Shloka 8
The Curse on the Yadus Begins: Kṛṣṇa’s Plan to Withdraw His Dynasty
श्रीराजोवाच ब्रह्मण्यानां वदान्यानां नित्यं वृद्धोपसेविनाम् । विप्रशाप: कथमभूद् वृष्णीनां कृष्णचेतसाम् ॥ ८ ॥
śrī-rājovāca brahmaṇyānāṁ vadānyānāṁ nityaṁ vṛddhopasevinām vipra-śāpaḥ katham abhūd vṛṣṇīnāṁ kṛṣṇa-cetasām
ဘုရင် ပရိက္ခစ် မေးမြန်းသည်—ဗြာဟ္မဏများကို အမြဲလေးစား၍ သဒ္ဓါတရားဖြင့် လှူဒါန်းတတ်ကာ အကြီးအကဲနှင့် မဟာပုဂ္ဂိုလ်တို့ကို နిత్యంဝန်ဆောင်ပြီး စိတ်သည် သီရိကృష్ణ၌ အမြဲလုံးဝလိမ္မာနေသော ဝೃષ્ણိတို့အပေါ် ဗြာဟ္မဏ၏ ကျိန်စာသည် မည်သို့ ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာသနည်း?
Brāhmaṇas generally become angry at persons who disrespect the brahminical class, who are uncharitable and who decline to serve senior, respectable personalities. The Vṛṣṇis, however, were not like that, and thus they are described here by King Parīkṣit as brahmaṇyānām, or sincere followers of brahminical culture. Further, even if the brāhmaṇas became angry, why would they curse members of Kṛṣṇa’s own family? Since the brāhmaṇas were well learned, they must have known that it is offensive to oppose personal associates of the Supreme Lord. The Yadu dynasty is specifically described here as vṛṣnīnām and kṛṣṇa-cetasām. In other words, they were Lord Kṛṣṇa’s own men, and they were always absorbed in thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, even if somehow or other the brāhmaṇas had cursed them, how could that curse have had any effect? These are the questions of Parīkṣit Mahārāja.
FAQs
Parīkṣit raises this doubt because the Vṛṣṇis were known for Brahminical respect, charity, and service to elders; the verse highlights the apparent contradiction that sets up the narrative explanation of how the curse unfolded.
He asks to understand the cause behind the brāhmaṇas’ curse on the Vṛṣṇis, since their conduct and Kṛṣṇa-centered consciousness seemed to make them unlikely recipients of such a reaction.
Even with devotion, one should remain vigilant about humility and proper conduct toward elders and saintly persons, and seek to understand life’s reversals through the lens of dharma and divine arrangement.