How does it end for Krishna after the Kurukshetra war? | Untold stories from the Mahabharata
Most of us are aware about the major storyline of the Mahabharata - who were the Kauravas and Pandavas, the continued enmity between the cousins and how the Kurukshetra war vanquished some and made some other victorious. But what happened to Krishna, the mastermind strategist and a crucial character in the epic after the war ended? Let's find out that in detail in this post...
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Mother of the Kauravas, Gandhari believed that had the all powerful Krishna wanted, he could have easily ended the terrible Kurukshetra war. But he did not do so and the war eventually led to the deaths of her sons. Considering Krishna to be at fault, she cursed Krishna that his entire Yadava lineage would too meet its end by killing each other, similar to way the Kuru clan ended up killing each other.
Thirty six years after this incident, during some festivities, a drunken brawl broke out amongst the inebriated Yadava men, that soon became a big fight and ended with them killing one another.
Balarama, disgusted with the behaviour of his men, left the palace to give up his mortal body. Krishna too knew that he had fullfilled the goal for which he had taken birth on earth and it was time to go. So he left for the forest to perform penance and give up his mortal body. At that moment, a hunter named Jara was hunting there.
Through a small clearing in the dense jungle, he saw the soft pink ankle of Krishna, which he mistook for a deer. He aimed his arrow at it which proved fatal for Krishna.
Interestingly, Jara was the king Bali in his previous birth, who was killed by Rama (Krishna's previous birth) from behind.