Canto Eleven / CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

The Disappearance of Lord Śrī Krishna

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, Lord Krishna had previously answered the prayers of Lord Brahmā and the other demigods, who had requested the Lord to descend within this universe for the protection of His servants, the demigods. Now the demigods arrived before the Lord, each one desiring to take the Lord to his own planet. To avoid these innumerable social obligations, the Lord closed His eyes as if absorbed in samādhi.

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī adds that Lord Krishna closed His eyes to instruct the yogīs how to leave this mortal world without attachment to one’s mystic opulences. All the demigods, including Brahmā, are mystic expansions of Lord Krishna, and yet the Lord closed His eyes to emphasize that one should fix one’s mind on the Supreme Personality of Godhead when departing from this world.

A yogī empowered to select the moment of leaving his body can cause it to burst into flames by engaging in the yogic meditation called āgneyī, and thus he passes into his next life. The demigods similarly employ this mystic fire when being transferred to the spiritual world. But the Supreme Personality of Godhead is completely different from conditioned souls like yogīs and demigods, since the Lord’s eternal, spiritual body is the source of all existence, as indicated here by the words lokābhirāmām sva-tanum. Lord Krishna’s body is the source of pleasure for the entire universe. The word dhāranā-dhyāna-mangalam indicates that those trying for spiritual elevation through meditation and yoga achieve all auspiciousness through meditation on the Lord’s body. Since yogīs are liberated simply by thinking of Lord Krishna’s body, that body is certainly not material and therefore not subject to burning by mundane mystic fire or any other type of fire.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura reminds us of Lord Krishna’s statement in the Eleventh Canto, Chapter Fourteen, verse 37: vahni-madhye smared rūpam mamaitad dhyāna-mangalam. “Within the fire one should meditate upon My form, which is the auspicious object of all meditation.” Since Lord Krishna’s transcendental form is present within fire as the maintaining principle, how can fire affect that form? Thus although the Lord appeared to enter the mystic yoga trance, the word adagdhvā indicates that the Lord, since His body is purely spiritual, bypassed the formality of burning and directly entered His own abode in the spiritual sky. This point has also been elaborately explained by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī in his commentary to this verse.

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, all the demigods were jubilant because each one thought Lord Krishna was coming to his own planet.

The sudden movements of a lightning bolt are seen by the demigods but not by human beings. Similarly, the sudden departure of Lord Krishna could be understood by the Lord’s intimate associates in the spiritual sky but not by the demigods.

Although the demigods are virtually omniscient within this universe, they could not understand the movements of Lord Krishna’s mystic potency. Thus they were astonished.

According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the so-called fight among the members of the Yadu dynasty was actually a display of the pastime potency of the Lord, since Lord Krishna’s personal associates are never subject to ordinary birth and death like conditioned souls. This being the case, certainly the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself is transcendental to material birth and death, as clearly stated in this verse.

The word natasya, “of an actor or magician,” is significant here. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura tells the following story of a certain magician who exhibits the trick of dying:

“In front of a great king, a magician approaches a stack of valuable garments, jewels, coins and so forth, all placed there by the king. Taking a jeweled necklace, the magician tells the king, ‘Now I am taking this necklace, and you can’t have it,’ and he makes the necklace disappear. ‘Now I’m taking this gold coin, and you can’t have it,’ he says, and makes the gold coin disappear. Next, challenging the king in the same way, the magician makes seven thousand horses disappear. Then the magician creates the illusion that the king’s children, grandchildren, brothers and other family members have attacked each other and that nearly all are dead from the violent quarrel. The king hears the magician speaking and at the same time observes these things taking place before him as he sits in the great assembly hall.

“Then the magician says, ‘O King, I no longer wish to live. Just as I have studied magic, so also, by the mercy of the lotus feet of my guru, I have learned the mystic meditation of yoga. One is supposed to give up one’s body while meditating in a holy place, and since you have performed so many pious activities, you are a holy place yourself. Therefore I shall now give up my body.’

“Thus speaking, the magician sits down in the proper yoga posture, fixes himself in prānāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāranā, dhyāna and samādhi, and becomes silent. A moment later, a fire generated from his trance blazes forth out of his body and burns it to ashes. Then all the wives of the magician, distraught with lamentation, enter into that fire.

“Three or four days later, after the magician has returned to his own province, he sends one of his daughters to the king. The daughter tells him, ‘O King, I have just come to your palace, bringing along with me, invisibly, all your sons, grandsons and brothers in good health — along with all the jewels and other items given by you. Please, therefore, give me whatever you consider fitting remuneration for the wisdom of the magic that has been exhibited before you.’ In this way, even by ordinary magic one can simulate birth and death.”

It is not difficult to understand, therefore, that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although transcendental to the laws of nature, exhibits His illusory potency so that ordinary fools will think the Lord has left His body like a human being. Actually, Lord Krishna returned to His abode in His own eternal body, as confirmed throughout the Vedic literature.

To mitigate his own and Parīkshit Mahārāja’s distress at the narration of Lord Krishna’s departure from this world, Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī here gives several clear examples proving that Lord Krishna is far beyond the influence of death. Although the son of Lord Krishna’s spiritual master (Sāndīpani Muni) had been taken by death, the Lord brought him back in his same body. Similarly, the power of Brahman cannot touch Lord Krishna, since Parīkshit Mahārāja, though burned by the brahmāstra weapon, was easily saved by the Lord. Lord Śiva was clearly defeated by Lord Krishna in the battle with Bānāsura, and the hunter Jarā was sent to a Vaikuntha planet in his same human body. Death is an insignificant expansion of Lord Krishna’s external potency and cannot possibly act upon the Lord Himself. Those who actually understand the transcendental nature of Lord Krishna’s activities will find convincing evidence in these examples.

Although Lord Krishna descended to this world to save the fallen souls, He did not want to encourage people in the future to loiter here unnecessarily. In other words, as soon as possible one should perfect one’s Krishna consciousness and go back home, back to Godhead. If Lord Krishna had remained longer on the earth, He would have unnecessarily increased the prestige of the material world.

As stated by Śrī Uddhava in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (3.2.11), ādāyāntar adhād yas tu sva-bimbam loka-locanam: “Lord Śrī Krishna, who manifested His eternal form before the vision of all on the earth, performed His disappearance by removing His form from the sight of those who are unable to see Him [as He is] due to not executing the required penance.” Uddhava also states in the Bhāgavatam (3.2.10):

“Under no circumstances can the words of persons bewildered by the illusory energy of the Lord deviate the intelligence of those who are completely surrendered souls.” One who follows the Vaishnava authorities in his attempt to understand Lord Krishna’s transcendental disappearance easily appreciates that the Lord is the omnipotent Personality of Godhead and that His spiritual body is identical with His eternal spiritual potency.

According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura, the original Devakī, Rohinī and other ladies of Dvārakā actually remained in Dvārakā, invisible to the eyes of the material world, whereas the demigods who represented partial aspects of Devakī, Rohinī and so on went to Prabhāsa to see their dead relatives.

It is understood that the anguished scene described here is a display of the Lord’s illusory potency, adding a final dramatic note to Lord Krishna’s pastimes on the earth. In reality, Lord Krishna returned to His eternal abode in His original body, and His eternal associates returned with Him. This final heartbreaking scene of the Lord’s pastimes is a creation of the Lord’s internal potency that brings the Lord’s manifest pastimes to a perfect dramatic end.

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, Arjuna remembered such verses from the Gītā as:

(Bg. 7.25)

“I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency (yoga-māyā), and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible.”

Similarly, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has mentioned the Gītā verse mām evaishyasi satyam te pratijāne priyo ’si me (Bg. 18.65): “You will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.” He has also quoted from the Svarga-parva of the Mahābhārata as follows:

“There Yudhishthira saw Lord Govinda as the Absolute Truth in His original, personal form. He appeared just as Yudhishthira had seen Him before, with all the same characteristics. He was glowing brilliantly with the effulgence coming from His own body, and He was surrounded by His transcendental weapons — the disc and so on — which appeared in their fearsome personified forms. O descendant of Kuntī, Lord Madhusūdana was being worshiped by the effulgent hero Arjuna, who also appeared in his original form. When these two lions among men, who are worshipable by the demigods, noticed the presence of Yudhishthira, they approached him with proper respect and offered him worship.”

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains that whereas the external manifestation of the Lord’s abode was covered by the ocean, the Lord’s eternal Dvārakā exists beyond the material universe and certainly beyond the material ocean. Dvārakā had been constructed by Viśvakarmā, the architect of the demigods, and the Sudharmā assembly hall had been brought from heaven. In that city there were many beautiful and splendorous residences of the aristocratic Yadu dynasty, and the most beautiful residence of all was that of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī mentions that even in the modern age, people who live near the site of the original Dvārakā sometimes catch a glimpse of it in the ocean. Ultimately, the Lord’s associates and abode are eternal, and one who understands this is qualified to become fully Krishna conscious.

The Eleventh Canto was completed at the New Gokula South American pilgrimage site, state of Sāo Paulo, Brazil, on Friday, March 26, 1982.