Kālayavana Vadha and Mucukunda Moksha

The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells how Kṛshṇa drew the fierce Kālayavana away from Mathurā and into a mountain cave. In the cave lay the ancient king Mucukunda, deep in sleep by a grant of the devas. Kālayavana kicked the sleeping king, thinking he was Kṛshṇa. Mucukunda’s angry glance burned Kālayavana to ash at once.

Kṛshṇa then showed himself to Mucukunda. Mucukunda offered a deep stotra (hymn of praise) of surrender, and Kṛshṇa gave him a vara (a boon): in his next birth he would be born as a great brāhmaṇa. The Vishṇu Purāṇa adds the story of how Kālayavana was born.

Kṛshṇa leads Kālayavana on

Kṛshṇa walked out of the gate of Mathurā with no weapon, wearing only a garland of lotus flowers. Nārada had told Kālayavana the signs of Kṛshṇa: the Śrīvatsa mark on his chest, the four arms, the lotus eyes, and the Vaijayantī garland of five gems. So Kālayavana knew him at once. He would not use weapons against one who had none, and so he decided to chase Kṛshṇa with his bare hands. At every step Kṛshṇa stayed just within reach but never touched. He drew Kālayavana farther and farther into a wild mountain land, until he led him to the mouth of a dark cave.

Source of this section: Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 51.

Mucukunda burns Kālayavana

In the cave lay Mucukunda, a king of the Ikshvāku line and a son of Māndhātā. For a long time he had defended the devas against the asuras, until Kumārasvāmi (Skanda) took over as commander of their army. The devas set Mucukunda free from his service. They told him that all those of his own time, his sons, his wives, his ministers and his subjects, had passed away under the power of Time, and that he could now rest. They gave him the vara of undisturbed sleep: any fool who woke him from sleep would at once be burned to ash by his glance.

Kālayavana came into the cave and saw the sleeping figure. He thought it was Kṛshṇa pretending to sleep, and he kicked him. Mucukunda woke slowly and opened his eyes. The moment his angry glance fell on Kālayavana, a fire broke out from inside the body of the mleccha king and burned him to ash.

Source of this section: Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 51.

Kṛshṇa appears to Mucukunda

As the ashes were scattered, Kṛshṇa appeared before Mucukunda. He was dark like a rain cloud and dressed in yellow silk. The Kaustubha gem was at his throat, the Śrīvatsa mark on his chest, and the Vaijayantī garland of five gems around him. He had four arms and eyes like fresh lotuses. He walked like a lion without fear. His own light filled the dark cave.

Mucukunda looked in wonder. He remembered what the ṛshi Garga had foretold, that Bhagavān Kṛshṇa would one day appear before him. He spoke to Kṛshṇa at length. He did not know if this was Agni, Sūrya, Candra or a lokapāla. Then by the light that drove away the darkness of the cave, and by the four arms, he concluded that this must be Vishṇu himself.

Source of this section: Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 51.

Mucukunda’s stotra

Kṛshṇa asked him to ask for a vara. Mucukunda answered with a long praise, one of the great stotras of the Bhāgavata. In it he spoke of saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death), of the wrong use of human birth, and of the grace of satsaṅga (the company of the holy). He said:

“Men and women, deluded by your māyā, turn to the household life of the senses, which is the very home of suffering, and do not worship you. Even an Indra, without contentment, must wander through the worlds again. But even a man with nothing, if he is content, lives without pain in any limb.”

He told how he had spent lifetimes in the pride of kingship and had forgotten Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. He spoke of how Time (kāla), which is the form of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa himself, eats all beings as a snake swallows a rat when it is hungry. He ended by saying that of all things one can seek, the best is service at the lotus feet of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. He asked for no other vara.

Source of this section: Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 51.

Kṛshṇa’s reply and the vara

Kṛshṇa praised the pure mind of Mucukunda. Even when offered varas to tempt him, his mind was not spoiled by desire. Kṛshṇa told him the secret of bhakti: those in whom pure devotion to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa is fixed are never pulled back to worldly things, even by yogic concentration, because their vāsanās (hidden desires) have been made pure. He gave Mucukunda the vara of unbroken devotion. He told him to take up tapas to remove the rest of the pāpa (sin) of killing creatures as a kshatriya. He promised that in his very next birth Mucukunda would be born as the greatest of brāhmaṇas, full of love for all beings, and would at last reach Bhagavān Kṛshṇa directly.

Mucukunda walked around Kṛshṇa in respect, bowed, and came out of the cave. He saw that men, animals and plants were all smaller than in his time, and understood that it was the age of Kali. He went north to the Gandhamādana mountain and at last to Badarikāśrama, the abode of Nara-Nārāyaṇa, where he took up tapas.

Kṛshṇa meanwhile went back to Mathurā. He destroyed the army of mlecchas that had surrounded the city and took the spoils of victory to Dvārakā. Then Jarāsandha came with his eighteenth attack. Kṛshṇa and Balarāma ran from the huge army, climbed the Pravarshaṇa mountain, and then leapt unseen to Dvārakā. Jarāsandha could not find them. He set fire to the mountain and believed they had died in it.

Source of this section: Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 51.

The Vishṇu Purāṇa account

The Pañcamāṃśa of the Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa tells of Kālayavana in three chapters, 22 to 24.

The birth of Kālayavana (Chapter 22). This chapter tells why this mleccha came to attack Mathurā. A brāhmaṇa named Gārgya was insulted by the Yādavas in an assembly. They mocked him because he had no son. Gārgya was hurt, and he did hard tapas to Bhagavān Śiva and received a vara: a son would be born who could not be defeated by any Yādava and who would have divine strength. The son would be born to the wife of a Yavana king. That son was Kālayavana. He was born with the force of the tapas of Gārgya and the vara of Bhagavān Śiva, and Nārada sent him towards Mathurā. Kālayavana was thus the revenge of Gārgya, and also a part of the plan of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa to set up Dvārakā.

Mucukunda’s stotra (Chapter 23). After the death of Kālayavana, the talk between Mucukunda and Kṛshṇa is told in a form that stresses the wisdom of Mucukunda. He had slept through measureless ages. He had seen all those of his own time die and whole cycles of yugas pass. His prayer is the prayer of one who has been stripped of all attachment by Time itself. His stotra in the Vishṇu Purāṇa speaks of kāla as the form of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa himself, the great dissolver who takes back what he has given. Mucukunda fully accepts this dissolving as the grace of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa.

Mucukunda goes to Badarikāśrama (Chapter 24). The Vishṇu Purāṇa tells his going plainly. He went first to Gandhamādana and then to Badarikāśrama, the eternal āśrama of Nara-Nārāyaṇa in the Himālaya, where he took up tapas for final moksha. Meanwhile Kṛshṇa, having sent Mucukunda on his way, took the whole army and wealth of Kālayavana to Dvārakā as a gift to Ugrasena. Balarāma went to Nandagokula.

Source of this section: Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Pañcamāṃśa, Chapters 22 to 24.

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 51
• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Pañcamāṃśa, Chapters 22 to 24