In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhagawan Krishna “trying” to escape the wrath of Jaraasandha and Kaalayavana, who was his deputy. As Bhagawan Krishna decides that staying hereafter at Mathura is only going to add to the woes of the people because of the constant fights with Jaraasandha and his army, He decides to shift to a different location. However, as Bhagawan Krishna starts His way from Mathura, this Kaalayavana spots Him! As this happens, Bhagawan Krishna didn’t want to fight Kaalayavana and instead He starts running away from him! Initially, even Kaalayavana did not understand why Bhagawan Krishna is running away from him, instead of putting up a fight. Thus, he starts chasing Bhagawan Krishna and asks Him to stop! But Bhagawan Krishna runs non-stop! He runs and runs!
We might be wondering why Bhagawan Krishna, who, inspite of being the all-pervasive supreme of the entire world, running away from afterall a miniscule enemy called Kaalayavana. There is a reason behind Bhagawan Krishna running away! He isn’t a coward to run away from His enemies like that. We’ve in the past episodes too witnessed how Little Krishna had killed thousands of Raakshasas singlehandedly, lifted the Govardhana Mountain with a single finger, etc. Inspite of doing all this, we might wonder why is Bhagawan Krishna “running away” like this from Kaalayavana. We’re going to see the answer for this question today.
Moving on with the event thus, Bhagawan Krishna starts running faster and faster and now he crosses the border of Uttar Pradesh, enters into Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and subsequently into Gujarat. We’ve witnessed in the past episodes that Bhagawan Krishna spent lot of time at Vrindavan. It is a huge geographical area, which encompasses the entire Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, goes into a bit of Rajasthan and southwards towards a bit of Madhya Pradesh. If we join these points together, the area within this is Vrindavan. This would encompass an area of around 170-180 miles. This is where Bhagawan Krishna would take the cows of Gokula and let them to graze there. There is a place called “Kaamya-Vana”, which is towards the western part of Uttar Pradesh and a little bit into the eastern part of Rajasthan. There is an important place of worship called “Bhojan-Thaali”, where Bhagawan Krishna had sat down there, taken food with all His little friends and threw the plates. Moreover, there is a huge rock, which is like a sliding board. This is where Bhagawan Krishna had played games with all His little friends. All these places are inside the Kaamya-Vana. There was a demon by name Loha-jangaasura. He was also killed by Bhagawan Krishna in this same Kaamya-Vana only. There is another place called “Vimala-Kunda” and this is also inside the Kaamya-Vana only.
Now as Bhagawan Krishna runs across all of these places in the Kaamya-Vana, He finally enters into Gujarat. The first place into which Bhagawan Krishna enters into Gujarat is called “Anand” today. This place might be familiar with many of us, as it is the headquarters of the famous AMUL brand of milk-products. It is very close to this Anand is a place called “Daakur-Dwaraka”. This place is around 2 hours drive from Ahmedabad, the capital city of Gujarat. In Hindi, the word “Daaku” means “Thief”, isn’t it? Since Bhagawan Krishna was a “divine thief”, running for safety, this place came to be called as “Daakur-Dwaaraka”. These are certain things that all of us should know and this is why we’re spending lot of time in understanding the geographical details associated with it. We’ve also seen a similar description during our Ramayana episodes too, wherein we’ve witnessed almost each and every place where Bhagawan Rama had travelled to – From Ayodhya to Mithilapuri and all the way southwards to Sri Lanka.
Now let us witness the “Charithra” in detail. As Bhagawan Krishna is running His way through, He comes across someone by name “Muchukunda”. This Muchukunda comes as part of the Ikshvaaku Dynasty. One of the prominent kings of this dynasty was Maandhaata. In fact, Muchukunda was a great king once upon a time, and this was all way before Bhagawan Krishna incarnated. Once, Indra had called Muchukunda for help in fighting the Raakshasas. Accordingly, Muchukunda gave a helping hand to Indra in defeating the Raakshasas. After that, Muchukunda asks Indra for a boon – Because he had helped Indra in his pursuit. He asked Indra that he wants to sleep for a long time, as he was very tired after the long fight. Indra too granted him the boon, and showed him a place where he can go and sleep as much as he wanted to. Indra showed a tunnel and asked Muchukunda to go there and sleep. He says further to Muchukunda thus, “Oh Muchukunda! If at all someone comes and disturbs your sleep, you can kill that person instantly by opening your eyes and looking at him or her. The moment you cast your look over that person, he or she would be reduced to ashes!” This is the boon that Indra had given to Muchukunda. It was with this boon that Muchukunda is sleeping and sleeping for a long time.
As Bhagawan Krishna is running all his way through, it was exactly into this tunnel that He enters! He knows that Muchukunda is sleeping there because of Indra’s boon. As Bhagawan Krishna sees Muchukunda sleeping, He gives a tight slap on his back, runs into a nearby portion of the tunnel and hides Himself! Now this Kaalayavana is coming along, chasing Bhagawan Krishna, isn’t it? He now bumps into Muchukunda whose sleep was disturbed! Thus, Muchukunda opens his eyes, and sees Kaalayavana standing in front of him! As per the boon, Muchukunda’s fiery look reduces Kaalayavana into ashes then and there! Kaalayavana falls on the ground dead!
We can witness here that Bhagawan Krishna never fought with Kaalayavana, but He managed to kill him successfully! Thus, Bhagawan Krishna brings Muchukunda, his boon from Indra and Kaalayavana together at the same time! Isn’t this smartness at its peak? 🙂 This is how Bhagawan Krishna operates! He brings all situations together and lays the perfect trap for His enemies, only for them to kill themselves! Hence, the argument that Bhagawan Krishna “ran away” from Kaalayavana like a “coward”, stands to be totally negated!
So for today, let us understand this entire event in the exact way that it conspired, and let us appreciate Bhagawan Krishna’s astute smartness in bringing His enemies to their knees! We shall wait till the next episode to continue this further. Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 