Shloka 13
यादवक्षयः, बलराम-निर्याणम्, कृष्णस्य उपसंहारः (प्रभासे विनाशः)
तद् अप्य् अम्बुनिधौ क्षिप्तं मत्स्यो जग्राह जालिभिः घातितस्योदरात् तस्य लुब्धो जग्राह तं जराः
tad apy ambunidhau kṣiptaṃ matsyo jagrāha jālibhiḥ ghātitasyodarāt tasya lubdho jagrāha taṃ jarāḥ
That too, cast into the ocean, was swallowed by a fish; when the fish was later caught in nets and slain, the hunter Jarā, driven by greed, took it from its belly.
Sage Parāśara (narrating to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: How the last piece of the musala survives and comes to Jarā
Teaching: Historical
Quality: revealing
Avatara: Krishna
Purpose: Krishna’s departure is prepared through a chain of seemingly ordinary causes, culminating in the hunter Jarā obtaining the fatal fragment.
Leela: Loka-rakshana
Dharma Restored: Completion of avatāra-līlā and withdrawal of the Lord’s manifest presence
Concept: Small motives like greed can become the hinge by which vast destinies turn, showing how karma uses ordinary agents.
Vedantic Theme: Karma
Application: Watch minor impulses (lobha) and cultivate mindfulness, since trivial choices can have outsized consequences.
Vishishtadvaita: The Lord’s superintendence harmonizes countless secondary causes (fish, nets, hunter) into a single providential outcome.
Vishnu Form: Hari
FAQs
It illustrates how destiny unfolds through ordinary events—an object discarded into the sea returns through a fish’s belly, becoming the instrument for a later, decisive turn in the story.
Through a tight narrative chain: an act (casting away) leads to an unseen sequence (swallowed, netted, killed), culminating in retrieval by Jarā—showing how consequences mature through time and circumstance.
Even when Vishnu is not named in the verse, the Purāṇic frame assumes a divinely ordered cosmos where outcomes arise within His sovereign governance—events appear incidental yet serve a larger providential design.