Bāla Mukunda, the Divine Child on the Vaṭa Tree

Bāla Mukunda is the form of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa as a shining infant. Mārkaṇḍeya Maharshi, a cirañjīvin (one who lives for ages), met him during the mahā-pralaya, the great dissolution of all creation. The Mahābhārata tells this in the Vana Parva, Chapters 188–189.

All creation had dissolved into the first ocean (ekārṇava). Mārkaṇḍeya was alone in the dark waters. He found a luminous child lying on a branch of a great vaṭa (banyan) tree. This child was Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa in his form as the Bāla, the divine child who holds all creation within himself between one cosmic cycle and the next.

Mārkaṇḍeya entered the child’s body through his open mouth. He wandered inside for over a hundred years and never found its edge. Then he came out again through the mouth. The child told him who he was. He is Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, the same Brahman who is also Brahmā, Indra, Śiva and all the devas. He shows himself in different forms in the four yugas. And he now stands before the Pāṇḍavas as Śrī Kṛshṇa.

The setting: mahā-pralaya and ekārṇava

At the end of a cosmic cycle, when a kalpa ends, all creation dissolves. The earth, the sky, the worlds of the devas and all beings are drawn into the first waters. This state is called ekārṇava, the one undivided ocean. It comes before the next creation. During this dissolution no ordinary being can live. Only those with great tapas (austerity) and divine grace remain.

Mārkaṇḍeya had performed tapas through countless ages. So he was one of the very few who saw the mahā-pralaya with his own eyes. He found himself alone on a vast, dark ocean. There was no land, no sky, no sun and no living being, only water in every direction. Tired and overwhelmed, he wandered over the waters for what seemed an endless time.

The child on the vaṭa tree

In this emptiness Mārkaṇḍeya suddenly saw a great vaṭa tree rising from the water. On one of its branches lay an infant of matchless light and beauty, completely at ease. Every limb of the child shone with divine light. He gave out a peace that did not fit the destroying darkness of the pralaya around him.

The child was Bāla Mukunda, Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa in the form of the divine infant who rests while all creation sleeps within him. He smiled at Mārkaṇḍeya with such warmth that the ṛshi’s fear and tiredness vanished at once.

Entering the child’s body

Mārkaṇḍeya came near and bowed before the child. The infant opened his mouth, and Mārkaṇḍeya was drawn into the child’s body through the open mouth. Inside that small body he found the whole universe: the earth with its mountains, oceans and forests; the skies with their lights and the worlds of the devas; all the worlds, all their beings and all their work. Everything went on as if the pralaya outside had never touched it.

Mārkaṇḍeya wandered inside the child’s body for over a hundred years. He walked in all directions and found no wall, no edge and no end. The world inside was complete in itself.

Coming out and the revelation

After his long wandering, Mārkaṇḍeya was sent out through the child’s mouth. He found himself again on the branch of the vaṭa tree in the first ocean. The child looked at him with the same calm smile.

Then the child spoke and told him who he was. He said he is Nārāyaṇa, the highest reality, without beginning or end, from whom everything arises and into whom everything is drawn back. He is the Brahman who is also Brahmā the creator, Indra the king of the devas, and Śiva the destroyer.

He shows himself differently in the four yugas:

In Kṛta yuga, he is white, a being of pure sattva.
In Tretā, he is golden, a little diminished.
In Dvāpara, he is red, diminished further.
In Kali, he is dark, with the qualities of that age.

The child also said that he is the same Nārāyaṇa who now stands before the Pāṇḍavas as Śrī Kṛshṇa. Mārkaṇḍeya tells this account to the Pāṇḍavas as the witness of his own meeting with Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. It was a direct darśana (sight) of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, given to one who had lived long enough, and practised tapas deeply enough, to be present when all the ordinary order of existence had dissolved.

What the vision shows

Between cosmic cycles, when all creation has dissolved, Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa remains. He holds the seed of all creation within himself, in the form of an infant at perfect rest. The vaṭa tree, the first waters and the infant together make one image of this truth.

Sources

Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 188–189