Bhalka

Bhalka Tirtha भालका तीर्थ
Bhalka Tirtha भालका तीर्थ Location within Gujarat Show map of Gujarat Bhalka Tirtha भालका तीर्थ Location within Gujarat Show map of India
Name
Devanagari	भालका तीर्थ
Geography
Coordinates	20°53′16.9″N 70°24′5.0″E / 20.888028°N 70.401389°E / 20.888028; 70.401389Coordinates: 20°53′16.9″N 70°24′5.0″E / 20.888028°N 70.401389°E / 20.888028; 70.401389
Country	India
State	Gujarat
District	Gir Somnath
Locale	Veraval
Culture
Primary deity	(Krishna)
History and governance
Temple board	Shree Somnath Trust of Gujarat
Website	somnath.org

Bhalka Tirtha (Bhalka Pilgrimage) (Hindi: भालका तीर्थ) located in the Prabhas Kshetra near Veraval in Saurashtra on the western coast of Gujarat, India, is the place where Lord Krishna was hit by an arrow shot by a hunter named Jara, after which he is said to have left the earth for the heavenly abode, an act referred to in the puranas as Shri Krishn Neejdham Prasthan Leela(Sanskrit: श्री कृष्ण नीजधाम प्रस्थान लीला).

According to Mahabharata, the Kurukshetra war resulted in the death of all the hundred sons of Gandhari. On the night before Duryodhana's death, Lord Krishna visited Gandhari to offer his condolences. Gandhari felt that Krishna knowingly did not put an end to the war, and in a fit of rage and sorrow, Gandhari cursed that Krishna, along with everyone else from the Yadu dynasty, would perish after 36 years. Krishna himself knew and wanted this to happen as he felt that the Yadavas had become very haughty and arrogant (adharmi), so he ended Gandhari's speech by saying "tathastu" (so be it).

After 36 years passed, a fight broke out between the Yadavas, at a festival, who killed each other. His elder brother, Balarama, then gave up his body using Yoga. Krishna retired into the forest and started meditating under a tree. The Mahabharata also narrates the story of a hunter who becomes an instrument for Krishna's departure from the world. The hunter Jara, mistook Krishna's partly visible left foot for that of a deer, and shot an arrow, wounding him mortally. After he realised the mistake, While still bleeding, Krishna told Jara, "O Jara, you were Bali in your previous birth, killed by myself as Rama in Tretayuga. Here you had a chance to even it and since all acts in this world are done as desired by me, you need not worry for this". Then Krishna, with his physical body ascended back to his eternal abode, Goloka vrindavan and this event marks departure of Krishna from the earth. The news was conveyed to Hastinapur and Dwaraka by eyewitnesses to this event. The place of this incident is believed to be Bhalka, near Somnath temple.