In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhagawan Krishna continuing to run all His way from Mathura city towards Dwaaraka. The place where Bhagawan Krishna entered first into Gujarat was “Daakur-Dwaaraka”, which is very close to today’s city called Anand. Kaalayavana is chasing Bhagawan Krishna all through the way and even though he’s asking Bhagawan Krishna to stop, He never stopped! Finally, Bhagawan Krishna enters into a small cave at this place called “Daakur-Dwaaraka” and this is exactly the cave within which Muchukunda was sleeping for a long time. We’ve witnessed that Muchukunda had obtained a boon from Indra to sleep for a long time undisturbed by anybody and if at all somebody disturbs his sleep, he could kill them by just casting his look upon them.
This is where Bhagawan Krishna acted smart. As He runs inside this cave, He kicks Muchukunda hard with His feet, runs further and hides behind a huge rock. Muchukunda’s sleep gets disturbed with this hard kick by Bhagawan Krishna and he wakes up! However, Kaalayavana comes along and he comes in straight contact with Muchukunda! In fact, Kaalayavana did not do anything here. All what he did was to come in straight sight of Muchukunda, and that was enough! He fell on the ground, burnt to ashes with just that one fierce look of Muchukunda. Thus we can see here that Bhagawan Krishna did not kill Kaalayavana directly. He just made sure that Kaalayavana, Muchukunda and his boon from Indra came together at the same time and at the same place. We can witness the smartness of Bhagawan Krishna here! Thus we realize here that Bhagawan Krishna wasn’t a coward in running away from Kaalayavana. The real reason here is that, Kaalayavana’s fate was to die because of Muchukunda’s boon from Indra and Bhagawan Krishna aided it very nicely.
Moving on further thus, as Kaalayavana falls on the ground dead, Muchukunda did not understand anything. He was just up from a long slumber, but when he fully woke up to his senses, he found someone dead beside him! Upon seeing this, Muchukunda did not understand head or tail of what had actually conspired. It is at this time, Bhagawan Krishna appears in front of Muchukunda for the first time. He thus comes out from His hiding place and stands in front of Muchukunda to grace him. Even as Bhagawan comes and stands in front of him, Muchukunda did not understand! He did not know who was standing in front of him! He thus asks Bhagawan Krishna a set of non-stop questions thus, “Oh! Who are you? What are you doing here? Why did you come here? You do not seem to be like a normal human being. I see you as some divine person. Are you one amongst the Devas (Celestial Beings)? Or are you Bhagawan Brahma or Bhagawan Shiva in human form? Who woke me up? Was it you or was it the person who had fallen here on the ground? Why did this person fall to ashes when I opened my eyes? Why did you hide yourself from me?”
As Muchukunda asks series of back-to-back questions thus, Bhagawan Krishna couldn’t control His laughter! He laughs aloud, seeing Muchukunda’s ignorance! In fact, just like how Bhagawan Krishna laughs out at Muchukunda, He’s doing the same everyday with us also! It is because we’re also amidst a huge cloud of sheer ignorance. Let us think for a moment here – We’re praying everyday to Bhagawan for attaining Moksha and finally upon hearing our prayers, Bhagawan gets moved by heart and appears in front of us! We’re not opening our eyes and are still chanting our “Mantra”. When Bhagawan calls out for us, what would be our reaction? Would we have that maturity to believe that Bhagawan is standing right in front of us to grant us the highest “Moksha”? For a moment we wouldn’t! It is of course because we’ve not seen Bhagawan in real till date, and we’ve also repeatedly heard and read from many sources that Bhagawan is somewhere far off at Vaikunta. Also, Bhagawan has innumerable ardent devotees who are calling Him and yearning for His presence every single minute. However, if He has to discard all of them and come towards us, just for our ordinary “Bhakti”, would we be able to believe it?
This is where our ignorance takes over! Thus, even if Bhagawan comes and stands in front of us, we wouldn’t recognize and realize Him isn’t it? This is exactly what Muchukunda faced – Even though Bhagawan Krishna was standing right in front of him, his sheer ignorance made him ask thousands of irrelevant questions to Bhagawan Krishna. In other words, how is Muchukunda to be bothered if Bhagawan Krishna was hiding or not? How is Muchukunda to be bothered for what reason Bhagawan Krishna had come there? All He should be doing upon seeing Bhagawan Krishna is to seek “Moksha” then and there, isn’t it? He did not do it! However, Bhagawan Krishna was kind and compassionate upon Muchukunda and replies thus, “Oh Muchukunda! It is not important as to why I came here, or why was I hiding. I’m Bhagawan Krishna standing in front of you! I’ve come here to grant you Moksha. Just take it and stop asking all these irrelevant questions to me!”
Upon understanding thus, Muchukunda falls on Bhagawan’s feet seeing apology to have made Him wait all this while. He thus receives the fortune of the Highest Moksha and finally descends to Vaikunta! With this, the “Muchukunda-Charitra” comes to an end. From this, the important lesson that we’ve to learn is that, whenever we’re praying to Bhagawan, we shouldn’t keep asking unwanted and unnecessary questions to Him, other than requesting Him to grant us the highest “Moksha”. So for today, let us realize and understand this point. We shall wait till the next episode to move on with the next important event. Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 