Shri Krishna Returns to His Eternal Abode

At Prabhasa, the hunter Jara mistook the foot of Krishna, resting beneath a pipal tree, for a deer and shot an arrow. The Lord forgave and blessed him and returned to his eternal abode, and the Kali Yuga began.

After the Yadavas had perished at Prabhasa, Balarama sat on the seashore in deep meditation. Fixing his mind on the Supreme, he left this world. The Shrimad Bhagavatam describes a great white serpent, Ananta Shesha, emerging from him and entering the ocean.

Shri Krishna then sat quietly beneath a pipal tree in his radiant four-armed form, resting his left foot upon his right thigh. At that moment a hunter named Jara, whose arrow was tipped with the last piece of the iron musala, saw the reddish sole of the Lord's foot from a distance and mistook it for a deer. He shot, and the arrow pierced the Lord's foot.

When Jara came near and saw what he had done, he fell at Krishna's feet in terror and begged to be punished. Krishna comforted him with great tenderness. He told Jara not to fear, for it had happened by his own will, and he blessed him and sent him to the heavenly realm. The Lord who forgave even the one who wounded him shows us the very height of compassion.

Daruka, Krishna's charioteer, came searching and found him beneath the tree. Krishna told him to go to Dwarka and tell the family what had happened, and to say that everyone should leave the city, for the sea would soon cover it, and go with Arjuna to Indraprastha. Then Shri Krishna, fixing his mind within himself, returned to his eternal abode. Devotees do not speak of this as his death; they call it his swadham gaman, his return to his own abode.

With the Lord's departure, the Kali Yuga began. Arjuna came to Dwarka, performed the last rites for Vasudeva and the others, and led the women, children and elders away. Behind them the sea swallowed Dwarka. On the way robbers attacked, and Arjuna found that his mighty bow had lost its power, for its strength had always been Krishna's grace.

In Gujarat, near Somnath at Veraval, Bhalka Tirth is revered as the place where Jara's arrow struck the Lord, and Dehotsarg, on the bank of the Hiran river near the Triveni Sangam, is revered as the place of his departure.

This final leela teaches forgiveness and surrender, and the truth that the Lord is eternal. He departs only from our sight, never from the hearts of his devotees.

Source

Mahabharata, Mausala Parva; Shrimad Bhagavatam, Canto 11, ch. 30–31

Place

Prabhasa (Bhalka Tirth and Dehotsarg, near Somnath, Gujarat) – Dwarka

Lesson

The Lord forgives even the one who wounds him; he is eternal and never leaves the hearts of his devotees.