CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE The Deliverance of Mucukunda

Although Kālayavana was seeing Lord Kṛṣṇa with his own eyes, he could not adequately appreciate the beautiful Lord. Thus instead of worshiping Kṛṣṇa, he attacked Him. Similarly, it is not uncommon for modern men to attack Kṛṣṇa in the name of philosophy, “law and order” and even religion.

The Lord exhibits here His opulence of renunciation. Determined to execute His plan and give His blessings to Mucukunda, the Lord ignored Kālayavana’s insults and calmly proceeded with His program.

The man who incinerated Kālayavana with his glance was named Mucukunda. As he will explain to Lord Kṛṣṇa, he had fought for a long time on behalf of the demigods, finally taking as his benediction the right to sleep undisturbed. The Hari-vaṁśa explains that he secured the further benediction of being able to destroy anyone who disturbed his sleep. Ācārya Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura quotes from the Śrī Hari-vaṁśa as follows:

“Again and again Mucukunda said, ‘O demigods, with eyes blazing with anger, may I incinerate anyone who awakens me from sleep.’”

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī explains that Mucukunda made this rather morbid request to scare Lord Indra, who, Mucukunda thought, might otherwise wake him repeatedly to request his help in fighting Indra’s cosmic enemies. Indra’s consent to Mucukunda’s request is described in Śrī Viṣṇu Purāṇa as follows:

“The demigods declared, ‘Whoever awakens you from sleep will suddenly be burnt to ashes by a fire generated from his own body.’”

The universe is created to gradually rectify the contaminated souls trying to exploit material nature. The Lord moves the conditioned souls along, according to their karma, through the various stages of spiritual rectification. Thus the Lord is like a herdsman (the word paśu-pāla literally means “protector of animals”), who moves the creatures under his protection to various pastures and watering spots in order to protect them and sustain them. A further analogy is that of a doctor, who moves the patient under his care to various areas of a hospital for diverse kinds of examination and treatment. Similarly, the Lord brings us through the network of material existence in a gradual cleansing process so that we can enjoy our eternal life of bliss and knowledge as His enlightened associates. Thus all of Mucukunda’s relatives, friends and co-workers had long ago been swept away by the force of time, which of course is Kṛṣṇa Himself.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura gives the following lines from an alternate reading of this chapter. These lines are to be inserted between the two halves of this verse:

“The King, exhausted by his labor, then chose sleep as his benediction. He further stated, ‘O best of the demigods, may whoever disturbs my sleep be immediately burned to ashes.’ The demigods replied, ‘So be it,’ and told him, ‘That insensitive person who wakes you in the middle of your sleep will immediately turn to ashes simply by your seeing him.’”

It is significant that text 24 states, catur-bhujaṁ rocamānam: “The Lord was seen in the beauty of His four-armed form.” Throughout this great work, we find Lord Kṛṣṇa manifesting His various transcendental forms, most prominently the two-armed form of Kṛṣṇa and the four-armed form of Nārāyaṇa or Viṣṇu. Thus there is no doubt that Kṛṣṇa and Viṣṇu are nondifferent, or that Kṛṣṇa is the original form of the Lord. These things are sometimes misunderstood, but the great ācāryas, experts in spiritual science, have clarified the matter for us. God in His original form is not merely the creator, maintainer and destroyer, or the punisher of conditioned souls, but rather the infinitely beautiful Godhead, enjoying in His own right, in His own abode. This is the form of Kṛṣṇa, the same Kṛṣṇa who expands Himself into Viṣṇu forms for the maintenance of our bumbling world.

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī mentions that the word śaṅkitaḥ, “having some doubt,” indicates that Mucukunda was thinking, “Is this indeed the Supreme Lord?” He expresses himself frankly in the following verses.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī points out that with His effulgence Lord Kṛṣṇa dispelled not only the darkness of the mountain cave but also the darkness in Mucukunda’s heart. In Sanskrit the heart is sometimes metaphorically referred to as guha, “cavern,” a deep and secret place.

When the Supreme Lord descends to this world, He certainly becomes nara-puṅgava, the most eminent member of human society. Of course, the Lord is not actually a human being, and Mucukunda’s questions will lead to a clarification of this point. Thus the term śuśrūṣatām, “to us, who are sincerely eager to hear,” indicates that Mucukunda is inquiring in a noble way for his own and others’ benefit.

It is common in Vedic culture that a kṣatriya will humbly introduce himself as kṣatra-bandhu, a mere relative in a kṣatriya family, or in other words a fallen kṣatriya. In ancient Vedic culture, to claim a particular status on the basis of one’s family relations was itself indicative of a fallen position. Kṣatriyas and brāhmaṇas should be given status according to their merit, by their qualities of work and character. When the caste system in India became degraded, people proudly claimed to be relatives of kṣatriyas or brāhmaṇas, though in the past such a claim, unaccompanied by tangible qualifications, indicated a fallen position.

Kālayavana had declared himself the enemy of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and the Yadu dynasty. Through Mucukunda, Śrī Kṛṣṇa destroyed the opposition of that foolish barbarian.

It is apparent from this verse that Mucukunda was a devotee of the Supreme Lord. He had prayed for the Lord’s association, and now Śrī Kṛṣṇa granted his fervent request.

The ācāryas explain that we lament when we feel incomplete, when we have lost something or when we fail to achieve something desirable. One who has satisfied Kṛṣṇa and thus attained the Lord’s mercy will never be troubled in these ways. Lord Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of all pleasure, and He enjoys sharing His spiritual bliss with all living beings. We need only cooperate with the Supreme Lord.

Although the Lord here appears as four-handed Nārāyaṇa, we may say that Mucukunda was addressing Śrī Kṛṣṇa. All of this is taking place within the context of kṛṣṇa-līlā, the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. It is well known to Vaiṣṇavas that the four-handed forms of Viṣṇu, or Nārāyaṇa, are expansions of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Thus within the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa there may also appear viṣṇu-līlā, the activities of Viṣṇu. Such are the qualities and activities of the Supreme Godhead. Deeds that for us would be extraordinary and even impossible are commonplace, effortless pastimes for the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī informs us that Mucukunda was aware of the prediction of the ancient sage Garga that in the twenty-eighth millennium the Supreme Lord would descend. According to Ācārya Viśvanātha, Garga Muni further informed Mucukunda that he would personally see the Lord. Now it was all happening.

Mucukunda immediately makes it clear that he is not going to ask the Lord for material blessings. He has advanced, spiritually, far beyond those who try to exploit religion for all kinds of material benefits. Artha means “value,” and the negation of this word, anartha, means “that which is valueless or useless.” Thus the term anartha-dṛk indicates those whose vision is focused on valueless things, who have not understood what actual artha, or value, is. All that glitters is not gold, and Mucukunda here emphatically states that we should not ruin our spiritual chances by entangling ourselves in the fool’s gold of bodily relationships. We are meant to love the Lord.

Our real home is in the kingdom of God. Despite our tenacious determination to remain in our material home, death will rudely eject us from the theater of material affairs. To stay at home is not bad, nor is it bad to devote ourselves to our loved ones. But we must understand that our real home is eternal, in the spiritual kingdom.

The word ayatnataḥ indicates that human life has been automatically awarded to us. We have not constructed our human bodies, and therefore we should not foolishly claim, “This body is mine.” The human form is a gift of God and should be used to achieve the perfection of God consciousness. One who does not understand this is asan-mati, possessed of dull, mundane understanding.

Having in the previous verse condemned those who misuse the valuable human form of life for mundane purposes, Mucukunda now admits that he himself falls into this category. He intelligently wants to take advantage of the Lord’s association and become a pure devotee once and for all.

We may note here the contrast between the words pramattam and apramattaḥ. Those who are trying to exploit the material world are pramatta: “deluded, bewildered, maddened by desire.” But the Lord is apramatta: “alert, sober, and unbewildered.” In our madness we may deny God or His laws, but the Lord is sober and will not fail to reward or punish us according to the quality of our activities.

In the United States and other materially developed countries, dead bodies are cosmetically disposed of in a tidy ceremonial way, but in many parts of the world old, sickly and injured people die in lonely or neglected places, where dogs and jackals consume their bodies and transform them into stool. And if one is so blessed as to be buried in a coffin, one’s body may very well be consumed by worms and other minuscule creatures. Also, many earthly cadavers are burned and thus transformed into ashes. In any case, death is certain, and the ultimate fate of the body is never sublime. That is the real purport of Mucukunda’s statement here — that the body, though now called “king,” “prince,” “beauty queen,” “upper-middle class” and so on, will eventually be called “stool,” “worms” and “ashes.”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī quotes the following Vedic statement:

“After passing through many thousands of species and undergoing great struggle, the conditioned living entities finally obtain the human form. Thus those human beings who still do not worship Lord Viṣṇu, who can bring them real happiness, have certainly become enemies of both themselves and humanity.”

Ācāryas Jīva Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī agree on the following point: Although it is stated here that when material life ceases one attains the association of devotees, in fact it is the association of the Lord’s devotees that enables one to transcend material existence. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains this apparent inversion of sequence by quoting the Kāvya-prakāśa (10.153) as follows: kārya-kāraṇayoś ca paurvāparya-viparyayo vijñeyātiśayoktiḥ syāt sa. “A statement in which the logical order of a cause and its effect is reversed should be understood as atiśayokti, emphasis by extreme assertion.” Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī cites the following commentary on this statement: kāraṇasya śīghra-kārītāṁ vaktuṁ kāryasya pūrvam uktau. “To express the swift action of a cause, one may assert the result before the cause.”

In this connection Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī points out that the merciful association of the Lord’s devotees makes possible our determination to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. And the ācārya agrees with Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī that this verse is an instance of atiśayokti.

The Lord offered Mucukunda anything he desired, but Mucukunda desired only the Lord. This is pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

The word nirguṇam here indicates that the Lord’s existence is beyond the qualities of material nature. One might argue that Lord Kṛṣṇa’s body is made of material nature, but here the word advayam refutes that argument. There is no duality in Lord Kṛṣṇa’s existence. His eternal, spiritual body is Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is God.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa states in the Bhagavad-gītā (5.29), suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati: “A person attains peace by understanding Me to be the well-wishing friend of all living beings.” Lord Kṛṣṇa and His pure devotees work together to rescue the fallen souls from the ocean of illusion. This is the real purport of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.