Text 4
naivānyataḥ paribhavo ’sya bhavet kathañcin
mat-saṁśrayasya vibhavonnahanasya nityam
antaḥ kaliṁ yadu-kulasya vidhāya veṇu-
stambasya vahnim iva śāntim upaimi dhāma
na — not; eva — certainly; anyataḥ — from another cause; paribhavaḥ — defeat; asya — of this (dynasty); bhavet — there can be; kathañcit — by any means; mat-saṁśrayasya — which has fully taken shelter of Me; vibhava — with its power; unnahanasya — unrestricted; nityam — always; antaḥ — within; kalim — a quarrel; yadu-kulasya — the Yadu dynasty; vidhāya — inspiring; veṇu-stambasya — of a clump of bamboo plants; vahnim — a fire; iva — as; śāntim — peace; upaimi — I shall achieve; dhāma — My eternal personal abode.
Lord Kṛṣṇa thought, “No outside force could ever bring about the defeat of this family, the Yadu dynasty, whose members have always been fully surrendered to Me and are unrestricted in their opulence. But if I inspire a quarrel within the dynasty, that quarrel will act just like a fire created from the friction of bamboo in a grove, and then I shall achieve My real purpose and return to My eternal abode.”
Even though Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted to arrange for the disappearance of the members of the Yadu dynasty, He could not personally kill them, as He had killed many demons, because the Yadu dynasty was His own family. One might ask why Lord Kṛṣṇa did not arrange for them to be killed by others. Therefore it is stated in this verse, naivānyataḥ paribhavo ’sya bhavet kathañcit: because the Yadu dynasty was the Lord’s own family, no one within the universe was capable of killing them, not even the demigods. In fact, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura points out that no one within the universe was capable of even insulting the members of the Yadu dynasty, what to speak of defeating or killing them. The reason is given here by the words mat-saṁśrayasya. The members of the Yadu dynasty had fully taken shelter of Kṛṣṇa, and therefore they were always under the personal protection of the Lord. It is stated, māre kṛṣṇa rākhe ke, rākhe kṛṣṇa māre ke: If Kṛṣṇa protects someone, no one can kill him, and if Kṛṣṇa wants to kill someone, no one can save him. Kṛṣṇa had originally requested all of His associates, along with the demigods, to appear on the earth to assist Him in His pastimes. Now that His pastimes were coming to an end on this particular planet and would be transferred to another planet in another universe, Kṛṣṇa wanted to remove all of His associates from the earth so that in His absence they would not constitute a burden. Since the powerful Yadu dynasty, being the Lord’s personal family and army, could not possibly be defeated by anyone, Kṛṣṇa arranged an internal quarrel, just as the wind in a bamboo forest sometimes rubs the bamboos together and creates a fire that consumes the entire forest.
Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī has pointed out that ordinary people, hearing of the adventures of the Yadu family, might think that the heroes of the Yadu dynasty are as worshipable as Kṛṣṇa or that they are independent controllers. In other words, people polluted by Māyāvāda philosophy might see the Yadu dynasty as being on the same level as Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, to establish that even the most powerful living entity can never equal or surpass the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa arranged for the destruction of the Yadu dynasty.