Text 1: Sūta said: The friend of Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna, was thus questioned by his brother, the king, because he presented himself as an object of worry. He had become thin because of separation from Kṛṣṇa.

Text* 2: Arjuna, his lotus heart and face dried up because of grief, with dull complexion, remembering the Lord, could not reply.

Text 3-4: Stopping with difficulty the tears and wiping his eyes with his hands, extremely pained by the increased longing of love due to separation, remembering the pure friendship with Kṛṣṇa, friendship mixed with servitude, and friendship mixed with parental feelings towards Kṛṣṇa, he spoke to the king with choked voice filled with tears.

Text 5: Arjuna said: O King! My friend the Lord has left me. He has taken with him my great power which astonished the devatās.

Text 6: Just as a dead person without life becomes repulsive, the world which is separated from Kṛṣṇa even for a moment appears repulsive.

Text 7: By taking shelter of him, I stole the power of the kings who had come to Drupada’s house for the svayaṁvara ceremony and were mad with lust, then pierced the fish with the strung bow and obtained Draupadī.

Text 8: In his company, I conquered with my strength Indra and the devatās, gave the Khāṇḍava forest to Agni, obtained the assembly hall of wonderful construction made by Maya, and presented it to you as a gift at the Rājasūya sacrifice where kings from all directions had assembled.

Text 9: By his strength, Bhīma, endowed with the strength and enthusiasm of ten thousand elephants, killed Jarasandha at whose feet kings surrendered for the purpose of the sacrifice, by which kings who had been taken prisoner for Jarāsandha’s sacrifice to Śiva were released, and brought gifts to your Rājasūya sacrifice.

Text 10: And Bhīma made widows of those whose rascal husbands in the assembly untied and pulled the hair bound up beautifully during the bathing ceremony at the Rājasūya sacrifice of your wife, whose tears fell on the feet of Kṛṣṇa.

Text 11: Kṛṣṇa, arriving at the forest and eating the remnants from the food pot, saved us from the scheme of our enemy in the form of Durvāsa who is difficult to overcome and who eats with ten thousand followers, because they felt completely satisfied while submerging themselves in the water.

Text 12: By his power, Śiva along with Parvatī became astonished at my prowess in fighting and gave me his own weapon; others also gave me their weapons; and in this body I sat on half of Indra’s throne in his hall.

Text 13: O descendent of Ājamīḍha! I have been abandoned by that great person, by whose power, while I was staying in Svarga, the devatās along with Indra took shelter of my strong arms holding the Gāṇḍiva bow for killing the Nivātakavacas.

Text 14: Having him as a relative, I alone crossed over the ocean of the Kuru’s strength, infinite in width, filled with formidable creatures, on my chariot, and took abundant wealth of cows and jeweled turbans, symbols of their power, from their head.

Text 15: O master! Situated in front of me as my charioteer, he stole by his glance the karma, minds, enthusiasm to fight, and ability to take up weapons of the mahārathas among the armies of Bhīṣma, Karṇa, Droṇa and Śalya decorated with an array of many royal chariots.

Text 16: Because I was in the shelter of his arms the weapons of unfailing power released by Droṇa, Bhīṣma, Karṇa, Bhūriśravā, Suśarmā, Śalya, Jayadratha, Valhlīka and others did not touch me, just as the weapons of the demons did not touch Prahlāda.

Text 17: I foolishly engaged as my charioteer the Llord, who gives life, whose feet are worshipped by the great souls aspiring for liberation, and by whose influence the enemies on chariots, losing concentration, could not strike me as I stood on the ground with thirsty horses.

Text 18: O King! On remembering Mādhava’s joking words, splendid with smiles, charm and eloquence, our conversations, which touched the heart, while he addressed me as “Pārtha, Arjuna, friend, joy of Kurus,” my heart becomes agitated.

Text 19: Because of our intimacy in sleeping, sitting, walking, boasting and eating, I would scold him, saying,”O friend! You are truthful!” Being exalted, by his greatness he tolerated the offenses of me, a fool, just as a father tolerates a son or a friend tolerates a friend.

Text 20: O best of kings! Without the Lord, my dear friend, companion, my mind being vacant, like a weakling, I was defeated by criminal cowherds while protecting his queens on the road.

Text 21: I, the warrior, and the bow, the arrows, the chariot and the horses which made kings bow to me, have become powerless in a moment without the Lord. They are as fruitless as sacrificing ghee into ashes, or as immaterial as getting an illusory gift from a magician, or as perishable as sowing seeds in salty earth.

Text 22-23: O King! Only four or five among our friends in Dvārakā remain. Drinking rice wine, by the curse of a brāhmaṇa they become bewildered, enraged in mind, and killed each other with handfuls of reeds as if not knowing each other.

Text 24: According to common vision only, the destruction of the Yadus occurred by the will of the Lord, because actually living beings themselves cause their own survival and destruction.

Text 25: Among the aquatics, the big eat the small and weak and those of equal strength or size can eat each other.

Text 26: The Lord in this way destroyed the Yadus, who became a burden on the earth, with strong Yadus killing other great Yadus.

Text 27: When I remember the words of Govinda which were suitable to place, time and subject, and which calmed the pain in my heart, those words break my heart.

Text 28: Sūta said: When Arjuna contemplated the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa with deep affection, his intelligence, regaining steadiness, became calm.

Text 29: Arjuna had his intelligence completely freed of all contaminations by intense bhakti which was completely filled with meditation on the feet of Vāsudeva.

Text 30: Arjuna again understood the knowledge sung by the Lord in the battlefield, which was not forgotten by the influence of time, action or darkness caused by separation from the Lord.

Text 31: By the wealth of friendship with Kṛṣṇa he destroyed his lamentation. He vanquished all doubts about separation from the Lord. Since he was beyond the guṇas by his nature though difficult to perceive, and therefore was without a subtle body, he had no birth in the material world.

Text 32: Hearing the arrangements of the Lord and the proper situation of the Yadu family, without others knowing, Yudhiṣṭhira fixed his mind on attaining Kṛṣṇa’s abode.

Text 33: Hearing from Arjuna about the disappearance of the Yadus and the Lord’s attaining his abode, Kuntī became absorbed in the Lord with pure devotion, and disappeared from the pastimes in the world.

Text 34: Regarding both burdens equally, the Lord separated himself from that portion of the Yadus by which he removed the burden of the earth, like removing a thorn with another thorn.

Text 35: Just as the Lord maintains forms such as Matsya and gives them up, and just as a magician makes a show of giving up his body, the Lord made a show of giving up his body by which he relieved the burden of the earth.

Text 36: When Lord Mukunda, whose topics are worthy of hearing, left this earth by means of his spiritual body, from that day onwards Kali, the cause of inauspiciousness, entered those whose intelligence was sleeping.

Text 37: Wise Yudhiṣṭhira, seeing the wheel of irreligion with greed, lying, dishonesty, and violence spreading everywhere in towns, road, houses and body, dressed himself suitably to leave.

Text 38: The King enthroned in Hastināpura his grandson Parīkṣit who had observed the rules suitable for kings and had qualities equal to his own as master of the lands surrounded by the ocean.

Text 39: He enthroned Vajra as the king of Śūrasena in Mathurā and then being capable, performing pṛajāpatya sacrifice, placed within himself the fires.

Text* 40: Giving up all clothing and bracelets, he was free of thoughts of “I” and “mine” and the unlimited bonds of attraction.

Text 41: He offered the voice and other senses into the mind, the mind into the prāṇa, the prāṇa into apāna, apāna along with excretion into death, and death into the body.

Text 42: He offered the body into the three guṇas and the three guṇas into prakṛti. He offered everything into the jīva and offered the jīva into indestructible Kṛṣṇa.

Text 43: He wore torn cloth, did not eat, stopped speaking, shaved his head, and showed himself as a dumb or insane person or a ghost.

Text 44: Not waiting for his brothers, not hearing anything as if deaf, he left the house. Meditating on Kṛṣṇa in the heart, he went in the northern direction where great souls had previously gone, from which one does not return.

Text 45: Seeing that Kali, the friend of irreligion, had influenced the citizens on earth, all his brothers decided to follow him.

Text 46: They who had performed all duties such as dharma and artha as it should be done, understanding the endless nature of those duties, meditated on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa with their minds.

Text 47-48: Having pure intelligence, with minds solely on the Lord, whose portion is Nārāyaṇa, by profuse bhakti with meditation on Kṛṣṇa, they attained the goal, unattainable by the materialists, the pure abode of the Lord, with their pure bodies.

Text 49: Vidura also, by absorbing his mind in Kṛṣṇa, gave up his body at Prabhāsa and went to his abode escorted by Pitṛs.

Text 50: Draupadī, understanding that her husbands had become indifferent to her, concentrated her mind on Vāsudeva and attained him.

Text 51: He who hears with faith about the departure of the Pāṇḍavas, dear to the Lord, as described herein, after attaining pure blessings, will attain the perfect stage of devotion to the Lord.