na de oorlog (viii)

SB 1.15
Krishna has left the world
So the Pandavas retire


(1) Arjuna, the friend of Krishna, who was emaciated [uitgehongerd] because of his separation from Krishna, thus was subjected to the various forms of doubt and speculation of his elder brother the king. (2) Because of his grief, his mouth and lotus heart had dried up, and his bodily luster had vanished. Preoccupied with thoughts about the Lord, he was incapable of replying properly.

(3) The more he wiped the tears from his eyes, and with great difficulty checked the force of his sadness not seeing Him anymore, the more he eagerly thought about Him in his affection, and the more distressed he became. (4) Remembering Him as a well-wisher, benefactor, friend and charioteer, Arjuna, overwhelmed and heavily breathing, addressed his eldest brother the king.

Arjuna said:

(5) Oh great King, Lord Hari in the form of my friend, has left me. Now I am bereft of the amazing power that even astonished the gods. (6) I lost Him from whom being separated but for a moment all universes would appear unfavorable and void of all life, like they are all dead.

(7) By the strength of His mercy, I could vanquish the power of all the lusty princes, during the selection of the bridegroom at King Drupada's palace, where I gained Draupadî's hand by piercing the fish-target with my bow.

(8) With Him at my side I was able to defeat Indra and his godly associates, and could thus enable the god of fire to set ablaze his forest. With His support we could realize our wonderfully built assembly house that was designed by Maya, where all the princes assembled to your honor bringing presents collected from all directions...

etc. etc.

Oh King, in reply to your question about our friends and relatives in Dvaraka, I can tell you that they lost their minds being cursed by the brahmins. Being drunk with rice wine, they killed one another with sticks, not even recognizing each other in that intoxicated state. Only four or five of them remained. 

(24) In general, it is the program of the Supreme Personality, our Lord, that sometimes the living beings kill one another, and at other times protect each other. (25-26) Like in the ocean where the bigger creatures eat the smaller ones, and the stronger devour the weaker, oh King, the Omnipotent One in one stroke removed the burden of all the Yadus from the earth by having the stronger Yadu in a fight kill the weaker one and the bigger Yadu kill the smaller one.

(27) Bearing in mind the words spoken by Govinda, I remember how attractive they are, and how they, imbued with importance and appropriate to time and circumstance, put an end to the pain in the heart.


Suta said:

(28) Thus thinking of the lotus feet of the Lord and what He had instructed in the intimacy of their deep friendship, Arjuna, with his mind freed from all material concerns, found his calm. (29) Constantly remembering the feet of Vasudeva, Arjuna's devotion increased rapidly, so that the endless ruminations ended.

(30) He again thought of the spiritual instructions the Supreme Lord gave in the midst of the battlefield. By thinking of His time and actions, he dispelled the darkness of his ignorance, and became the master of his senses.

(31) Free from lamentation, by his spiritual capacity managing to cut with the doubts that were raised by the duality of being identified with the material world, he due to the transcendence of being without a material form, was freed from the entanglement of birth and death.

(32) Yudhishthhira, listening to the deliberations about the end of the Yadu dynasty, and the disappearance of the Supreme Lord to His abode, undisturbed within made up his mind [to leave] in favor of the way to heaven.

(33) Also Queen Kunti, who had overheard what Arjuna told about the end of the Yadus and the disappearance of the Lord, found, absorbed in the soul, release from her material existence, in pure devotion unto the Lord who was now [fully] situated beyond the senses.

(34) By taking away from the world the burden constituted by the body [of the Yadu dynasty], the Unborn Lord equal in His control rejected both the thorn [of the opposing military forces] that was removed and the thorn [of his own family] He used for its removal.

(35) Just like with His Matsya incarnation and other incarnations, like a magician giving up one body in order to accept another, He relinquished the body by which He relieved the burden of the world.

(36) When Mukunda [Krishna as Lord of Liberation], the Fortunate One so worthwhile to hear about, left this earth, from that day on Kali[yuga] manifested itself in full, the age so inauspicious to all who in ignorance are not in control of their minds [who have not awakened].