Makaranda Madhukar Anand Mahendale Festshrift

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 62

The Justification of Krsna's Annihilation of His Own Clan
judgement and drink liquor due to fate (11.30.12; see also GS, SS on 11.30.12), the commentators point out that this fate is another name for the wish of the Lord (JG (Ks), RR, VD, VJ, VR on 11.30.12).
Thus, the BhP, too, places the problem before us. However, it goes further than the ViP in attempting to exonerate Krsna. And the commentators, who come much later, go still further than the BhP. Let us now discuss the justifications offered by the BhP and its commentators.
1. The Yādavas are wicked and a burden to the earth
While both the ViP (5.37.21-22) and the BhP (11.1.3) mention that the Yādavas have become a burden to the earth, it is only the latter (11.1.3. 4; 11.6.29-30; 11.30.24) that gives reasons why they are a burden to the earth, thus demonstrating that Krsna is not annihilating them merely out of whim : the Yādavas have become proud due to their strength, bravery and wealth, so that once Krsna leaves the earth, no one will be able to restrain them from overrunning and destroying the world. They were intoxicated and blinded with liquor (11.30.13, 17) and angry due to jealousy (11.30.24). The commentators heartily endorse the text's criticism of the Yādavas. So these faults, which make them an unbearable burden to the earth, indicate that they deserve to be wiped out from the face of the earth.
Although Krsna restrains them from killing one another, the Yādavas attack Krsna and Balarāma (11.30.21), and so it is all right for Krsna to retaliate. It should be observed that, both in the Mbh and in the Vip, Krsna tries to stop them but the Yādavas do not attack Krsna himself in these two texts. In the BhP, however, they do so, thus making them more culpable and justifying Krsna's reaction all the more.
2. Krsna destroys the Yādavas as an act of grace to prevent them from sinning
Contrary to the above reason, some of the commentators, basing themselves on the question of King Parīkşita in 11.1.8, portray the Yādavas as religious people, pious and generous and at the service of the aged, so that it could be said that it would indeed be a blessing if they were to spread all over the earth (JG(Ks), VD on 11.6.30). The burden of the earth is not