Canto & Chapters
General History (31 Chapters)
Chapter 120v
The Curse upon the Yadu Dynasty
Chapter 254v
Mahārāja Nimi Meets the Nine Yogendras
Chapter 352v
Liberation from the Illusory Energy
Chapter 423v
Drumila Explains the Incarnations of Godhead to King Nimi
Chapter 549v
Nārada Concludes His Teachings to Vasudeva
Chapter 644v
The Yadu Dynasty Retires to Prabhāsa
Chapter 772v
Lord Kṛṣṇa Instructs Uddhava
Chapter 843v
The Story of Piṅgalā
Chapter 932v
Detachment from All that Is Material
Chapter 1032v
The Nature of Fruitive Activity
Chapter 1134v
The Symptoms of Conditioned and Liberated Living Entities
Chapter 1218v
Beyond Renunciation and Knowledge
Chapter 1341v
The Haṁsa-avatāra Answers the Questions of the Sons of Brahmā
Chapter 1437v
Lord Kṛṣṇa Explains the Yoga System to Śrī Uddhava
Chapter 1533v
Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Description of Mystic Yoga Perfections
Chapter 1644v
The Lord’s Opulence
Chapter 1754v
Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Description of the Varṇāśrama System
Chapter 1847v
Description of Varṇāśrama-dharma
Chapter 1927v
The Perfection of Spiritual Knowledge
Chapter 2035v
Pure Devotional Service Surpasses Knowledge and Detachment
Chapter 2139v
Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Explanation of the Vedic Path
Chapter 2256v
Enumeration of the Elements of Material Creation
Chapter 2359v
The Song of the Avantī Brāhmaṇa
Chapter 2424v
The Philosophy of Sāṅkhya
Chapter 2533v
The Three Modes of Nature and Beyond
Chapter 2634v
The Aila-gītā
Chapter 2748v
Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Instructions on the Process of Deity Worship
Chapter 2843v
Jñāna-yoga
Chapter 2945v
Bhakti-yoga
Chapter 3046v
The Disappearance of the Yadu Dynasty
Chapter 3126v
The Disappearance of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa
Canto 11, Chapter 1

The Curse upon the Yadu Dynasty

Verse 4 (SB 11.1.4)
SB 11.1.4 • मूल श्लोक

नैवान्यत: परिभवोऽस्य भवेत् कथञ्चिन् मत्संश्रयस्य विभवोन्नहनस्य नित्यम् । अन्त:कलिं यदुकुलस्य विधाय वेणु- स्तम्बस्य वह्निमिव शान्तिमुपैमि धाम ॥ ४ ॥

Transliteration

naivānyataḥ paribhavo ’sya bhavet kathañcin mat-saṁśrayasya vibhavonnahanasya nityam antaḥ kaliṁ yadu-kulasya vidhāya veṇu- stambasya vahnim iva śāntim upaimi dhāma

Synonyms (Word-for-Word)

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.

Translation

“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.””

Bhaktivedanta Purport

By Śrīla Prabhupāda
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.