Vidhura returns and Dhṛtarāṣṭra leaves home - Srimad Bhagavatam #8

This is the 8th section of an in-depth course on the Srimad Bhagavatam we are conducting.
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In this part:
- The Birth of Parīkṣit Maharaja
- Vidhura returns and Dhṛtarāṣṭra leaves home
- The disappearance of Krsna
- A few months before the visit of Vidhura, Arjuna had gone to visit Krsna in Dvaraka, to see Krsna. Several months passed without him returning.
- Maharaja Yudhisthira became increasingly concerned. He started observing many inauspicious signs.
- There was no question of such symptoms appearing while Krsna was still on the planet, therefore he started fearing that the Lord may have already left.
- As Yudhisthira described to Bhima the terrible omens he was observing, Arjuna finally returned from Dvaraka. However, this was not the same Arjuna whom he knew. His dejection was unprecedented, his head was down, and tears glided from his eyes.
- Yudhisthira immediately remembered the words of Narada Muni, but the idea of Krsna leaving was intolerable. Instead of confronting it, he started by asking about the well-being being various friends and relatives and continued by offering numerous possibilities for the despondency of Arjuna. Was he disrespected while in Dvaraka? Did he become involved with some women of dubious character? Had he lost a battle to someone inferior, or equal to him?
- It was none of these. Yudhisthira was forced to confront the bitter truth. Not only Krsna had left the planet, but the whole Yadhu dynasty had disappeared without a trace.
- Mayavadis argue that Krsna is just like us. He accepts a material body, executes some activities, and later dies, relinquishing this material body and merging again into Brahman. However, we understand this is incorrect.
- Krsna has an eternal spiritual body. Krsna's body and Krsna's soul are non-different. When Krsna comes in His different incarnations, He just changes His form, He doesn't change His body.
- Krsna is like a magician, who can appear to "die" after being cut in half, drowned, or burned, although everything is just a trick. Krsna plays a pastime where He appears to "die" just to have an excuse to move to the next universe and continue His pastimes.
- This also gives the atheists an excuse to reject the divinity of Krsna if they so desire, preserving their free will.
- During the battle of Kuruksetra, Krsna was hit in the chest by hundreds of arrows from Bhismadeva, the most powerful Ksatriya of the time without feeling any discomfort. How could He die after being hit in the foot by the arrow of an ordinary hunter?
- In His original form, Krsna plays like a human being, bewildering even great demigods like Indra or Brahma.
. The whole Srimad Bhagavatam is dedicated to teaching us how to understand these pastimes in the proper light. The pastimes that are described in the first canto are just a prelude to what is yet to come.

[@markhill7743]

Thank you dear Caitanya Chandra Prabhu for these wonderful summaries of the glorious Shrimad Bhagavatam! One question... Did Pariksit Maharaja ever visit Shri Krishna in Kurukshetra like Arjuna did? And if not, why not? thanks in advance! y.s. MayapurCandra dasa 🙇🙏

[@CaitanyaChandraDasa]

I didn't hear anything about it. Pariksit was about 35 years old when Krsna left, but I don't remember any passage mentioning they met, curious as it seens

[@markhill7743]

@@CaitanyaChandraDasa thank you! 🙏