Mukunda and Candaka
The brāhmaṇa Mukunda lived in the city of Kosala on the bank of the river Candrabhāgā. He was a devotee of Bhagavān Vishṇu. His barber, Candaka, murdered him for his gold ornaments. A dog then carried Mukunda’s bones to Indraprastha and dropped them into the Kosala tīrtha (holy place), and Mukunda at once reached Vaikuṇṭha. Candaka was later freed at the same place. The Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa tells this in chapters 209 to 212.
Mukunda the brāhmaṇa
In the city of Kosala, on the bank of the Candrabhāgā river, there lived a brāhmaṇa named Mukunda. He was a devotee of Bhagavān Vishṇu. He kept all the duties laid down for him and knew the Vedas well. His preceptor was the ṛshi Vedāyana. Mukunda lived with honour and wore ornaments of gold. (Chapter 209)
The murder
Mukunda employed a barber named Candaka to serve him. Candaka saw Mukunda’s gold ornaments and was overcome by greed. He murdered Mukunda, took the ornaments and hid his crime. (Chapter 209)
Vedāyana speaks on the ātmā
When Mukunda’s death became known, his preceptor Vedāyana came to the place. He spoke to the people there, who were full of grief, about the ātmā (the soul). He taught that the ātmā is eternal and never dies. The death of the body does not touch it. It does not kill and it is not killed. What looked like the end of Mukunda’s life was only the end of his body, and the ātmā went on its way. These words steadied the minds of those who heard them. (Chapter 210)
Mukunda is freed at the Kosala tīrtha
Mukunda’s body was cremated. A dog came upon the bones and carried them off. The dog wandered to Indraprastha, on the bank of the Yamunā, and dropped the bones into the Kosala tīrtha. This tīrtha stands for the city of Kosala, the home of Bhagavān Rāma, and Bhagavān Vishṇu himself declared it to be set up within Indraprastha.
The moment the bones fell into the holy water, Mukunda left his earlier state and reached Vaikuṇṭha, the highest world of Bhagavān Vishṇu. This happened in spite of the way he had died. A divine vehicle appeared and carried him away. (Chapter 211)
What happened to Candaka
Candaka had killed his own master. This was a heavy pāpa (sin): the killing of a brāhmaṇa, made worse by ingratitude. He was reborn as a serpent and lived in that form near Indraprastha for long ages. In the end he came to the Kosala tīrtha in Indraprastha, the same place whose water had freed Mukunda. There he gave up his serpent body and was freed from the fruit of his crime. So great is the power of Indraprastha to cleanse that even the killer of a brāhmaṇa could be freed there. (Chapter 211)
The greatness of Kosala
The next chapter speaks of the two Kosalas. Dakshiṇakosala (southern Kosala) is the land of Daśaratha, the father of Bhagavān Rāma, and the place where Bhagavān Rāma killed Rāvaṇa. Uttarakosala (northern Kosala) is the city where Bhagavān Rāma was born.
A brāhmaṇa had been ignoring the Kosala tīrtha in Indraprastha. Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared to him in disguise. He declared that Indraprastha is the greatest of all holy places in the three worlds, because all tīrthas are present within it. (Chapter 212)
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapters 209–212