SB (1964) Ninth Chapter - Bhisma's Passing away in the Presence of Lord Krishna
SB 1.9.1 (1964): Suta Goswami said, "thus being afraid of the act of killng the subjects in the battlefield of Kurkshetra, Maharaj Yudhisthir went to that place of massacre where Bhismadeva was lying on the bed of arrows for passing away."
SB 1.9.2 (1964): Thereafter all his brothers followed him on beautiful chariots drawn by first class horses decorated with gold ornaments along with Vyasa and rishis like Dhoumya etc. (the learned priest of the Pandavas. See page 494 for description).
SB 1.9.3 (1964): Oh the sages headed by Sounaka Rishi, after this Lord Sri Krishna the Personality of Godhead also followed on the chariot and seated with Arjuna. Thus the King Yudhisthir appeared to be highly aristocratic exactly like Kuvera surrounded by his companions guhyakas.
SB 1.9.4 (1964): Thus seeing him lying down on the ground as if one of the demigods has fallen down from the horizon, the Pandava King Yudhisthir along with younger brothers and Lord Krishna bowed down before him.
SB 1.9.5 (1964): Just to see the chief of the descendants of King Bharata (Bhisma) all the great men of the universe namely the rishis amongst the demigods, the rishis amongst the Brahmins, and the rishis amongst the kings all who were situated in the quality of goodness were present there sitting.
SB 1.9.6 (1964): Just to see the chief of the descendants of King Bharata (Bhisma) all the great men of the universe namely the rishis amongst the demigods, the rishis amongst the Brahmins, and the rishis amongst the kings all who were situated in the quality of goodness were present there sitting.c
SB 1.9.7 (1964): (note: there is no translation in the book)
SB 1.9.8 (1964): And many others like Sukadeva Goswami all purified souls along with Kasyapa and Angirasa etc. all accompanied by respective disciples reached the place.
SB 1.9.9 (1964): Bhishmadeva who was the best amongst the Eight Vasus, received and welcomed all the assembled greatly powerful Rishis because he knew perfectly well the religious principles adjusting them in terms of place and time.
SB 1.9.10 (1964): Lord Sri Krishna is situated in everyone's heart and still He manifests His transcendental Form by His internal potency. The very same Lord was also sitting before him and as he (Bhismadeva) knew His glories, he worshipped Him duly.
SB 1.9.11 (1964): The sons of Maharaj Pandu were sitting nearby very gently and with great affection for the dying grandfather. Seeing this Bhismadeva congratulated them feelingly with tears in ecstasy in the eyes overwhelmed by love and affection.
SB 1.9.12 (1964): Oh what terrible sufferings and what terrible injustice you all good souls had to suffer only for your becoming the sons of religion personified. You did not deserve to remain alive under those tribulations but yet you were protected by the brahmins, God and religion.
SB 1.9.13 (1964): So far my daughter-in-law Kunti is concerned, she became a widow on account of the great general Pandu's death with so many minor children and therefore, suffered a lot and when you were grown up she suffered a lot also with you on account of your actions.
SB 1.9.14 (1964): In my opinion, therefore, it is all due to that inevitable time under whose control everyone in every planet is carried just like the bunch of clouds are carried by the air.
SB 1.9.15 (1964): Oh wonderful is the influence of the inevitable time, otherwise how there can be reverses where there is King Yudhisthir the son of the demigod controlling religion, where there is Bhima the great fighter with club, where there is the great bowman Arjuna and the great weapon Gandiba and above all where there is the Lord as directly the wellwisher of the Pandavas.
SB 1.9.16 (1964): Oh the king, nobody can know the plan of the Lord (Sri Krishna) even it is exhaustively enquired by the great philosophers. They are certainly bewildered.
SB 1.9.17 (1964): Oh the best amongst the decendants of Bharata, I say therefore, all these demonstrations are within the plan of the Lord. Accepting such inconceivable plan of the Lord, you must follow it. You are now the appointed administrative head and oh my Lord You may therefore take care of the subjects now rendered helpless.
SB 1.9.18 (1964): This Sri Krishna is no other than the Original Personality of Godhead. He is the first Narayana the Supreme Enjoyer. But He is moving amongst the descendants of the King Vrishni just like one of us by bewildering us with His self created energy.
SB 1.9.19 (1964): Oh the King, very confidentially Lord Sivah, Narada the sage amongst the demigods, and Kapila the incarnation of Godhead, all of them know about His glories, by direct contact.
SB 1.9.20 (1964): Oh the king, the Personality Whom, out of ignorance only, you thought to be your maternal cousin, very dear friend, wellwisher, counsel, messenger, benefactor etc. (He is the same Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna)
SB 1.9.21 (1964): Being the Absolute Personality of Godhead, He is present in everyone's heart. He is equal to everyone and He has no false ego of differentiation. Therefore, what ever is done by Him is free from material inebriety and He is equibalanced.
SB 1.9.22 (1964): Thus inspite of His becoming equal to everyone, He has very kindly come in my view while I am ending my life, because I am His unflinching servitor.
SB 1.9.23 (1964): (He) the Personality of Godhead, Whose appearance in the mind by devotional attention and meditation of the devotee and chanting of holy name at the time of quiting this material body, makes the devotee released from the bondage of fruitive activities.
SB 1.9.24 (1964): Let my Lord Who is fourhanded may kindly wait, till that time as I may quit this material body, with His smiling and beautifully decorated lotus flower of the face with eyes as red as the rising sun.
SB 1.9.25 (1964): Suta Goswami said that Maharaj Yudhisthir after hearing Bhismadeva speaking in that appealing tone, enquired from him about the essential principles of various duties in religion in the presence of all the great Rishis (sages) present there.
SB 1.9.26 (1964): On enquiry from Maharaj Yudhisthir Bhismadeva defined first of all the classification of castes and orders of life in terms of a particular person's acquired qualifications. Then he described counteraction by detachment and interaction by attachment systematically by twofold divisions.
SB 1.9.27 (1964): He explained then by division of the acts of charity, pragmate activities of the kings, activities for salvation. Then he explained also the duties of the woman that of the devotees; all described in brief as well as extensively.
SB 1.9.28 (1964): Then he described about occupational duties of different orders and status of life from incidences of different historical facts as he was himself well acquainted with the truth.
SB 1.9.29 (1964): While Bhismadeva was describing about the occupational duties the exact time of sun's running on the northern horizon duly appeared as it is desired by the mystics who die at their will.
SB 1.9.30 (1964): Thereupon the man who was speaking on different subjects with thousands of meaning or the man who fought in thousands of battlefields protecting thousands of men, stopped speaking and being completely free from all bondage withdrew his mind from everything else and fixed up his wide open eyes on the Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna Who is fourhanded also now standing before him decorated with yellow dress with glittering shine.
SB 1.9.31 (1964): By such purified meditation, at once he got free from all material inauspicities, by the very looking on the Lord Sri Krishna, all his bodily pains due to the wounds by arrows. Thus all the external activities of his senses were at once stopped and he prayed transcendentally for the controller of all living beings while quitting off his material body.
SB 1.9.32 (1964): Bhismadeva said, "Let me now invest, my thinking feeling and willing which were so long engaged in different subjects of occupational duties, unto the All powerful Lord Sri Krishna. He is always self satisfied but sometimes, being the leader of the devotees, He does enjoy transcendental pleasure; He descends on the material world although from Him only creation of the material world takes place.
SB 1.9.33 (1964): Unto Sri Krishna the intimate friend of Arjuna, Who has appeared on the earth in His transcendental body resembling the colour of bluish tamaltree and attractive for all in the three (upper middle and lower) planetary system. His glittering yellow dress and His lotus like face covered with paintings of pulp of sandalwood,-be the object of my attraction with out any desire for fruitive result.
SB 1.9.34 (1964): In the battle field (where Sri Krishna attended on friendly obligation for Arjuna) the wavering hair of Lord Krishna turned into ash colour on account of dust raised by the hoops of horses and they were scattered on account of labouring perspiration on the face. All these decorations intensified by the wounds effected by my sharp arrows on the skin were enjoyed by Him. Let my mind be unto such Krishna.
SB 1.9.35 (1964): In obedience to the command of his friend, Lord Shri Krishna entered the arena of the battlefield of Kurukshetra between the soldiers of Arjuna's and Duryodhana's party and while staying there He diminished the duration of life of the opposite party by His merciful glance. He did it by pointing out the enemies. Let my mind be fixed up unto that Krishna.
SB 1.9.36 (1964): When Arjuna was poluted by his seemingly poor fund of knowledge by observing the soldiers and the commanders before him in the battle field, the Person Who eradicated such poor fund of knowledge by deliverance of transcendental knowledge may remain always the object of my attraction by His lotus feet.
SB 1.9.37 (1964): Justifying my promise and nullifying His own truthfulness, He got down from the chariot and took up the wheel of it to run unto me hurriedly just like the lion goes to kill an elephant and thus He left His outer cloth on the way.
SB 1.9.38 (1964): Let Him Lord Sri Krishna the Personality of Godhead who awards salvation to others, become my ultimate destination; because in the battlefield He moved towards me in angry mood as if my great aggressor on account of His being wounded by my sharpen arrows and therefore His shield was scattered and His body being smeared over with blood due to the wounds.
SB 1.9.39 (1964): Let my ultimate attraction be reposed on Sri Krishna the Personality of Godhead at the point of my death. I concentrate my mind upon the chariot driver of Arjuna who accepted his chariot as the object of protection by all means, who was standing with whip on the right hand and bridle rope on the left; very careful to give protection to Arjuna's chariot by all means He who was seen by the onlookers of the battle field of Kurukshetra and attained their original form after death.
SB 1.9.40 (1964): Let my mind be fixed upon that Lord Sri Krishna whose different acts of moving, smiling, looking on in deep loving attitude, etc., attracted the damsels of Brajadhama (The Gopies) and as such the latter imitated such characteristic movements of the Lord (after His disappearnace from the arena of the Rasa Dance.)
SB 1.9.41 (1964): There was the greatest assembly of all elites of the world namely the royal and the learned orders of the society, in the conference of Rajsuya Yajna performed by Maharaj Yudhisthira. And in that great assembly of great men Lord Sri Krishna was the object of worship by one and all as the most exhalted Personality of Godhead. This happened during the presence of Bhismadeva himself and he remembered the incident to keep his mind upon the Lord.
SB 1.9.42 (1964): Now I can meditate upon that one Lord Shri Krishna, now present before me, with full concentration of trance because now I am out of the misconception of duality of His presence in everyone's heart of the mental speculators with different bodily encagements. He is in everyone's heart as the sun is differently conceived, although the sun is one only.
SB 1.9.43 (1964): Suta Goswami said, "thus Bhismadeva merging himself in the Super soul Lord Shri Krishna the Supreme Personality of Godhead by his mind, speeches, sight and activities and thus he became silent stopping breathing within."
SB 1.9.44 (1964): Thus knowing that Bhismadeva has had merged into the unlimited eternity of the Supreme Absolute, all present there became silent like the birds at the end of the day.
SB 1.9.45 (1964): Thereafter, both men and the demigods sounded respectful honour by beating of drums, the royal order who were honest began to demonstrate honour and respect and from the sky there was shower fall of flowers.
SB 1.9.46 (1964): Oh the descendant of Bhrigu, (Sounaka) Moharaj Yudhisthir after having performed the funeral rituals of the dead body of him (Bhishma) became overtaken with grief for a moment.
SB 1.9.47 (1964): All the great sages then glorified the Lord Krishna present there by confidential Vedic hymns. There after all of them returned again to their respective hermitages bearing always Lord Krishna within the heart.
SB 1.9.48 (1964): Thereafter, Maharaj Yudhisthir at once went to his capital of the name Hastinapur along with Lord Shri Krishna and going there he spacified his uncle and aunt Gandhari who was an ascetic.
SB 1.9.49 (1964): After this the great religious king Maharaj Yudhisthir executed the royal power in the kingdom strictly under the codes of royal principles which were approved by his uncle and confirmed by Lord Sri Krishna.