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Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 11: Chapter 31: Verses 1-13
Sri Suka began again: Now (after the departure of Daruka) there appeared on the scene Brahma (the creator) as well as Lord Siva (the Source of the universe) alongwith His (divine) Spouse (Goddess Parvati), (other) gods led by the great indra (the ruler of the gods), sages accompanied by the lords of creation, manes, Siddhas and Gandharvas, Vidyadharas and great Nagas, Caranas, Yaksas and Raksasas, Kinnaras and Apsaras and Brahmanas (like Maitreya or birds belonging to the realm of Garuda), full of great longing and keen to witness the Lord's Ascent (to His realm), and celebrating and narrating the exploits as well as the
story of the advent of Lord Sri Krsna (a scion of Surasena). Full of highest devotion, they rained showers of flowers, crowding the heavens with their rows of aerial cars, 0 Pariksit ! Casting His glance on Brahma (the grandfather or forbear of the entire creation, the sages Marici and others being its fathers) as well as on the (other) gods (His own glorious manifestations) and fixing His mind on His own (divine) essence, the all-pervading Lord closed His lotus-eyes. Not consuming, through concentration of mind on the element of fire, His own (divine) body, which sustains the (entire) universe and is the all-blissful object of meditation and concentration, He (bodily) ascended to His own (divine) realm. Kettledrums sounded in heaven and flowers rained from the sky. Truth, piety, fortitude, glory and prosperity departed from the earth alongwith Him. Gods and others, Brahma being the foremost of them, did not behold Sri Krsna, whose ways are unknown (to all), entering His own (divine) realm; while some of them (who were more fortunate than the rest) did perceive Him and felt much astonished. The movements of Sri Krsna cannot be perceived by the gods any more than those of lightning disappearing into the sky leaving a mass of clouds. Amazed to witness the aforesaid disappearance of Sri Hari by dint of His (wonderful) Yogic power, and extolling it, the said gods, Brahma, Siva and others, for their part, presently withdrew each to his own realm. Know the advent, sports and disappearance of the Supreme Lord among embodied (human) beings, 0 king, to be a (mere) acting by dint of His Maya (deluding potency) as that
of a dramatic performer. Having created this universe by Himself (unaided by others and with no material other than His own volition) and then entered it (as its Inner Controller), sported (in it) and withdrawn it (into Himself) at the end (at the time of final dissolution) and retired
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(from all activity). He remains established in His own glory. Could He have been incapable of protecting Himself (preserving intact His own divine Personality)- He, who brought back in his mortal frame the son of His (own) teacher (Sandipani), that had been taken to the realm of Death, and revived you (0 Pariksit), that had been burnt to death (within your mother's womb) by the supreme missile (presided over by Brahma and discharged by Aswatthama, the son of Dronacarya), and (thereby) gave relief (to your mother, who had sought refuge with Him), (nay,) who conquered even Lord Siva (the Destroyer of Death himself), and bodily transferred to heaven the hunter (Jara by name, that had struck the Lord with a shaft in the sole of His foot) ? Though being the independent Cause of the evolution, continuance and destruction of the whole universe, wielding as He does all powers, the Lord did not, however, choose to retain His body here (on earth) demonstrating thereby (to the world) the sublimity of the ways of those established in the Self and showing their unconcernedness about the mortal body.
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