The Bhagavad-Gita is possibly the most read book in the history of humanity. It was spoken by Sri Krsna to Arjuna, right before the beginning of the Kurukshetra war, 5154 years ago, and recorded by the celebrated sage Vyasadeva, who also compiled other books that comprise the Vedic literature.
Originally written on palm leaves, the Bhagavad-Gita was carefully passed generation to generation, inspiring many philosophers, sages, great thinkers, and also normal people, like you and me, helping all to find a solution for their life problems and attain transcendence.
In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krsna surprisingly tells Arjuna to fight in the battle, fulfilling his duty as a Ksatriya, by fighting for the right cause and defending the principles of dharma, instead of going to the forest and living as a beggar. We have the tendency of wanting to leave everything when things become difficult, but the Bhagavad-Gita gives us the correct perspective about what to do in difficult situations.
The Gita ends with Arjuna reinvigorated, free from doubt and determined to fight, and Sanjaya concluding that “Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality.”
But, what happened after this? What happened with the Pandavas, and the Kurus? Who won the battle? How do these events connect with known history?
After the Bhagavad-Gita was spoken, the Kurukshetra war began. It was a very difficult battle for the Pandavas that lasted for 18 days. As He promised, Krsna didn’t fight or interfere in the battle, but He helped the Pandavas as an advisor. It was due to the transcendental advice of Krsna that the Pandavas were able to counter the cunning and dirty tactics of the Kurus and one by one defeat powerful generals, like Karna, Bhisma, Drona, and Duryodhana.
However, the price was high. By the end, practically only the five Pandavas survived.
As revealed in the Mahabharata, the Kurukshetra war was a cosmic battle. The Devas, higher beings that live in the upper planets supported the Pandavas, while the demons, inhabitants of the lower planetary systems supported the Kurus. Being in the frontier between the two spheres, our planet is frequently a stage for battles between the two groups. If you think our planet is in a bad situation now, you could just imagine what would happen if the Kurus had won…
After the battle ended, Maharaja Yudhisthira was installed on the throne and reigned with the assistance of his brothers. He executed great sacrifices for bringing auspiciousness to all and the earth flourished under this rein.
However, 36 years later, having finished His pastimes, Krsna decides to leave this planet, and go to another universe. Just as the Sun rises and sets, Krsna appears in one universe, executes his pastimes, and then moves to the next, just as the sun sets in one place at the same time it rises in another. At every Kalpa, each cycle of creation and destruction, Krsna appears one time in each universe. How He can be present in different universes and at the same time remain present in the transcendental realm is a great mystery that we will approach in a future article.
To bewilder the atheists, Krsna used the pretext of a great fight between the members of his family, the Yadavas, to withdraw the whole dynasty. All his eternal associates moved with Him to the next universe, while the demigods of this particular universe (who had taken birth in the family to participate in Krsna’s activities) returned to their respective planets. Krsna’s city, Dwaraka, was then immediately swallowed by the ocean and disappeared without a trace. This dramatic event created a strong impression in the collective imagination of all people at the time. The legend of the lost city of Atlantis is nothing more than a tentative way to explain these amazing events, from the perspective of ordinary mortals.
As soon as the Pandavas heard the news, they decided to also leave this world. Installing Pariksit, the grandson of Arjuna and the last surviving member of the dynasty on the throne, they accepted the renounced order of life and traveled to the Himalayas to practice austerities. Pariksit was the son of Abimanyu, the powerful teenager warrior, who held his own when attacked simultaneously by all the Kaurava generals, using the wheel of a chariot as a weapon.
Pariksit was an extraordinarily powerful king, and people were happy under his rule. However, by this time the age of kali or kali-yuga had already begun. Being the last cycle of the cosmic cycle of four eras, kali-yuga is not a very bright period for humanity. During this age, all virtue gradually diminishes and humanity descends into barbarism.
Pariksit tried to check the nefarious influence of kali-yuga to his best capacity, but he ended up being defeated when, by the influence of kali, Sringi, a brahmana boy cursed him to die in seven days, bitten by a snake. Leaving the throne for his son, Janamejaya, Pariksit used these last days to hear the Srimad Bhagavatam from Sukadeva Goswami, which brought another priceless treasure of knowledge, that is now widely available. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada stated that while the Bhagavad-Gita is the ABCD of spiritual knowledge, the Srimad Bhagavatam is the graduation and post-graduation.
The great Sage, Suta Goswami stated that: “This Bhāgavata Purāṇa is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord Kṛṣṇa to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, etc. Persons who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the age of Kali shall get light from this Purāṇa.”
By the end of the seven days, Pariksit was bitten by the snake and attained liberation, dying in the most beneficial circumstances: at the banks of the holy Ganges, surrounded by saintly persons and with his mind firmly situated in transcendence. Actually, it was a plot organized by Krsna Himself, so the saintly Pariksit could leave this world in the most glorious circumstances and join Him in the transcendental world.
After Pariksit left, the darkness of kali-yuga engulfed our planet. The saintly dynasty of the Pandavas gradually declined, with the kings governing progressively smaller tracts of land, gradually becoming limited to parts of the Indian subcontinent, and the rest of the planet becoming fragmented and descending into endless wars. Gradually, humanity lost its memory, forgetting about the grandiosity of the past, leading to the recent history.
However, there is hope. We are living in a small bubble in the midst of kali-yuga, an auspicious period that started 534 years ago and will continue for 9466 years more. During this period, the influence of kali-yuga diminishes and humanity will have the opportunity to evolve, both in an individual and collective way, with the possibility of a golden age manifesting. How soon this golden age will manifest and to which extent depends on us.