"Where is the Lord"

Skandham-1.

 

Chapter-14.  

 

Slokam- 1 to 44. 

 

 

The Disappearance of Lord Krishna

 

 

 (1) Sûta said: "Arjuna went to the city of Dvârakâ to see his friends and Krishna, the One Glorified by the Vedic Hymns, in order to know what His further plans were. (2) After a few months, when Arjuna did not return from there, Yudhishthhira observed various fearful signs. (3) He saw a fearful reversal of the direction of eternal time, observed seasonal irregularities and saw that the people in their human sins turned to anger, greed and falsehood in heartening their means of livelihood. (4) There was cheating in ordinary transactions, deception mixed in the regard of well-wishers, fathers, mothers and brothers and also between man and wife there was quarrel. (5) As the king saw how in the course of time the people were acquiring godless habits as wantonness and such, spoke he, facing these serious causes and bad omens, to his younger brother.

 

 

 (6) Yudhishthhira said [to Bhîma]: 'Arjuna went to see his friends and wanted to know what Krishna has planned to do. (7) It is now seven months that your younger brother is gone, o Bhîmasena, for reasons I do not factually know. (8) Is it so, as Nârada instructed, that the time has arrived that the Supreme Personality will quit from the manifestation out of His own will? (9) From Him we have our wealth, kingdom and wives - through Him the existence of the dynasty and the life of our subjects has become possible and by His mercy we could defeat our enemies and live for a better world. (10) Just look, o man with the strength of a tiger, at the position of the planets, how things are going on earth and what is happening to the body and the mind; all these signs, that threaten to delude our intelligence, indicate a great danger in the near future. (11) Again and again my thighs, eyes, arms and the left of my body are quivering and I have heart palpitations due to fear. This is all indicative of undesirable happenings. (12) See, o Bhîma, how the jackal cries to the rising sun with a face full of fire and how the dog barks at me without any fear. (13) O tiger among man, cows keep me on their left and asses and such are turning around me while my horses seem to weep. (14) The pigeon appears like a messenger of death and the shrieks of the owls and their rivals the crows make my heart tremble as if they wish the void of the cosmos. (15) O Bhîma, see how smoke circles in the sky and how the earth is throbbing along with the hills and mountains with loud thunderbolts out of the blue of a cloudless sky. (16) The wind blows sharply creating darkness with the dust and rain pours like blood from the clouds as an omnipresent disaster. (17) The sun is shining less - see how the stars in the sky seem to clash into one another and how the living beings are confused and agitated as if they are crying. (18) Rivers and their tributaries, lakes and the mind are all perturbed while with the help of butter the fire doesn't ignite - what is this extraordinary time? What is going to happen? (19) The calves don't suck the teats and the cows don't want to be milked looking afraid as if weeping while the bulls don't take pleasure in the pasture ground. (20) The deities seem to be crying and perspiring as if they want to leave the temple and also the cities, villages, towns, gardens, mines and hermitages have lost their beauty, bereft of all happiness - what sort of calamities shall manifest to us? (21) I think that all these great upsurges manifest out of the need for the marks of the lotusfeet of the Supreme Personality - the earth bereft of the extraordinary of the Supreme Person will be unfortunate without those auspicious signs.

 

 

 (22) O learned one, while King Yudhishthhira, observing the bad omens, was thus thinking to himself, Arjuna returned from the kingdom of the Yadus. (23) While he bowed at the feet of the king his dejection was unprecedented with tears falling from the lotus eyes of his downward face. (24) Seeing the anxious heart and pale appearance of Arjuna, the king, remembering what Nârada had said, questioned him in the midst of friends. (25) Yudhishthhira said: 'Are our relatives Madhu, Bhoja, Das'ârha, Ârha, Sâtvata, and Andhaka of the Yadus all happy passing their days in Dvârakâ? (26) Is my respectable [maternal] grandfather S'ûrasena all good in passing his last days and are my [maternal] uncle Vasudeva and his younger brothers all well? (27) Are my aunts, his wives, all seven sisters headed by Devakî in person, with their sons and daughters-in-law all happy? (28) Are King Ugrasena, whose son was the mischievous one [Kamsa], and his younger brother, Hridîka and his son Kritavarmâ and Akrûra, Jayanta, Gada, Sârana and heading S'atrujit all happy? Is also the Supreme Personality Balarâma, who is the protector of the devotees, all right? (30) Are the great warrior Pradyumna [a son of Krishna] and all others of the Vrishni family happy - and is the plenary expansion of Krishna Aniruddha [a grandson of Krishna] faring well? (31) And how are Sushena, Cârudeshna and Sâmba, the son of Jâmbavatî, and others - the chieftain sons of Krishna and their sons doing? (32-33) And are likewise the constant companions of Krishna like S'rutadeva, Uddhava and others, Sunanda, Nanda and other leaders - are all of them and other liberated souls, who are the best of men, doing well? And are all who are bound in friendship under the protection of Balarâma and Krishna also remembering our well-being? (34) Does the Supreme Lord, who is the pleasure of the cows and the senses and always cares for the devoted and the brahmins [the ones verse in sacred knowledge], enjoy the pious assembly of His friends around Him in Dvârakâ? (35-36) For the protection and elevation of the good of all and all their worlds there, in the ocean of the Yadu dynasty, is the Original, Supreme Enjoyer in the company of Ananta [Balarâma], whose family members in His own city are protected by His arms as they deserve, relishing the transcendental pleasure like the residents of heaven. (37) By most importantly managing the comforts at the feet, the sixteen thousand companions of the fair sex headed by Satyabhâmâ made the Lord subdue the denizens of heaven, so that they, as the wives of the Controller of the thunderbolt, could enjoy what is normally the privilege of the demigods. (38) The Yadus, living in the prosperity of His arms, always fearlessly tread the Sudharmâ assembly hall that, procured by force [from Indra], was worthy of the best of gods'.

 

 

 

 (39)'My dear brother, are you all healthy? It appears to me that you have lost your luster. Is it because of missing the respect being neglected or, my brother, because you were away so long? (40) Weren't you able because you were addressed unfriendly or threatened, or couldn't you give in charity or keep to the hope of doing so? (41) Couldn't you, being approached for the protection of the learned ones, the children, the cows, the old aged, the diseased and the women, give shelter to any living being deserving your care? (42) Did you contact a reprehensible woman or have you improperly treated an acceptable woman, or has your good self on the road been defeated after all by a superior power or by equals? (43) Did you leave aside old men or boys deserving to dine with you together or did you do something abominable which is unpardonable? (44) Or is it that to the most dear one, my brother Arjuna, your hearts friend Lord S'rî Krishna, you feel a void missing Him all the time? I can think of no other reason why you should be in such mental distress'."