You remember the circumstances in which God agreed to appear on earth? We discussed that in the very beginning. It was to put an end to many tyrants who were wreaking havoc on earth and tormenting helpless people. With the killing of Kamsa, Chanura, Jarasandha, Duryodhana and so on, God’s purpose of coming to earth was successfully completed. Now it is time to lower the curtains and end this divine drama.
You need someone else to kill a wicked person. But sometimes many people who go on unrighteous path end up destroying themselves. The Yadavas had become very arrogant over a period of time, and were slowly turning to be menace to the society. Moreover, their original role was to assist God in his divine drama. Now that drama was over. It is time for them to leave the stage. Bhagavata describes the ultimate exit of such Yadavas who had served their roles, as follows.
Once a group of sages visited Dwarika. They were all great sages and any righteous person would treat them with all the respect they deserve. But not the arrogant Yadavas. Some of them wanted to play some prank with those great sages. So, they dressed Krishna’s son Samba as a pregnant girl and took him to the sages. They pretended as if they were showing great respect for those sages and all of them prostrated before them.
They presented Samba in front of those sages and asked the sages to bless that the girl would deliver a male child. That was their way of having some fun. But the sages could see through their prank and were greatly raged. They cursed the Yadavas and predicted that the child born to that girl would eliminate the Yadavas from the world! That was the price they had to pay for their silly behavior.
Later, when Samba undressed himself, he found a metal pestle that came out from his belly portion as if he had given birth to it, The Yadavas were greatly horrified. They ran and reported the incident to the King. The King too was greatly worried. He knew that the curse of sages would not go ineffective. Since the sages had predicted that the child born to the disguised Samba would result in the end of the Yadavas, the King figured that the metal pestle was going to be the cause of annihilation of the Yadavas.
After consulting everyone, the King ordered the pestle to be ground to fine powder and dispersed into the sea. He thought that by doing so, he had averted the calamity. Unfortunately, it was not so. Some portion of the powdered metal pestle was swept ashore. A special grass that grew on the shore absorbed that metal traces and grew stronger. Some potion that sank into the sea was swallowed by fish in the sea. Later, some fishermen who caught those fishes found metal pieces in their body. They utilized those metal pieces as tips for their arrows. So, the death warrant of the Yadavas was stealthily going rounds and waiting for the right opportunity.
Krishna knew very well whatever was happening. But he was not doing anything to change the situation. In a way everything was happening as per his own game plan. He only asked some of the Yadava members to move offshore and to the sacred place where river Saraswati joined the sea. Remember, Dwarika was an island city. He wanted them spend their time in austerities to minimize the calamity that was imminent. He too went with them along with Balarama.
But fate would not spare anyone. Even in such a sacred place, the Yadavas started indulging themselves in drinking. They were so inebriated that they started quarrelling with each other over silly reasons. The intoxicant was blurring their intellect and they lost all sanity. They started attacking each other with their weapons. When Krishna and Balarama tried to stop them, they even attacked Krishna and Balarama.
Balarama was quite upset with whatever was going on. He went to the sea shore and immersed himself in meditation. He finally left his body and ended his role on earth. But the drunken Yadavas went on fighting. When they ran out of their weapons, they started beating each other with thick grass that grew on the shore.
But it was no ordinary grass. It was the same grass that had absorbed the finely powdered metal pestle. And true to the curse of the sages, the grass had become the death knell to these Yadavas who had crossed all limits of sanity. Gradually they started dying one by one.
Krishna was silently watching whatever was happening. He was witnessing the death of his own brothers, sons and other close relatives. It was time for even him to leave this world. Not that he was worried about the death of his close ones. For him everything was just a drama.
One day Krishna was resting under a tree. A hunter who mistook Krishna’s foot to be the head of a deer from a distance, shot an arrow. It was no ordinary arrow. It had a tip made by the remnants of metal pieces found by the fishermen in the bodies of the fishes that they had caught in the sea. It was destined to eliminate even Krishna as part of the curse of the sages.
When the hunter realized that what he had shot was not a deer but Krishna taking rest under a tree, he went running to Krishna and fell on his feet. He begged Krishna to punish him for whatever sin he had committed. But Krishna just smiled and comforted him by saying that it was no fault of his. Krishna explained to him that whatever happened was as per his own wish. Krishna also told him that he was going to leave this world.
Just at that time, Krishna’s Charioteer Daruka came running. He had been looking for Krishna all over the place. When Daruka found Krishna wounded, he was very much distressed. He wanted to take Krishna back to Dwarika in his chariot. But Krishna told Daruka that his time had come and he was about to go. He asked Daruka to return to Dwarika and caution the elders in Dwarika about the impending catastrophe. He said that Dwarika was about to get submerged under the sea. He asked the residents of Dwarika to at once evacuate the island and move to the shore.
After Daruka left with Krishna’s message, Krishna entered into a deep state of Samadhi. Normally, great Yogi’s can burn themselves in such intense state of Samadhi and end their life. But Krishna chose to just disappear without leaving any trace behind. Krishna was back to wherever he came from. His role in the drama was over.
On getting the message from Krishna through Daruka, the residents of Dwarika quickly prepared to evacuate the island city. Many who loved Krishna more than their own life, fell dead hearing about the exit of Krishna. The womenfolk who saw the dead bodies of their husbands who died in the infighting of the Yadavas, too embraced those dead bodies and gave up their life. Most of Yadava folks died in some way or the other true to the prophecy of the sages. And finally, great waves engulfed the whole of Dwarika city.
Whatever small fraction of Yadavas that remained in the calamity, migrated to Indraprastha along with Arjuna who had come there. Arjuna ensured that they were given shelter in the Pandava Kingdom.
Pandavas were quite upset by the demise of Balarama and the exit of Krishna. They too wanted to bid goodbye to this world. They coronated Parikshita as their successor. It was the same Parikshita who was rescued by Krishna from the Brahmashira missile fired by Ashwatthama.
Pandavas along with Draupadi started on their final journey. They headed towards the Himalayas. And that was the end to one drama in which Krishna played a major role.
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