Krishna avatar, celebrated as the most fascinating and eventful one, has left a tremendous imprint on posterity. It is held that the Supreme Lord descends on earth as Krishna to relieve Goddess Earth of the increasing burden on her. He chooses to be born in the Yadava race and lives as part of them with ease and familiarity. He reduces the earth’s burden to a certain extent by killing the many asuras who had been harassing people as rulers and also the many kings who had fought in the Mahabharata war. He then decides that the avatar has to come to an end and that the Yadava clan also should be destroyed before He departs. To provide a reason for this, He plans the event of the iron pestle and the curse of some rishis.
Though the Lord’s incarnations are the manifestations of His leelas born of His Sankalpa and not on account of karma as is the case with all beings, He subjects Himself to be a part of the curse, pointed out Sri K. Srinivasan in a discourse. By abiding by the curse, He establishes to the world that His word is Supreme and that a lawmaker cannot be a law breaker. For, though He is capable of counteracting the effects of the curse, He does not do so.
The Yadava youth play a prank on the rishis and are cursed that they would be destroyed by the iron pestle. Following the advice of king Ugrasena, the pestle is powdered and thrown into the sea.
The particles that are washed ashore grow into wild grass and the Yadavas destroy themselves with this in a fight amongst themselves. One small bit is swallowed by a fish that is later caught by a fisherman. He fixes it to the tip of his arrow and it provides the excuse for Krishna’s exit from this world.