How exactly did Krishna depart from the world?

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Thank you. So, how exactly did Krishna depart from the world? Normally, the devotees are very much afflicted by separation when Krishna departs. And that’s why for the Acharyas, we celebrate both their appearance and their disappearance.
But for Krishna, we never celebrate his disappearance. For the Acharyas, we celebrate their disappearance also, because although we are separated from them and they disappear, but still, they have attained Krishna’s abode. And that is a matter of celebration on their behalf that they have gone back to the ecstatic spiritual world.
Whereas, Krishna is always ecstatic whether he is in this world or in the next, in his abode. But when he departs, at that time, we are afflicted by separation. That’s why we celebrate Acharya’s appearance and disappearance.
But Krishna’s appearance only, we don’t celebrate his disappearance. Now, in the same mode, devotees don’t talk much about Krishna’s disappearance because that causes distress to devotees. And that’s why we see in the Bhagavatam, Abhimanyu, he was in one sense born an orphan.
His father died before he was born. Parikshit was born an orphan, sorry. Abhimanyu died before he was born.
So, that’s why, out of sensitivity, when Parikshit Marayan, when Shukadeva Goswami is describing the 10th Canto, he does not describe the Kurukshetra war at all. Actually, he just describes Balram’s pilgrimage. I went to this place, this place, he met this Rishi, this Rishi.
You know, if, you know, if, say, the war was going on between, say, India and Pakistan, and some Indian newspapers are reporting the tourist trek of some mountain. See, what is going on? Report the war, Gopal. What is this? So, there is a reason.
The reason is out of sensitivity. So, similarly, the Bhagavatam doesn’t describe much about Krishna’s past, Krishna’s departure. Of course, there is a mention about it in the 11th Canto.
Now, so, we devotees generally don’t talk about it much. But certainly, there are some misconceptions that can come. So, we can address them.
The two main misconceptions which come, one is that, how is it that Krishna’s family, the Yadus, they apparently became drunk and they became angry and they fought against each other and they killed each other. And Krishna was shot by an arrow. And that’s how he seems to have died.
So, though both these seem to challenge Krishna’s omnipotence. Couldn’t he control his family members? How could he die because of an arrow? So, there is a reason, Vishwanath Chakravarthakur, in the Sathrath Darshan Itika, he describes. First of all, with respect to Krishna, Krishna’s family members are quarreling among themselves.
Krishna’s Leela is transcendental. He is completely independent. And he can arrange for his departure, the departure of his associates, in whatever way he wants.
At the same time, Krishna, in this world, demonstrates the principle of ये थामां प्रपद्दित्ते तां सथयो जान्यम् As all people surrender unto me, I reward accordingly. So, that means, in this world, नित्यो नित्यानां चेत्यो निष्चेत्नानां एको भख्नां यो विधाति कामां There is one supreme being who maintains all living beings. Now, this maintenance is not just physical, that Krishna provides air, light, heat, water, food.
Krishna maintains people even in their beliefs. So, if somebody wants to be atheistic, Krishna allows those people to be atheistic. Sometimes people ask that, okay, you say that God has arranged for rains, so that we can all get water.
Then why do rains fall on the ocean? But there is no need for water. So, the reason why rains fall on the ocean is to give atheists a reason to ask questions like this. See, the point is that without the water, there would be neither theists nor atheists to ask the question how water is coming there.
So, there is, if somebody wants to be atheistic, this world is reciprocal. We will see reasons to be atheistic. Same way with Krishna’s appearance, Krishna creates the illusion that his associates fought and he couldn’t control them when they were fighting and they killed each other.
The point is, Krishna thinks internally that the Yadavas have become extremely powerful and no one will be able to overcome them. No one will be able to kill them. And then, it is time for me to end my past tense.
And therefore, I will, now Kaliyuga is going to come. Kaliyuga is a place for those souls who want to defy God. This world, life in this world is like a multiple choice exam.
In a multiple choice exam, what does it mean? Out of the five alternatives, four alternatives are wrong. So, we could say that the student can sue the teacher. You put four wrong answers.
That’s why I don’t answer wrong and that’s why I failed. If you wanted me to pass, you should have put more right alternatives. Why did you put more wrong alternatives? No, the point is that the teacher’s responsibility is not to put more right alternatives.
The teacher’s responsibility is to give the right education. And the student’s responsibility is to internalize that education. Then the student will be able to make the right choice.
So, the wrong choices are also given by the teacher to test whether the student has understood the subject that is being taught. Similarly, the Bhagavatam and the Mahabharata where Krishna’s disappearance in scribe, they give elaborate philosophical understanding of how Krishna appears in this world. Who Krishna is? How he is transcendental? How he is supreme? How he performs his pastimes? And then when they describe these pastimes, where we need to look at what was Krishna’s thinking? Not just look at the external action.
So, it is described that Krishna wanted his own Yadus to depart from this world and to give doubters reasons to doubt. Krishna arranged his departure in a way which would be mysterious. That’s the first thing.
Now, second thing is that could Krishna not control them? Well, Krishna’s omnipotence does not mean he is violating the soul’s independence. We discussed how Krishna arranges his messenger and he apparently failed to do that. But that is not any violation of Krishna.
That is not any challenge to Krishna’s omnipotence. Rather, it is his demonstration of his respect for the soul’s independence. Same applies to the other ones.
Ultimately, they did whatever they did by Krishna’s plan. But it was circumstantially, Krishna was showing that if this is what you want to do, I will persuade you but I will not force you. If you don’t listen to me, it’s up to you.
And after that, when all the others were destroyed, destroyed themselves, Krishna and Balaram were left. Krishna and Balaram, they went to the forest. They said, this whole, we are trying for us to end up ourselves.
So, Balaram sat in meditation and then from his mouth, a snake appeared. And then that snake expanded and manifested as Sheshna. And Balaram seated on the snake and then disappeared.
Then Krishna remained alone. Krishna was in trance. At that time, Uddhava comes over there.
Then Uddhava is devastated to see that all the others have been destroyed. And he says, Krishna, how will I be able to live with you? He understands that Krishna is also about to end his pastimes. So, he prays to Krishna, please take me with you also.
So, Krishna tells Uddhava, no, I have some service for you. You go to the sages in the Himalayas and instruct them what I have instructed you. And then Krishna speaks elaborately to Uddhava.
Where he was the highest of all. And then he tells Uddhava to depart. Uddhava has tears in his eyes.
He just walks around, falls down, looks back. This is the last glance I will have of Krishna. He walks a few steps, again turns around, looks at Krishna.
And finally he departs. And Krishna is sitting in the forest. At that time, a hunter was passing by.
And the hunter sees some sort of fleshy appendage coming out. And he thinks, oh, this is an animal. And he shoots an arrow.
And that arrow goes and hits Krishna on the leg, on the foot. It’s on the lower part of the leg. And then, seeing that he has got an animal, the hunter comes over there.
And the hunter says, this is this celibate Yadav, this is Krishna. He is shocked. He falls down and begs forgiveness.
Please forgive me. I had wounded you like this. Krishna says, no, whatever you did was my plan.
And Krishna actually blesses him. And tells him, you have done a valuable service for me. And he blesses him, benedicts him, deliberates over him.
And then, Krishna, apparently because of that wound to the leg, he dies. And it seemed as if when he departs, he leaves the body behind. Which also seems to add to the delusion.
There are several questions here. If you look at it deeply. First is, normally, even in fierce wars, an arrow injury to the leg is never fatal.
Leg is not an essential part of the body. Leg can just be cut off. The only time an arrow injury to the leg becomes fatal is if there is an infection and that infection spreads to the rest of the body.
And the leg is not amputated. Then the person may, after a substantial amount of time and the infection spreads and becomes lethal, only then the person dies. So, a wound to the leg cannot kill a person.
So, how could the supreme person be killed by an incidental arrow to the wound? That’s the first point. The second point is that Krishna, if he is about to be killed, he doesn’t become angry with the person who is killing him. He actually blesses him.
So, Krishna is in full control of his faculties. If he were an ordinary person, how could he bless anyone with liberation? Or to speak of blessing anyone, how could he have had that much composure to be calm and to correspond to somebody who is his murderer? Not only that, in that same Bhagavatam it is described how Krishna, he even goes to Yama’s abode. And he gets souls who have gone to Yama’s abode and he gets them back.
So, how can he be subjected to death like an ordinary human being? And further, Krishna in this world, he manifests his Leela in such a way, as I said, that for those who want to be atheistic, he allows them to be atheists. So, Krishna has in that same form, even in the 10th canto it is described, he has gone even to Mahavishnu’s abode. So, if he has gone there, his body is not material.
So, when he leaves a material body apparently, it is simply an illusion which is created to delude the human being. In the Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit, Krishnadaswara Raja Goswami described this and there is Jiva Goswami also who talks about it in his Bhagavatsandarva. He says that some pastimes of Krishna are called as Asura Mohan Leela.
That the purpose of those pastimes is to delude the demoniac, primarily. So, Krishna’s departure, I mentioned pastimes like Krishna’s departure especially, they are primarily meant to delude the demoniac. Those who see only external things, those who see things non-philosophically, they will use this to conclude that Krishna is not God.
That he died a tragic death, that his dynasty wiped itself out in a practical conflict. Drunken brawl. But all that is external.
Underlined is all Krishna’s will, which is what devotees focus on. And devotees say that, okay, this Leela is not uncool to our Vakti Bhaav. And therefore, devotees will not discuss it much.
Thank you. Any other questions?