Vyāsa Arjuna Kāla Saṃvāda

After the Vṛshṇis were destroyed and Kṛshṇa and Balarāma had left the world, Arjuna went to the āśrama (hermitage) of Vyāsa in deep shame and grief. He told Vyāsa what had happened. Vyāsa comforted him with a teaching on Kāla, time, which is the seed and cause of all things. He also told Arjuna that the hour of the Pāṇḍavas’ own great departure had come. Arjuna then returned to Hastināpura and told everything to Yudhishṭhira. With this the Mausala Parva ends.

Arjuna comes to Vyāsa

Arjuna entered the āśrama of the truthful Kṛshṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa, the son of Satyavatī. He found the great ṛshi sitting alone. Arjuna came near the keeper of mighty vows, the knower of dharma. He bowed, said his name, “I am Arjuna”, and served him. The kind muni welcomed him and asked him to sit.

Arjuna was sighing, his heart was heavy and his mind was unsettled. Vyāsa asked if some impurity had come upon him. Had water from nails, hair, the ends of cloth or a pot been sprinkled on him? Had he lain with a woman in her season? Had he killed a brāhmaṇa? Or had he been beaten in battle? For he looked as if his splendour had left him, and Vyāsa had never known him to be a defeated man. He asked Arjuna to tell him all.

Arjuna’s lament

Arjuna answered. The great-souled one, dark as a rain-cloud, with eyes like great lotuses, Kṛshṇa, had cast off his body together with Balarāma and gone to the world of the devas. Through the curse of the brāhmaṇas, a śāpa, the destruction by the mushala (iron club) had come upon all the Vṛshṇi heroes. At Prabhāsa a dreadful event, one that made the flesh creep, had wiped them all out. The brave and mighty Bhojas, Vṛshṇis and Andhakas, proud as lions, had struck one another down. Men whose arms could stand against the blows of maces, iron clubs and spears died from mere blades of grass. Such, said Arjuna, was the power of Kāla. Fifteen hundred thousand men of great strength had killed one another.

He said that however he thought about it, he could not bear the death of the Yadus, so mighty in body, or the departure of the glorious Kṛshṇa. The fall of Kṛshṇa, the wielder of the Śārṅga bow, seemed to him as impossible as the sea drying up, a mountain moving, the sky falling or fire turning cold.

Then he told the harder grief. Before his own eyes the cowherds (the robbers) of Pañcanada had chased down thousands of the wives of the Vṛshṇis and carried them off. He could not string his bow. His arms had lost their old strength. His many astras had failed, and his quivers had emptied in a moment.

He described the four-armed Purusha of dark colour, dressed in yellow and holding conch, cakra and mace, who had gone before his chariot and burned up the enemy hosts by his splendour alone. That Purusha could no longer be seen. Without Janārdana, Arjuna had no wish to live. His kinsmen were destroyed and his strength was dead, and he wandered about in confusion. He begged Vyāsa to teach him what was good.

Vyāsa’s teaching on Kāla

Vyāsa said: “O lion of the Kurus, the great warriors of the Vṛshṇis and Andhakas were burnt up and destroyed by the curse of the brāhmaṇas. Do not grieve for them. So it was meant to be. This was their appointed share. Kṛshṇa could have removed the curse, but he chose to let it pass. He who could make the whole three worlds anew, moving and unmoving, what is the curse of great ṛshis to him? That Kṛshṇa, bearer of conch, cakra and mace, who out of love went before your chariot, is the ancient ṛshi, the four-armed Vāsudeva. He has finished the work of lifting the earth’s burden. The lotus-eyed one cast off his body and went back to his own supreme abode. O best of men, with mighty Bhīmasena and the twins to help you, you too have carried out this great work of the devas. You have done your tasks. You stand ready. The time has come for you also to depart. This I hold to be for your highest good.”

Vyāsa went on: “In the time of rising, understanding, tejas (splendour) and wealth arise. In the time of ruin they meet disaster. This whole world has Kāla for its seed and root. Kāla, of his own will, draws all things back into himself. Kāla himself, the master, is the strong at one moment and the weak at another, and the same master again moves at the command of others. The astras have done their work and have now gone back to their own places. When the time comes again, they will come again. O best of the Bharatas, the time has come for you all to go to the supreme goal. This I deem your highest good.”

Arjuna returns

Arjuna understood the words of the boundlessly splendid Vyāsa. He took his leave and went to the city of the elephant, Hastināpura. There the hero told Yudhishṭhira all that had befallen the line of the Vṛshṇis and Andhakas. Here the Mausala Parva ends.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, Chapter 8