Although Saints or God realized persons could stay for as long as they want, they tend to stay for a normal lifespan depending on the Yug (there are four ages in the Hindu world cycle) that they came. In Kali yug, more or less than a hundred years. In other yugas, Dwapar yug, Treta yug, Sat yug, they may stay for thousands of years. Like Bhagwan Ram stayed for 11,000 years because He came in Treta yug. Shri Krishna came in Dwapar yug and stayed for 125 years. It’s not that They’re bound by maya, but when They come in this world, They observe that law of maya.
“Okay, if I came in this world, I also have to go.”
We, because we are bound by maya we have mayic attachments, and we perform actions that are motivated by worldly desires. So, at the time of our death we do not want to leave our body and we do not do so willingly. Therefore, the servants of Yamraj (equivalent to the Grim Reaper in Western folklore) come and forcefully remove us from our body and take us to whatever our next birth is going to be.
But when a Saint or God leaves this world, Yamraj himself comes. He doesn’t send one of his servants. Yamraj himself comes and does pranam (obeisance) and just reminds Them like a personal assistant according to the plan. In God’s case,
“When You decided to take avatar, You had decided to stay for this long. So, I’m just giving You a reminder”. It’s like a personal assistant who would remind their boss,
“You have a meeting at 3 p.m. I’m just letting you know that the time you decided upon has elapsed and so what you do now at this point is up to you. It’s just my job to remind you.” So then, Krishna goes back to the Divine world.
Or in the case of a Saint, he comes and tells them that. If it’s a sadhan-siddh Mahapurush, a Saint who was an ordinary soul and then did bhakti and with the grace of their Guru became God-realized, that soul was born with a destiny. And part of that destiny includes the length of their physical life. How long is this body going to last? So accordingly, when that time has elapsed, even though maybe they were supposed to stay in this body for 73 years and they got God-realized at age 18, but the Saint chooses to honor God’s laws. He could leave for the Divine world or she could leave for the Divine world the moment they become God-realized, but in general they decide to live out the rest of their destiny.
So even though they don’t need to, they keep undergoing all their physical destiny in this world and they live out the rest of the age of their body. So when age 73 comes around, Yamraj comes, does pranam to that sadhan-siddh Mahapurush, that God-realized soul, and says,
“Your destiny is finished now. If you would like, you can go to the Divine world. If you want to stay longer, I have no say in the matter. You’re a Divine being now. You can do whatever you want.”
But normally at that time, a Saint will leave this world, leave behind their physical body, and go to the Divine world.
The point is that everybody who comes in this world, whether they be a mayabadh-jeev (a soul under the influence of maya), a mayamukt-jeev (a soul beyond maya), or mayadheesh Bhagwan (God) Himself, everybody who comes also leaves.
