Krishna and the Hunter Jara - The Final Arrow

The arrow struck true. Jara had been hunting for weeks with poor luck, and when he saw the sole of a foot through the bushes—reddish, like a deer's hide—he released without thinking.

The cry that followed was human.

Jara crashed through the undergrowth and found a man lying under a tree, blood spreading from his foot, looking at him with eyes that held no anger—only a strange, gentle recognition.

Jara: "I'm sorry! I thought you were a deer! I didn't—"

Krishna: "I know. You did exactly what you were meant to do."

Jara: "Let me help you. Let me call for healers. This forest—Dwaraka is nearby—they have physicians—"

Krishna: "No physicians can help me now. Nor should they. Do you know who I am?"

Jara looked closer. The face was familiar—impossibly familiar—from stories, from descriptions, from dreams he'd half-forgotten.

Jara: "Krishna? Lord Krishna?"

Krishna: "Once. Still, perhaps. But now, just a man in a forest, dying as men do."

Jara: "I killed you. I killed God."

Krishna: "You freed me. Let me tell you a story. In another age, I was Rama. A king. An avatar, like now. And in that life, I killed a king named Vali—shot him from hiding while he fought his brother."

Jara: "I know this story."

Krishna: "Then you know it was a violation of dharma. Kshatriya rules say warriors must face each other openly. I hid. I shot from shadows. It was necessary for the larger story, but it was still a violation. And Vali, as he died, cursed me."

Jara: "He cursed you to die the same way."

Krishna: "Yes. By an arrow from hiding. By someone who didn't know who they were killing. And here we are. The curse completes itself. The karma closes."

Jara: "But why me? Why am I the instrument of this curse?"

Krishna: "Because in that life, you were Vali."

Jara's breath stopped.

Krishna: "Don't look so frightened. You don't remember—most souls don't remember. But the karmic connection remained. Lifetime after lifetime, we orbited each other, waiting for this moment. This morning, when you woke, did you feel a strange pull toward this forest?"

Jara thought.

Jara: "Yes. I had no reason to hunt here. Better grounds are to the east."

Krishna: "That was the pull of completion. That was karma guiding you to where you needed to be."

Jara: "To kill you."

Krishna: "To finish the circle. To free us both. In dying like this, I pay my debt to Vali. And you—Vali reborn—are freed from the cycle that bound you to me. After today, our karmic connection dissolves. You can become fully yourself, without the weight of ancient grievance."

Jara: "I don't want to be freed by killing."

Krishna: "No one does. Yet killing and dying are part of life. The question is whether they lead to more bondage or less. This death leads to freedom—for both of us."

Jara was weeping now.

Jara: "I will be remembered as the man who killed Krishna."

Krishna: "You will be remembered as the man who completed a story that began ages ago. Without you, the story would have continued—tangled, unresolved. You are the period at the end of a very long sentence."

Jara: "Some honor."

Krishna: "More honor than you know. I have died many times, in many forms. This death—quiet, in a forest, with only a hunter to witness—is a kindness. No grand spectacle. No mourning crowds. Just completion."

Krishna's eyes were closing. His breath was slowing.

Jara: "What do I do now?"

Jara asked.

Krishna: "Live. Hunt. Raise children. Tell them this story when they're old enough—not as the tragedy of killing a god, but as the gift of completing karma. We are all caught in webs we don't remember weaving. The lucky ones find the thread's end."

Jara: "And you?"

Krishna: "I return to where I came from. Until I'm needed again. Until the next story needs telling. Thank you, Jara. You shot true. You always did."

The breath left. The body stilled.

Jara sat with the body until sunset, unsure whether to mourn or celebrate. In the end, he did both—grieving the death and honoring the release it represented.

Jara: "I killed the Lord of the Universe. And it was exactly what he wanted."