The End of the Yadava Clan

Gandhari's curse and the iron pestle born of the sages' curse at Pindaraka sowed the seed of the proud Yadavas' destruction. At Prabhasa they destroyed one another, while Krishna accepted all with calm detachment.

After the war, Gandhari, mother of the hundred Kauravas, came to the battlefield and wept for her sons. In her grief she turned to Shri Krishna and said that he could have prevented the war but did not. She cursed him: just as the Kuru family had destroyed itself, after thirty-six years his own Yadava clan would perish by fighting among themselves. Krishna heard her with a calm smile. He replied that he already knew this was to be, for the Yadavas had grown so mighty that no one but they themselves could overcome them.

Years passed in Dwarka in great prosperity, but pride crept into the hearts of the Yadava youth. Once some great sages were staying at Pindaraka, a holy place near Dwarka. As a joke, the young men dressed Samba, a son of Krishna, as a pregnant woman and asked the sages whether she would bear a son or a daughter. Seeing through the mockery, the sages declared that she would give birth to an iron pestle, a musala, which would destroy the whole clan. The Bhagavatam explains that this too happened by the will of the Lord.

An iron pestle indeed came out from Samba's garments. Frightened, the Yadavas had it ground to powder and cast it into the sea at Prabhasa. The powder washed ashore and grew into tall eraka reeds. One last piece that could not be ground was swallowed by a fish; a fisherman found it, and the hunter Jara made it into the tip of his arrow.

Before the end, Krishna gave his dear devotee Uddhava the profound teaching found in the Eleventh Canto, known as the Uddhava Gita, on detachment, devotion and seeing the one Self in all beings, and sent him to Badarikashrama.

When ill omens appeared, Krishna led the Yadavas to Prabhasa on pilgrimage. There, under the influence of strong drink, they quarrelled over old matters and began to fight. Pulling up the eraka reeds, which became hard as iron in their hands, they destroyed one another. Krishna watched without grief. He knew that the burden of the earth had to be fully lifted, and that his own clan had grown too proud to remain.

This leela teaches that pride can ruin even the greatest families, and that the wise accept the turning of time with calm detachment, as the Lord himself did.

Source

Mahabharata, Stri Parva and Mausala Parva; Shrimad Bhagavatam, Canto 11, ch. 1 and 30

Place

Kurukshetra – Dwarka – Pindaraka – Prabhasa

Lesson

Pride can ruin even the greatest families; the wise meet the turning of time with calm detachment.