Curse of Gandhari~

No verse/prose can match the beauty of love~

Having articulated entire Mahabharata, it is said Lord Krishna practiced his Yoga when he waited for death. The kingdom of man, just and sly lay bare before him. As a supreme Yogi he had mastered his senses, his desires, and his earthy belonging-ness. He was Mukund, the one who gave 'mukti' , he was Murari, one who killed the powerful 'asuras' or demons.
Lord of Mathura, chakaradhari Krishna awaited his own death in serenity of jungle.
For how else could death touch him, the Lord Krishna, the one who had devised death of hundred Gandhari sons and thousands of their sons and millions of people who fought to feed their sons!
Who else would play instrument to the curse of Gandhari!
So, the reincarnation of Bali, shot an arrow, wondering if it was a deer.
Irony has its way! It was the illusion of deer which instrumented the entire Ramayana and it was destined to be another illusion of a deer which brought (worldly) end to the instrument of Mahabharata, Krishna.
Yogis feel no pain, no joy. They are the relieved ones!
Yet there lay Krishna, the lord of Dwarka, in excruciating pain of rejection, choosing to be smitten by the curse of Gandhari- to be rejected in death. All life should have flashed before the mortal form of dying lord.
( What did he see? What could the man to thousands of women, the lord of Mathura, the all powerful charioteer want when he was leaving this world? )
Surdas says, Gandhari's curse did not fulfill in entirety. His pain of death, his pain of rejection was eclipsed by a greater pain of desire. Desire to go back, to where he realised he always had belonged. To the land of Gopis, the land of his Radha. Into the arms of his beloved mother Yashoda. The wind flowing through the trees of Brindavan, the charm of Gopis, the Gokul-waasi, the cows, the milk, the rains, everything called him back. He knew then, that is where he should have always been. And then there was his fair skinned Radha, the moon for his ebony nights! She! Yashoda! Brindavan! All flashed before him!
Different saints/ people/ books give different interpretations. Some say Lord Krishna recollected most beautiful days of his life with a sense of pleasure of having lived it. Some contend he did not feel at all, he prepared himself to leave that earthy abode, exactly like a Yogi. Whereas few argue that he realized he should have never left Brindavan in the first place. There is a big group which believes it was his last 'human' experience of remembering the love of his life!
Whatever!
My favorite theory stands as this- The master of Yoga, the divine protector, the supreme manipulator died in desire! Of all things he had accomplished he perished in want of love!