Khaṭvāṅga Moksha

Khaṭvāṅga was a king of the Solar dynasty. The Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa tells how he fought for the devas and was offered any vara (boon) he wished. He asked only how long he had left to live. The answer was one muhūrta. He returned to the world of mortals, made a declaration about the way he had lived, joined his ātmā to Vāsudeva within that one muhūrta, and reached sāyujya-mukti. The Saptarshis said that no one before him or after him would equal him in this.

The battle and the vara

Khaṭvāṅga was a king of the Solar dynasty and a very brave warrior. The devas were hard pressed by the asuras and were looking for a champion. Khaṭvāṅga went to war for them and destroyed the asura armies completely. After the battle the grateful devas came to him and asked him to choose any vara.

His answer was not the answer of a warrior. He did not ask to rule the three worlds. He did not ask for endless life, for pleasures of the devas, for divine weapons, or for strong sons. He asked: “Tell me how much life I have left.”

The devas talked among themselves and came back with the answer: “Only one muhūrta.”

The return to earth and the declaration

Khaṭvāṅga at once climbed into a swift divine vehicle. It is described as askhalita (unhindered) and laghu (light-moving). He went back to the world of mortals. There, in the one muhūrta that was left to him, he made a declaration. It showed complete vairāgya (freedom from desire) and complete ekāgratā (one-pointed attention). It was not a hurried effort at the last moment. It came naturally from a life already turned towards Bhagavān Vāsudeva.

“Brāhmaṇas are dearer to me than my own self. I have never broken my svadharma even once. In all beings, whether humans, animals, birds or trees, I have never seen anything other than Acyuta. The ṛshis who know Bhagavān Vāsudeva have always stayed in my memory. So may I, with a fully steady mind, reach the anirdeśya-rūpa (the form that cannot be pointed out), the sattā-mātra (existence alone), the Vāsudeva whom the knowers of Brahman speak of.”

With these words he joined his ātmā to Vāsudeva and reached sāyujya-mukti, the dissolving of his own separate self into Bhagavān Vāsudeva. The Purāṇa says that he reached that highest place of Acyuta.

The Saptarshi verse

The Saptarshis made and sang a verse in his honour. The Vishṇu Purāṇa keeps it as a memorial of this event.

“What great man came down from svarga to the world of mortals with only a muhūrta of āyus (life) left, and then by jñāna (knowledge) and satya (truth) joined the three worlds in his meditation? That Khaṭvāṅga has no equal before him or after him.”

Sources

• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Chaturdhāmsa, Chapter 4