PASSING AWAY OF LORD KRISHNA -End of an Era

 Lord Krishna belonged to the royal family of the Yadus of Mathura, and was the eighth son ,born  to the princess Devaki and her husband Vasudeva, while they were in captivity in a prison cell in the custody of Kamsa. Mathura was the capital of the Yadavas, to which Krishna's parents Vasudeva and Devaki belonged. He lived on this Earth planet for 125 years from 1600 to 1475 BCE

Krishna tells Arjuna that as a warrior, it's his dharma to fight. He should not worry about death, which is only one small step in the great and endless cycle of life. One neither kills, nor is killed. The soul merely casts off old bodies and enters new ones, just as a person changes garments. Death is mere illusion (maya). This message has never lost its relevance, it is embodied in His philosophy of karma yoga, the principle of action. This is his transcendent legacy, - the Bhagavad-Gita, the greatest poem ever written. Its central message imparted to Arjuna at the climactic moment before the battle is well known and still worth  emulating. He was the savior of Draupadi when she was in distress. He was the greatest diplomat and strategist of his times. The Pandavas could not have won the war without his active support and tacity.

The end of Sri Krishna was somewhat unexpected. There was a calamitous internecine war in which almost the whole Vrishni clan had perished. Krishna had survived the holocaust and decided to spend the rest of his life in prayer and contemplation in the forest. While asleep in the forest (as is generally believed), a hunter by name ‘Jara’ accidentally shot him with an arrow, mistaking him for a deer. He realized his terrible mistake and begged Krishna’s forgiveness. Krishna, fatally wounded, forgave his assailant and gave up his life. 

This is only allegorical.  Interestingly, ‘jara’, in Sanskrit, signifies 'infirmity’, 'old age’, 'decay’  etc.; thus Krishna left for his heavenly abode as ordained by cosmic order and no one could dare shoot an arrow on him,  an ‘Incarnation of the Divine’

That was the end of the grandest figure perhaps in all of history, He is God incarnate to many, but for everyone the following words of Bhisma give a true measure of the man and his life:

Krishna is the greatest warrior and the greatest scholar. In the entire world it is not possible to find another man endowed with such an abundance of virtues. And yet he is modest, compassionate and generous… Where there is Krishna, there is victory. Victory is second nature with Krishna. It follows him like a shadow.

Krishna is worshipped as a god in India and there are thousands of temples dedicated to him all around  the country and  even abroad.

In the words of Sanjay, the loyal and noble minister in the Mahabharata:“Wherever there is Krishna, there is justice;  where there is justice there is victory” (Sanjay telling his monarch Dhritrashtra, -  Gita,18 ,78).