The disappearance of the Yadu dynasty

It was not possible for the Lord to leave the planet and leave behind all His associates. The eternal associates had to go with Him, while the demigods had to return to their posts.

One interesting detail about the disappearance of Krsna is the simultaneous disappearance of the Yadu dynasty. It was not possible for the Lord to leave the planet and leave behind all His associates. The eternal associates had to go with Him, while the demigods who had taken birth to join his pastimes had to go back to the celestial planets to continue their duties.

The pastime of the disappearance of the Yadu dynasty started with a few of the princes visiting a group of sages led by Narada Muni to play a practical joke. They dressed Sāmba as a woman with a false belly and asked the sages if the lady was pregnant with a boy or a girl. Inspired by the Lord inside the heart, the sages angrily answered: “Fools! She will bear you an iron club that will destroy your entire dynasty.”

When they checked under the clothes, they saw that the false belly had indeed transformed into an iron club. When they went back to Dvaraka and informed the elders about the club, they decided to ground it and throw the powder into the ocean to try to destoy the instrument by which the dynasty would be destroyed and thus escape the curse, but this powder was washed back to the shore, where it was deposited into a groove of bamboos that were growing there. As a result, these bamboos became as hard as metal. Later, they were used as weapons by the Yadus as they fought amongst themselves, putting an end to the dynasty.

As explained by Uddhava, only the Yadus who were incarnations of demigods participated in this pastime. The ones who were eternal associates remained in Dvaraka and followed the Lord to the next universe, where He went to perform his pastimes.

"Once upon a time, great sages were made angry by the sporting activities of the princely descendants of the Yadu and Bhoja dynasties, and thus, as desired by the Lord, the sages cursed them. A few months passed, and then, bewildered by Kṛṣṇa, all the descendants of Vṛṣṇi, Bhoja and Andhaka who were incarnations of demigods went to Prabhāsa, while those who were eternal devotees of the Lord did not leave but remained in Dvārakā." (SB 3.3.24-25)

The pastime of the Yadus fighting, putting an end to the dynasty, is also described by Uddhava. A few months after the curse, the Yadus, who were incarnations of demigods left Dvaraka with the purpose of executing a sacrifice. Being Kṣatriyas, they were allowed to drink on certain occasions, like after a sacrifice, but in this case, the drinking triggered the fulfillment of the curse, leading to the end of the dynasty:

"Thereafter, all of them [the descendants of Vṛṣṇi and Bhoja], being permitted by the brāhmaṇas, partook of the remnants of prasāda and also drank liquor made of rice. By drinking they all became delirious, and, bereft of knowledge, they touched the cores of each other’s hearts with harsh words. As by the friction of bamboos destruction takes place, so also, at sunset, by the interaction of the faults of intoxication, all their minds became unbalanced, and destruction took place." (SB 3.4.1-2)

After overseeing the end of the dynasty and thus sending the demigods back to their posts, the Lord went to the bank of the river Sarasvatī and sat down underneath a tree. Uddhava followed Him and was soon joined by Maitreya. These two great devotees were chosen by the Lord to receive His last instructions.

Speaking to Uddhava, the Lord remembered how in the past, at the beginning of the current day of Brahma, he had spoken the four original verses of the Srimad Bhagavatam to him, as mentioned in the second canto:

"O Uddhava, in the lotus millennium in the days of yore, at the beginning of the creation, I spoke unto Brahmā, who is situated on the lotus that grows out of My navel, about My transcendental glories, which the great sages describe as Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam." (3.4.13)

Uddhava then asked the Lord to describe this transcendental knowledge to him and Maitreya, and this led the Lord to speak the Uddhava Gita, registered in the 11th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam.

"My Lord, kindly explain to us, if You think us competent to receive it, that transcendental knowledge which gives enlightenment about Yourself and which You explained before to Brahmājī." (SB 3.4.18)

Uddhava received from the Lord the mission to stay on the planet after His disappearance and share this knowledge with the great sages living with Nara-Narayana Rsi in Badarikāśrama. The encounter between Vidhura and Uddhava happened when he was en route to the Himalayas to fulfill his mission.

Vidhura was very anxious to be instructed in transcendental knowledge by Uddhava, but he directed Vidhura to Maitreya, who was nearby and had also been instructed directly by the Lord. Although Uddhava was a pure devotee, Maitreya was senior in age, and Uddhava thus wanted to follow the general etiquette of not instructing others in the presence of a superior. In a higher sense, however, all happened under the inspiration of the Lord, who wanted Maitreya to share his knowledge with Vidhura, and Uddhava to continue his path to the Himalayas to fulfill his mission there.

Sukadeva Goswami thus ends this description of this passage with:

"O King, after thus discussing with Vidura the transcendental name, fame, qualities, etc., on the bank of the Yamunā, Uddhava was overwhelmed with great affliction. He passed the night as if it were a moment, and thereafter he went away." (SB 3.4.27)

He then revealed the mystery of the pastime of the disappearance of the Yadus:

"My dear King, the cursing of the brāhmaṇas was only a plea, but the actual fact was the supreme desire of the Lord. He wanted to disappear from the face of the earth after dispatching His excessively numerous family members." (SB 3.4.29)

Uddhava stayed because he was so qualified that the Lord wanted Him to stay as His representative:

"Now I shall leave the vision of this mundane world, and I see that Uddhava, the foremost of My devotees, is the only one who can be directly entrusted with knowledge about Me. Uddhava is not inferior to Me in any way because he is never affected by the modes of material nature. Therefore he may remain in this world in order to disseminate specific knowledge of the Personality of Godhead." (3.4.30-31)

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