Kṛshṇa Mahānirvāṇa

The Bhāgavata and Vishṇu Purāṇas tell how Bhagavān Kṛshṇa left the earth. It follows the first skanda of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa and the fifth aṃśa (part) of the Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa. The Bhāgavata’s first skanda tells the event mostly through its effect on those left behind. These are Arjuna, who returns from Dvārakā in grief, and Yudhishṭhira, who sees the signs of Kali Yuga after Kṛshṇa has gone.

Kṛshṇa’s presence in the world

All through the reign of the Pāṇḍavas, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa was present in the world. He lived in Dvārakā among the Yādavas and was near to his devotees. Everything good in those years turned around him: the victories of the Pāṇḍavas, the aśvamedha yajñas (horse sacrifices) and the guarding of dharma. The Bhāgavata says that while Kṛshṇa walked the earth, Kali Yuga could not take hold. His presence held back the age of adharma.

The end of the Yādavas

The first skanda of the Bhāgavata mentions the end of the Yādava clan at Prabhāsa-kshetra but does not tell it in detail. The eleventh skanda tells it more fully. By the force of a śāpa (curse) from brāhmaṇas, given after the Yādava youths mocked the ṛshis, the Yādavas killed one another in a battle among themselves at Prabhāsa. They fought with the iron reeds that came from their own act of deceit.

The whole Yādava clan, all the great warriors and all the families of Dvārakā, died at Prabhāsa. After Kṛshṇa left, the ocean covered Dvārakā.

Arjuna at Dvārakā

Yudhishṭhira saw the signs that Kali was coming. He sent Arjuna to Dvārakā to learn what had happened. Arjuna found ruin. The Yādavas were dead, the city was empty and Kṛshṇa was gone.

Arjuna tried to lead the surviving women and people from Dvārakā back to Hastināpura. But the bow that had served him through the whole Mahābhārata war now felt heavy and hard to use. Arrows that once flew straight now fell short. Cowherds, ordinary people who had once trembled before the Yādavas, attacked the column, and Arjuna could not drive them off.

His powers were the same as before, but without the grace of Kṛshṇa his courage was hollow. He could hardly protect the survivors. He learned in his own body and mind that all his strength had come from Kṛshṇa and not from himself.

Arjuna returns to Hastināpura

When Arjuna came back to Hastināpura, Yudhishṭhira saw him from afar and was startled. This was not the Arjuna he had sent away. He was pale and joyless, his eyes downcast and wet with tears, and he looked like a stranger. Yudhishṭhira questioned him at length. Arjuna told what he had seen: his lament, the ruin of Dvārakā, his grief. This confirmed what the signs had told Yudhishṭhira: Bhagavān Kṛshṇa had left.

The earth after Kṛshṇa

The Bhāgavata gives the earth’s own words, through Parīkshit’s later meeting with Bhūmi Devī, the earth. She says that the saubhāgya (good fortune) given to her by the footprints of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa has gone. He who walked on her has left, and with him has gone the grace that made her holy. The earth weeps for Kṛshṇa’s going as for the loss of the sun.

At that same time Kali Yuga, held back as long as Kṛshṇa was present, came in fully. It spread adharma, quarrels and deceit, and it wore down every power of humankind. Yudhishṭhira had seen the first of these signs in the omens he noticed before Arjuna’s return gave him the news.

What this departure means

The Bhāgavata does not tell Kṛshṇa’s departure as a death. It tells it as a deliberate withdrawal of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa from his visible form on the earth. He is like the sun, which does not cease to be when it sets, though everything that lived in its light feels at once that it is gone. All that follows in the first skanda happens in the world left behind after Kṛshṇa’s departure. These are Yudhishṭhira’s crowning of Parīkshit, the mahāprasthāna (the great journey) of the Pāṇḍavas, Parīkshit’s reign, and the telling of the Bhāgavata itself.

The Vishṇu Purāṇa on the days after

The Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Pañcamāṃśa, Chapter 38, gives a fuller account of the events after Kṛshṇa left the world.

Arjuna’s last rites

Arjuna came to Dvārakā because of Kṛshṇa’s last instructions, sent through Dāruka. He performed the last rites for Vasudeva and for all who had died in the city.

The queens enter the fire

The Vishṇu Purāṇa names Rukmiṇī and the eight chief queens, who entered the funeral fire together, holding their husband in their hearts. Revatī, the wife of Balarāma, also entered the fire. Devakī and Rohiṇī, the mother of Kṛshṇa and the mother of Balarāma, could not bear the loss of both their sons. Vasudeva also gave up his body in the grief-stricken city.

Arjuna against the Ābhīras

Arjuna led the column of survivors from Dvārakā north toward Indraprastha. Ābhīra cowherds, people of that region, attacked the column and carried off many of the women. Arjuna reached for his Gāṇḍīva bow, which had been unbeaten throughout the Mahābhārata, and found it heavy and clumsy, as if he had never trained with it. His arrows fell short. His divine invocations brought no answer. He could fight only as an ordinary man with ordinary skill, and he could not stop the losses.

Vyāsa’s teaching on kāla

When Arjuna had reached safety, Vyāsa appeared to him and gave him the kālasvarūpa teaching, which is both comfort and truth.

“Kṛshṇa was kāla (time) itself. Kāla gives what it wills and takes what it wills. The power that flowed through your arms, the arrows that flew to their marks, the weapons that answered your call: all that was Kṛshṇa’s own power working through you. Now kāla has taken it back. Do not grieve. You were the instrument. The power was always his. This is the truth of all human achievement.”

Parīkshit is crowned

The Pañcamāṃśa ends with the crowning of Parīkshit as king. He was the grandson of Arjuna and the surviving thread of the Pāṇḍava line, and he would rule in the early part of Kali Yuga.

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 1st Skanda, Chapters 14–15
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 1st Skanda, Chapters 14–16 (the earth’s words and the coming of Kali)
• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Pañcamāṃśa, Chapter 38