In the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, it is described that Arjuna went to visit Krsna in Dvaraka, to see Krsna and learn about the next activities of the Lord. Chronologically, this happened a few months before the visit of Vidhura and the liberation of Drtarastra. However, as several months passed without Arjuna returning, Maharaja Yudhisthira became increasingly concerned. He started observing many inauspicious signs, as described in chapter 14.

He noticed irregularities in the climate and observed that people became greedy, angry, and deceitful, adopting dishonest means of livelihood. There was cheating even in dealings between friends, and quarreling even between husbands and wives.

There were symptoms of the age of Kali that started becoming manifest. There was no question of such symptoms appearing while Krsna was still on the planet, therefore he started fearing that the Lord may have already left.

“The calves do not suck the teats of the cows, nor do the cows give milk. They are standing, crying, tears in their eyes, and the bulls take no pleasure in the pasturing grounds.
The Deities seem to be crying in the temple, lamenting and perspiring. They seem about to leave. All the cities, villages, towns, gardens, mines and hermitages are now devoid of beauty and bereft of all happiness. I do not know what sort of calamities are now awaiting us.
I think that all these earthly disturbances indicate some greater loss to the good fortune of the world. The world was fortunate to have been marked with the footprints of the lotus feet of the Lord. These signs indicate that this will no longer be.” (SB 1.14.19-21)

As Yudhisthira described to Bhima the terrible omens he was observing, Arjuna finally returned from Dvaraka. However, this was not the same Arjuna whom he knew. His dejection was unprecedented, his head was down, and tears glided from his eyes.

Seeing Arjuna in such a condition, Yudhisthira immediately remembered the words of Narada Muni, hinting at the imminent disappearance of the Lord. However, the simple idea that Krsna could have left was intolerable to him. Instead of confronting it, he started by asking about the well-being being various friends and relatives and continued by offering numerous possibilities for the despondency of Arjuna.

Was he disrespected while in Dvaraka?
Did he fail to give charity to someone who asked?
Had he neglected deserving living beings, such as brāhmaṇas, children, cows, women, or the diseased?
Did he fail to give protection to a deserving woman, or had become involved with some women of dubious character?
Had he lost a battle to someone inferior, or equal to him?
Did he commit some unpardonable mistake that is considered to be abominable?

After seeing that the reason was none of these, Yudhisthira was forced to confront the bitter truth. Not only Krsna had left the planet, but the whole Yadhu dynasty had disappeared without a trace.

“Or is it that you are feeling empty for all time because you might have lost your most intimate friend, Lord Kṛṣṇa? O my brother Arjuna, I can think of no other reason for your becoming so dejected.” (SB 1.14.44)

The disappearance of Krsna is a mysterious subject. We all understand that Krsna is God and that He is immortal, but at the same time there is a description of God “dying” and leaving this world after being hit in the foot by the arrow of the hunter Jara.

Mayavadis argue that Krsna is just like us. He is a part of the Brahman who accepts a material body, executes some activities, and later dies, relinquishing this material body and merging again into Brahman. That’s why their philosophy is called “Mayavada”, they mistakingly believe that when Krsna comes to this world He accepts a material body, a body made of Maya.

We as Vaishnavas, however, understand that Krsna has an eternal spiritual body. Different from us, Krsna’s body and Krsna’s soul are non-different. When Krsna comes in His different incarnations, He just changes His form, He doesn’t change His body. So, understanding that Krsna has a spiritual body, how can he “die”, after being hit by the arrow of a hunter?

The first reason is that when Krsna comes, He shows His pastimes in chronological order, so we can understand them. In this way, everything has a beginning (when Krsna is “born” in the prison house), and therefore everything needs to have an end, and that’s Krsna being hit by the arrow of the hunter and leaving after instructing Uddhava and Maitreya. It’s described that it is just like a magician, who can appear to “die” after being cut in half, drowned, or burned, although everything is just a trick and in the next moment he is alive and well. Krsna plays a pastime where He appears to “die” just to have an excuse to move to the next universe and continue His pastimes.

There is yet another reason, that is to give the atheists an excuse to reject the divinity of Krsna if they so desire. Krsna doesn’t want to force anyone to go back to the spiritual world. He gives us the Vedas and He even comes personally to show His pastimes, But He waits until we ourselves develop a desire to go back. Because of this, He always leaves some excuse for the atheist to not believe in Him. Devotees understand that his “dying” after being hit by the arrow of the hunter is just a play, but materialists who are just looking for an excuse to accuse Krsna of being an ordinary man get an excuse to do so.

Bhismadeva was the most powerful Ksatriya of his time. He fought on equal terms with Parasurama, who previously had annihilated the whole Ksatriya class 21 times. When Arjuna was fighting with him, Krsna was driving Arjuna’s chariot. Having feelings for Arjuna, Bhismadeva didn’t really want to injure him, and therefore he was aiming his arrows at Krsna, whom he understood would not be harmed by them. Krsna accepted these arrows of Bhismadeva as an offering and was not disturbed at all. For Krsna, these arrows were just like an offering of flowers in the temple. So, how can we accept the same Krsna who was hit in the chest by hundreds of arrows from the most powerful Ksatriya of the time without feeling any discomfort, could have died after being hit in the foot by the arrow of an ordinary hunter? Everything is just a play to justify Krsna’s disappearance from this world and to bewilder the atheists.

As Prabhupada mentions on his purport to SB 1.14.8: “Lord Kṛṣṇa as He is appears once every twenty-four hours of Brahmā’s time (or after a lapse of 8,640,000,000 solar years) in each and every universe, and all His transcendental pastimes are displayed in each and every universe in a routine spool. But in that routine spool the functions of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Lord Vāsudeva, etc., are complex problems for the layman. There is no difference between the Lord’s Self and the Lord’s transcendental body. The expansions execute differential activities. When the Lord, however, appears in His person as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, His other plenary portions also join in Him by His inconceivable potency called yogamāyā”

Different from pastimes of other incarnations, like Lord Nrshinhadeva or Varaha, when Krsna comes personally He plays the role of a human being, and thus performs human-like activities, like stealing butter or taking part in a battle, therefore His activities are very hard to understand. We can see that even great demigods like Indra or Brahma become bewildered. Brahma does not have any problem accepting the supremacy of Lord Vishnu, but when Krsna appeared personally he wanted to test to see if He was really the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

The whole Srimad Bhagavatam is dedicated to teaching us how to understand these pastimes in the proper light, and the pastimes that are described in the first canto are just a prelude to what is yet to come.