105. LORD SRI KRISHNA PASSES AWAY :

KRISHNA ruled at Dwaraka for thirty-six
years after the Kurukshetra battle was
over. The Vrishnis, the Bhopas and other
branches of the Yadavas belonging to
Krishna's tribe spent their days in
unrestrained self-indulgence and luxury.
They lost all sense of discipline and
humility.



Once, some rishis came to Dwaraka. The
arrogant and irreverent Yadavas mocked
these rishis with a practical joke. They
dressed up one of their young men like a
woman and, presenting him to the revered
guests, said: "O ye learned men, tell us
whether this lady will have a boy or a
girl."



The rishis saw through the irreverent joke
and said in anger: "This person will give
birth to a mace, not a boy or a girl and that
mace will prove to be Yama to your tribe
and destroy you all." The rishis departed
after pronouncing this curse.



The foolish Yadavas were rather
perturbed at this unpleasant ending of
what they had thought was a good joke.
Next day, they were in consternation to
see that Samba, the man who had been
dressed up in female clothes, developed
labor pains and lo and behold, gave birth
to a mace! This filled them with terror
because they felt that their end was near
as the rishis had cursed.



They deliberated long and finally ground
the mace to fine powder, which they
scattered in the sea, and thought they, had
thus disposed of the danger.



Nothing happened for some time. Seasons
passed. The rains came and on the beach,
near where they had strewn the fine dust
of the awful club, there sprang up a dense,
crop of rushes.



When the Yadavas saw this, they were
curious and amused, for they had
forgotten all about the curse of the revered
guests.



One day, long after, the Yadavas went to
the beach for a picnic and spent the whole
day in dance and drink and revelry. The
liquor began to work.



At first merry, then pugnacious, they
began to talk without restrain, raking up
old offences and quarrelling, on slight
cause with one another. Among the
Yadavas, Kritavarma had fought on the
side of the Kauravas and Satyaki on that
of the Pandavas.



"Would any Kshatriya attack and kill
sleeping soldiers, O Kritavarma? You
have brought a great and lasting disgrace
on our tribe," said Satyaki, taunting
Kritavarma, and a number of drunken
Yadavas applauded the attack. Kritavarma
could not bear the insult.



"Like a butcher, you slaughtered the great
Bhurisravas when seated in yoga after his
right hand was cut off and you, coward,
dare to taunt me," he exclaimed and a
number of the revelers joined him and
began to scoff at Satyaki for his barbarous
deed.



Soon, all the Yadavas were in the quarrel
on one side or the other and presently
from words they came to blows, which
swiftly developed into a free fight.
Satyaki, with his sword drawn, sprang
upon Kritavarma and cut his head off,
exclaiming: "Here is the end of the
coward who killed sleeping soldiers! "



Others immediately fell upon Satyaki with
their drinking bowls and pots and
anything they could lay hands upon.
Pradyumna, Krishna's son, joined the fray
to rescue Satyaki and there was a
desperate melee in which both Satyaki
and Pradyumna were killed.



Krishna knew that the destined hour was
come, and plucking the tall rushes, which
fringed the beach, laid about him with
them indiscriminately.



This led to every one of the Yadavas
doing the same and there was great
indiscriminate slaughter. The rishis' curse
had begun to work.



The rushes that had grown out of the mace
became each one of them a mace as it was
plucked by the doomed men in their
unreasonable fury. They used them on one
another with deadly effect and soon all of
them were destroyed in this drunken
brawl.



Balarama, who was seeing all this, was
overwhelmed with shame and disgust and
sank to the ground. He gave up his life as
he lay in a yoga trance. Balarama passed
away into the ocean in a stream of light,
which issued from his forehead like a
silver serpent. Thus ended the avatar of
Narayana in Balarama.



Krishna saw all his people thus destroy
themselves as predestined. When he saw
the passing of Balarama, he roamed about
in deep meditation in the wilderness,
pondering on the completion of his avatar.
"The time has come for me to go," he said
to himself and, lying on the ground fell
asleep.



In that wooded beach, a hunter, prowling
for game, saw Vasudeva lying on the
ground among the shrubs. From a
distance, the hunter mistook Krishna for a
wild animal resting on the ground.



He bent his bow and shot an arrow at the
prostrate figure which, piercing his foot in
the insteep, went full through his body.
Thus did the great Vasudeva depart from
the world of men.


Next : 106. YUDHISHTHIRA'S FINAL TRIAL


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