‘ grief, he took his leave. The household fainted at the parting, the city rang with music, Arjuna held the white umbrella over him, and the women of the Kuru city, watching from the mansions, spoke to one another of who he truly is: the Parabrahma himself, who takes avatāras in every yuga. He travelled west through Kurujāṅgala, Pāñcāla, Śūrasena, Brahmāvarta, Kurukshetra, Matsya, Sārasvata and Marudhanva, past Sauvīra and Ābhīra, to his own country, Ānarta.

There he blew the Pāñcajanya. The people of Dvārakā came out with gifts and praised him as their mother, father, friend, master, sadguru and supreme daiva; the Yādavas, the brāhmaṇas, the dancers and the bards received him in a city decked with toraṇas and flags; he greeted every one, down to the least, bowed to his seven mothers, who took him on their laps and bathed him in tears of joy, and went to his wives in their sixteen thousand and eight residences. Among them he lived as if he were an ordinary man, yet nothing could stir his mind, for the Paramātmā is never touched by the qualities of prakṛti.

Śrī Kṛshṇa takes leave of Hastināpura

Śaunaka asked how Dharmarāja ruled after the war. Sūta answered that Śrī Hari had made the Kuru line, burned to ash like a clump of bamboo by the fire born within it, put forth a new shoot called Parīkshit, and had seated Dharmarāja on the throne. Freed from delusion by the words of Bhīshma and Śrī Kṛshṇa, taking Śrī Kṛshṇa alone as his refuge, Dharmarāja ruled to the ocean like Indra. The rains came in season, the cows flooded the villages with milk, the rivers, mountains and crops gave their riches, and no being suffered disease of body or mind or any of the three tāpas.

Śrī Kṛshṇa stayed some months in Hastināpura to remove the grief of the Pāṇḍavas and to give joy to Subhadrā. Then he took leave of Dharmarāja, embraced him and bowed to him, and mounted his chariot. Unable to bear separation from Śrī Hari, the bearer of the Śārṅga bow, these lost consciousness: Subhadrā, Draupadī, Kuntī, Uttarā the daughter of Virāṭa, Gāndhārī, Dhṛtarāshṭra, Yuyutsu, Kṛpācārya, Nakula and Sahadeva, Bhīma, Dhaumya, and women such as Satyavatī. The Pāṇḍavas had looked at him, touched him, talked, slept, sat and eaten with him; how could they bear the parting? With hearts wholly given to love they gazed at him with unblinking eyes. The women of his kin held back their tears, lest anything inauspicious befall him as he went.

Maddelas, conches, bherīs, vīṇās, drums, nagārās, bells and dundubhis sounded. The Kuru women climbed to the tops of the mansions and, smiling with love and shyness, showered flowers on him. Arjuna, his dear friend, held over him a white umbrella hung with pearls, its handle set with jewels, and Uddhava and Sātyaki waved wondrous cāmaras, while the people scattered flowers on the road. Blessings were heard for him, the nirguṇa Parabrahma who had taken a human form by māyā.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 10

What the women of Hastināpura said

The young women of Hastināpura, their minds fixed on Śrī Kṛshṇa, spoke among themselves, and their words were pleasing to every ear:

1. “The Parabrahma, pure consciousness without beginning or end and without a second, beyond the three guṇas, appears as the world; in pralaya all beings merge in him and he remains in his own nature. That nirguṇa Parabrahma is this Śrī Kṛshṇa.”
2. “At the end of pralaya that same Paramātmā, who sets the Vedas going, wished to bring forth names and forms, and became the ruler of the three-guṇa prakṛti, moved by his own śakti.”
3. “The Paramātmā whom the learned find by prāṇāyāma, with senses conquered and buddhi purified by bhakti, is here before us. It is he who purifies the mind.”
4. “O friend, the maharshis sing his holy deeds in the Vedas and the Vedāntas. Though by his māyā-śakti he creates, sustains and withdraws the world, he has no doership in it and no attachment or aversion.”
5. “In every yuga, when kings ruled by tamas live without dharma, he takes up sattva and takes avatāras for the good of the world, upholding the lordship of Īśvara, satya, dharma, compassion for beings and fame.”
6. “Wonder! Because this Śrī Kṛshṇa, best of purushas, beloved of Lakshmī, was born there, the Yadu line is most praiseworthy; because he moved there, the land of Vraja is most holy.”
7. “Wonder! The fame of Dvārakā surpasses the fame of svarga, for its people see their Prabhu Śrī Kṛshṇa daily and receive his smiling glance of grace.”
8. “O friend, the wives who took his hand must surely have worshipped Īśvara well with vratas, baths in tīrthas and homas, for they drink the nectar of his lips, which the women of Vraja longed for.”
9. “In the svayaṃvara he crushed Śiśupāla and the mighty, and with valour as the bride-price won eight wives, Rukmiṇī, Jāmbavatī, Nāgnajitī and the others, and to them were born Pradyumna, Sāmba, Amba and other sons.”
10. “When he slew Narakāsura he gave protection to women in their thousands; this lotus-eyed Śrī Kṛshṇa is their husband, gladdens their hearts with his words and gifts, and never leaves their homes even for a day.”

Śrī Kṛshṇa went on, greeting with a smiling glance the women who spoke so.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 10

The road west to Ānarta

Out of love, Dharmarāja feared that enemies might plan harm to him and sent a four-limbed army for his protection. Śrī Kṛshṇa sent back the Pāṇḍavas, who had come far to see him off, pained by separation, and went on towards his own city with his companions. He passed, in this order, the countries of Kurujāṅgala, Pāñcāla and Śūrasena; Brahmāvarta and Kurukshetra on the bank of the Yamunā; the countries of Matsya, Sārasvata and Marudhanva; and, crossing past Sauvīra and Ābhīra, he reached Ānarta, which lies to their west. By then the horses were a little tired. All along the road people came out to meet him, honoured him and brought him gifts, and by evening, as the sun set, he reached the western region.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 10

The Pāñcajanya and the people’s words

Śrī Kṛshṇa reached his own prosperous country, Ānarta, and, as if to drive away the grief of his people at his absence, he blew the Pāñcajanya, best of conches. Held in his lotus-like palms, the white conch looked red with the redness of his lip, like a royal swan calling from among red lotuses. Its sound, which frightens fear itself, carried far, and all the people, longing for darśana of their master, went out to meet him.

They offered him gifts with great reverence, as devotees show a lamp to the Sun: he who delights in his own ātmā, whose every desire is fulfilled, the friend who protects all, needs nothing. With throats choked with joy, like children speaking to their father, they said:

1. “O Prabhu Kṛshṇa, even the shadow of Kāla, which swallows Brahmā and the others, does not fall on you. Brahmā, Sanaka and the others, and Indra bow to your lotus feet; we bow to them, the supreme refuge of those who seek their welfare.”
2. “O Parameśvara, who created the world, grant us welfare. You alone are our mother, father, friend, master, sadguru and supreme daiva. By serving you we are fulfilled.”
3. “Through you we are fulfilled: we behold your all-beautiful form, its face shining with a loving smile, a form hard to see even for the dwellers of svarga.”
4. “O lotus-eyed Śrī Kṛshṇa, when you go to Hastināpura or to Mathurā to see your friends, a single moment passes for us like a crore of years, as for eyes without the Sun.”

Śrī Kṛshṇa, tender to his devotees, cast his glance of grace upon them.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 11

Dvārakā receives him

The Yādavas of the Madhu, Bhoja, Daśārha, Arha, Kukura, Andhaka and Vṛshṇi lines, equal to Śrī Kṛshṇa in strength, guard Dvārakā as the nāgas guard Bhogavatī. The city shone with lakes ringed by gardens of puṇya trees in the glory of every season, bowers of creepers, groves and playgrounds. Festive toraṇas hung at the gates, the doors and along the roads, and many-coloured flags kept out the sun. The royal roads, streets, crossroads and bazaars were swept, sprinkled with fragrant water and strewn with fruits, flowers, akshatas (unbroken rice) and tender shoots, and at every door stood pūrṇa-kumbhas with curds, akshatas, fruits and pieces of sugarcane, with offerings, incense and lamps. Into such a Dvārakā Śrī Kṛshṇa entered.

Hearing of his coming, Vasudeva, Akrūra, Ugrasena, Balarāma of wondrous valour, Pradyumna, Cārudeshṇa and Sāmba, son of Jāmbavatī, left bed, seat and meal where they were and hurried out on chariots, sending a great elephant before them. Brāhmaṇas carrying auspicious articles walked chanting the Vedas; hundreds of dancing women, their cheeks lit by gleaming earrings, came on vehicles; actors, dancers, paurāṇikas, reciters of the glory of lineages and raconteurs came out too, and singers sang his wondrous deeds.

Śrī Kṛshṇa went up to each of the kinsmen and citizens one by one and honoured them: to some he bowed his head, to some he spoke a greeting, some he embraced, with some he clasped hands, on some he smiled, with some he exchanged glances, and to some he gave the varas they wished for, honouring all down to the very least. He himself received the blessings of his gurus, of the brāhmaṇas and their wives and of the elders, and, while the bards sang his praise, he entered the city with them all.

When he reached the royal road the women of the noble families climbed to the terraces to see him. Though the people of Dvārakā saw him daily, their eyes never had their fill: his chest is the dwelling of Lakshmī Devī, his arms of the lokapālas, his lotus feet of the devotees who sing his glory, and his face is a pot of amṛta for the eyes. In his yellow garments and the vanamālā, with the white umbrella held over him, the cāmaras waving and flowers raining, he shone like a rain-cloud with the Sun, the stars, the Moon, the rainbow and lightning: the umbrella was the Sun, the flowers the stars, the circling cāmaras the Moon, the vanamālā the rainbow, his upper cloth the lightning, and he himself the cloud.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 11

With his mothers and his wives

Śrī Kṛshṇa went to the palace of his parents and joyfully bowed his head to his seven mothers, Devakī and the others, and they embraced him. Their hearts flooded with joy and love, they seated him on their laps and bathed him in tears of joy.

Then he entered his own palace, full of every enjoyment, where his wives had their sixteen thousand and eight residences. Seeing their husband return from a distant land, they rose at once from their seats, eagerness swelling in their minds and modesty in their eyes, and gave up the dhyāna and the observances they keep while the husband is away. They embraced him first in the heart, then with their glances, and then in the persons of their sons, and though they tried, they could not hold back their tears. Though he was beside them, his feet seemed to them new at every moment: at the feet that Lakshmī never leaves, what wife could ever feel weariness?

Sūta recalls how Śrī Kṛshṇa had removed the burden of the earth: as the wind kindles fire in a bamboo forest by friction, burns the forest and then grows calm, so, without taking up a weapon himself, he set enmity among the kings whose armies of akshauhiṇīs were a burden on the earth, made them destroy one another, and withdrew.

Having descended into this world of men by his māyā-śakti, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa delighted among his noble wives as if he were an ordinary man. Their pure smiles and shy glances bewildered even Manmatha, so that he threw away his bow; yet with all their graces they could not cause the least stir in his mind. Though he does many works, he has no attachment to them as “I am the doer, I am the enjoyer”; only one who does not know this compares him to himself and thinks him attached. The Paramātmā appears in prakṛti, made of the three guṇas, yet is never touched by its pleasure and pain: that is the lordship of Īśvara. His wives, not knowing his greatness, thought that he was under their control, as the workings of the buddhi imagine the Paramātmā, the knower of the field, to be a jīva in their power.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 11

The aśvamedhas and the second return

Sūta tells Śaunaka that Śrī Kṛshṇa came back to Hastināpura once more. Dharmarāja had resolved to perform an aśvamedha to remove the dosha of jñāti-droha, the harm done to his own kinsmen, but he did not have the wealth for it, and he would not raise it by taxes or by fining the wicked. His brothers saw his wish and, encouraged by Śrī Kṛshṇa, went to the north and brought back the golden vessels and other wealth that King Marutta had left there long ago when he performed his yajña. With that wealth Dharmarāja performed three aśvamedhas. Śrī Kṛshṇa came at his invitation, had the yajña performed by Dharmarāja through the brāhmaṇas, and stayed some months for the joy of his dear friends the Pāṇḍavas. Then he took leave of Dharmarāja and went to Dvārakā, with Draupadī, Arjuna, his relatives and the Yādavas accompanying him.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 12

Sources

• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapters 10–12