How did Krishna leave the world?
After the end of the Yadavas at Prabhasa, a hunter named Jara's arrow struck Krishna's foot as he sat beneath a pipal tree, and he returned to his abode; the place is known as Bhalka Tirth.
Answer
Shri Krishna's departure is described in the Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata and in the eleventh canto of the Shrimad Bhagavatam. As a result of a curse by sages and, according to the Mahabharata, the curse of Gandhari, the end of the Yadu dynasty drew near. At Prabhasa the Yadavas fought among themselves and perished. Balarama gave up his body through yoga on the seashore.
Krishna then sat peacefully beneath a pipal tree. A hunter named Jara, seeing his reddish foot from a distance, mistook it for the face of a deer and shot an arrow. When he came closer and realised his mistake, he was overcome with grief, but the Lord comforted him and said that all this had happened by his own will. According to a popular tradition, Jara had been Vali in a former life. The Lord then returned to his own abode.
This place is known today as Bhalka Tirth, at Veraval near Somnath in Gujarat. Nearby, on the bank of the Hiran river near the Triveni Sangam, is the Dehotsarg tirth. According to tradition, the Kali Yuga began with Krishna's departure from the world.
- Source
- Mahabharata, Mausala Parva; Shrimad Bhagavatam, Canto 11
- Place
- Bhalka Tirth, Prabhas Patan (Somnath), Gujarat