Hare Krsna,
Krsna’s eternal pastimes, especially His appearance and disappearance, are very difficult to understand. “Kṛṣṇa appears and disappears in innumerable universes, just as the sun appears and disappears during the day. Although the sun appears to rise and set, it is continuously shining somewhere on the earth. Similarly, although Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes seem to appear and disappear, they are continuously existing in one brahmāṇḍa (universe) or another. Thus, all of Kṛṣṇa’s līlās are present simultaneously throughout the innumerable universes. By our limited senses we cannot appreciate this; therefore, Kṛṣṇa’s eternal pastimes are very difficult for us to understand.” (CC Madhya 20.397 P)
To someone who is not so well-versed with Krsna philosophy, it is really bewildering to understand His activities. His annihilation of the Yadu dynasty before His disappearance may sound cruel and merciless to a neophyte. His appearance in a prison cell in Mathura and His subsequent escape to Vrindavana in the middle of the night may put a question mark on His Godly qualities. However, to a person well-trained in sastra and who has been practicing devotional service for some time, he/she could see Krsna’s sweetness and love in all these pastimes. Things may look different at a superficial level, but there is a deeper meaning underneath. It’s like pealing an onion. There are layers and layers of meaning in Krsna’s pastimes and activities. Therefore, we need to hear Krsna’s pastimes from bona-fide sources. Otherwise, we would be bewildered. If we understand that Krsna and His devotees are not subjected to the laws of material nature, we would be able to appreciate His appearance and disappearance pastimes. Krsna does everything out of His sweet will and to give pleasure to His devotees. His going to Gokula after birth is to give pleasure to Vrajavasis and especially to Mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaja.
As Krsna says in BG 4.7-9: “Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion – at that time I descend Myself. To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium. One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.“
Superficially Krsna appears to annihilate the demons and deliver the pious. But the truth is Krsna wants to reciprocate in loving exchange with His dear devotees. Before Krsna appeared, Lord Brahma heard an onem, “The Supreme Personality of Godhead would appear on the earth very soon along with His supreme powerful potencies, and as long as He remained on the earth planet to execute His mission of annihilating the demons and establishing the devotees, the demigods should also remain there to assist Him. They should all immediately take birth in the family of the Yadu dynasty, wherein the Lord would also appear in due course of time. The Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, Kṛṣṇa, would personally appear as the son of Vasudeva. Before His appearance, all the demigods, along with their wives, should appear in different pious families in the world just to assist the Lord in executing His mission.” (Krsna Book 1)
Therefore, we need to understand that most (if not all) members of the Yadu dynasty are the demigods who appeared on Krsna’s order. Subsequently, when it was time for Krsna to wind up His pastimes, He had to return the demigods to their respective abodes and duties. Thus, He devised a make-show brawl of a fight among themselves, kill each other, and return to where they came from. The following purport sums up Krsna’s purpose.
SB 3.3.15 P: “The Lord and His associates appear and disappear by the will of the Lord. They are not subjected to the laws of material nature. No one was able to kill the family of the Lord, nor was there any possibility of their natural death by the laws of nature. The only means, therefore, for their disappearance was the make-show of a fight amongst themselves, as if brawling in intoxication due to drinking. That so-called fighting would also take place by the will of the Lord; otherwise there would be no cause for their fighting. Just as Arjuna was made to be illusioned by family affection and thus the Bhagavad-gītā was spoken, so the Yadu dynasty was made to be intoxicated by the will of the Lord, and nothing more. The devotees and associates of the Lord are completely surrendered souls. Thus they are transcendental instruments in the hands of the Lord and can be used in any way the Lord desires. The pure devotees also enjoy such pastimes of the Lord because they want to see Him happy. Devotees of the Lord never assert independent individuality; on the contrary, they utilize their individuality in pursuit of the desires of the Lord, and this cooperation of the devotees with the Lord makes a perfect scene of the Lord’s pastimes.”
SB 1.3.35 P: The Supreme has nothing to do, but because He is omnipotent, everything is performed by Him naturally, as if done automatically. As a matter of fact, the appearance and disappearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His different activities are all confidential, even to the Vedic literatures. Yet they are displayed by the Lord to bestow mercy upon the conditioned souls. We should always take advantage of the narrations of the activities of the Lord, which are meditations on Brahman in the most convenient and palatable form.
SB 1.8.27 P: The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no direct connection with material activities. All His acts and deeds, which are exhibited even in this material world, are spiritual and without affection for the modes of material nature. In the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says that all His acts, even His appearance and disappearance in and out of the material world, are transcendental, and one who knows this perfectly shall not take his birth again in this material world, but will go back to Godhead.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Krsna Katha 