Text 16

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī gives the following elaborate commentary on this section of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:

Concerning the killing of Dantavakra, the Uttara-khaṇḍa (279) of the Padma Purāṇa contains further details in the following prose passage: atha śiśupālaṁ nihataṁ śrutvā dantavakraḥ kṛṣṇena saha yoddhuṁ mathurām ājagāma. kṛṣṇas tu tac chrutvā ratham āruhya mathurām āyayau. “Then, hearing that Śiśupāla had been killed, Dantavakra went to Mathurā to fight against Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa, moreover, heard of this, He mounted His chariot and went to Mathurā.”

Tayor dantavakra-vāsudevayor aho-rātraṁ mathurā-dvāri saṅgrāmaḥ samavartata; kṛṣṇas tu gadayā taṁ jaghāna; sa tu cūrṇita-sarvāṅgo vajra-nirbhinno mahīdhara iva gatāsur avani-tale nipapāta; so ’pi hareḥ sārūpyeṇa yogi-gamyaṁ nityānanda-sukha-daṁ śāśvataṁ paramaṁ padam avāpa: “Between the two of them — Dantavakra and Lord Vāsudeva — there then began a battle at the gate of Mathurā that lasted all day and night. Finally Kṛṣṇa struck Dantavakra with His club, at which point Dantavakra fell lifeless to the ground, all his limbs smashed like a mountain shattered by a lightning bolt. Dantavakra achieved the liberation of gaining a form equal to the Lord’s, and thus he also achieved the Lord’s eternal, supreme abode, attainable by perfect yogīs, which bestows the happiness of everlasting spiritual bliss.”

Itthaṁ jaya-vijayau sanakādi-śāpa-vyājena kevalaṁ bhagavato līlārthaṁ saṁsṛtāv avatīrya janma-traye ’pi tenaiva nihatau janma-trayāvasāne muktim avāptau: “So it was that Jaya and Vijaya — apparently because of being cursed by Sanaka and his brothers but actually to facilitate the Supreme Lord’s pastimes — descended to this material world and in three consecutive lifetimes were killed by the Lord Himself. Then, at the completion of these three lifetimes, they attained liberation.”

In this passage of the Padma Purāṇa the words kṛṣṇas tu tac chrutvā, “when Kṛṣṇa heard of this,” indicate that the Lord heard from Nārada, who travels as swiftly as the mind, that Dantavakra had gone to Mathurā. Therefore immediately after killing Śālva, without first entering Dvārakā, the Lord reached the vicinity of Mathurā in a single moment on His chariot, which also moves as swiftly as the mind, and there He saw Dantavakra. Thus it is that even today, by the gate of Mathurā facing the direction of Dvārakā, there is a village known in the vernacular as Datihā, a name derived from the Sanskrit dantavakra-ha, “killer of Dantavakra.” This village was founded by Kṛṣṇa’s great-grandson Vajra.

In the same section of the Padma Purāṇa, these statements follow: kṛṣṇo ’pi taṁ hatvā yamunām uttīrya nanda-vrajaṁ gatvā sotkaṇṭhau pitarāv abhivādyāśvāsya tābhyāṁ sāśru-sekam āliṅgitaḥ sakala-gopa-vṛddhān praṇamya bahu-vastrābharaṇādibhis tatra-sthān santarpayām āsa. “And after killing him [Vidūratha], Kṛṣṇa crossed the Yamunā and went to the cowherd village of Nanda, where He honored and consoled His aggrieved parents. They drenched Him with tears and embraced Him, and then the Lord offered obeisances to the elder cowherd men and gratified all the residents with abundant gifts of clothing, ornaments and so on.”

“Lord Keśava sported continuously with the cowherd women on the Kālindī’s charming bank, which was filled with pious trees. Thus the Supreme Lord, assuming the appearance of a cowherd, resided there for two months, enjoying the pleasure of intimate pastimes in various moods of loving reciprocation.”

Atha tatra-sthā nanda-gopādayaḥ sarve janāḥ putra-dārādi-sahitā vāsudeva-prasādena divya-rūpa-dharā vimānam ārūḍhāḥ paramaṁ vaikuṇṭha-lokam avāpuḥ; kṛṣṇas tu nanda-gopa-vrajaukasāṁ sarveṣāṁ nirāmayaṁ sva-padaṁ dattvā divi deva-gaṇaiḥ saṁstūyamāno dvāravatīṁ viveśa: “Then, by Lord Vāsudeva’s grace, Nanda and all the other residents of that place, together with their children and wives, assumed their eternal, spiritual forms, boarded a celestial airplane and ascended to the supreme Vaikuṇṭha planet [Goloka Vṛndāvana]. Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, after bestowing on Nanda Gopa and all the other inhabitants of Vraja His own transcendental abode, which is free of all disease, traveled through the sky and returned to Dvārakā as demigods chanted His praises.”

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī comments as follows on this passage in his Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta (1.488-89):

“Since Droṇa and other demigods had previously descended to earth to merge as partial expansions into the King of Vraja and other devotees of Vṛndāvana, at this time it was these demigod expansions whom Lord Kṛṣṇa sent off to Vaikuṇṭha. Lord Hari is perpetually enjoying pastimes in Vṛndāvana with His intimate devotees, the residents of Gokula, who are dearer to Him than even His most dear other devotees.”

In the passage of the Padma Purāṇa, the word putra in the phrase nanda-gopādayaḥ sarve janāḥ putra-dārādi-sahitāḥ (“Nanda Gopa and the others, together with their children and wives”) refers to such sons as Kṛṣṇa, Śrīdāmā and Subala, while the word dāra refers to such wives as Śrī Yaśodā and Kīrtidā, the mother of Rādhārāṇī. The phrase sarve janāḥ (“all the people”) refers to everyone living in the district of Vraja. Thus they all went to the topmost Vaikuṇṭha planet, Goloka. The phrase divya-rūpa-dharāḥ indicates that in Goloka they engage in pastimes appropriate to demigods, not those suited to humans, as in Gokula. Just as during Lord Rāmacandra’s incarnation the residents of Ayodhyā were transported to Vaikuṇṭha in their selfsame bodies, so in this incarnation of Kṛṣṇa the residents of Vraja attained to Goloka in theirs.

Lord Kṛṣṇa’s journey from Dvārakā to Vraja is confirmed by the following passage of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.11.9): yarhy ambujākṣāpasasāra bho bhavān kurūn madhūn vātha suhṛd-didṛkṣayā/ tatrābda-koṭi-pratimaḥ kṣaṇo bhavet. “O lotus-eyed Lord, whenever You go away to Mathurā, Vṛndāvana or Hastināpura to meet Your friends and relatives, every moment of Your absence seems like a million years.” Lord Kṛṣṇa had been harboring a desire to go see His friends and relatives in Vraja ever since Lord Baladeva had gone there, but His mother, father and other elders in Dvārakā had refused to give Him permission. Now, however, after the killing of Śālva, when Kṛṣṇa heard from Nārada that Dantavakra had gone to Mathurā, no one could object to the Lord’s going there immediately without first entering Dvārakā. And after killing Dantavakra, He would have the opportunity to meet with His friends and relatives living in Vraja.

Thinking like this, and also remembering Uddhava’s allusion to the gopīs in the words gāyanti te viśada-karma (Bhāg. 10.71.9), He went to Vraja, dispelling the feelings of separation of the inhabitants. For two months Lord Kṛṣṇa enjoyed in Vṛndāvana just as before, previous to His leaving there to kill Kaṁsa in Mathurā. Then, at the end of two months, He withdrew His Vraja pastimes from mundane eyes by taking the demigod portions of His parents and other relatives and friends to Vaikuṇṭha. Thus, in one complete plenary manifestation He went to Goloka in the spiritual world, in another He remained perpetually enjoying in Vraja while invisible to material eyes, and in yet another He mounted His chariot and returned alone to Dvārakā. The people of Śaurasena province thought that after killing Dantavakra Kṛṣṇa had paid a visit to His parents and other dear ones and now was returning to Dvārakā. The people of Vraja, on the other hand, could not understand where He had suddenly disappeared to, and so they were totally astonished.

Furthermore, Śukadeva considered that Parīkṣit Mahārāja might think, “How is it that the same Kṛṣṇa who caused the cowherds to attain Vaikuṇṭha in their selfsame bodies also caused the residents of Dvārakā to attain such an inauspicious condition in the course of His mauṣala-līlā?” Thus the King might consider the arrangement unfair because of his own affinity for the Yadus. That is why Śukadeva Gosvāmī did not allow him to hear this pastime, which, as mentioned above, is related in the Uttara-khaṇḍa of Śrī Padma Purāṇa.

In Śrī Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī, Sanātana Gosvāmī’s commentary on the Tenth Canto, we find the following sequential list of pastimes: First was the journey on the occasion of the solar eclipse, then the Rājasūya assembly, then the gambling match and attempted disrobing of Draupadī, then the Pāṇḍavas’ exile to the forest, then the killing of Śālva and Dantavakra, then Kṛṣṇa’s visit to Vṛndāvana, and finally the winding up of the Vṛndāvana pastimes.