SrI: SrImathE satakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama: SrI vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:
Seeing vAsudhEva krishNa’s glories, the king of karUsha named pauNdraka considered himself to be the true vAsudhEva and supreme lord. He carried Sankha, chakra etc similar to krishNa and was roaming around. Once through a messenger, he sent a message to dhvArakA stating “krishNa! I am the true vAsudhEva. I am the only one qualified to be the refuge for all. Thus, you should give up your name vAsudhEva and Sankha, chakra, sword, mace etc. Otherwise, you come and fight with me”. Hearing this elders such as ugrasEna laughed. krishNa heard the message and sent a return message through the same messenger stating “Fool! I will soon defeat you”.
krishNa climbed on his chariot and reached near kASi. Since the king of kASi was a friend of pauNdraka, as pauNdraka marched forward, kASirAja followed him for his support along with a huge army. pauNdraka had the same style, clothes, mannerisms, weapons, ornaments as krishNa. krishNa looked at these and laughed. Subsequently, a great war started. The enemies attacked krishNa in many ways. krishNa used his chakra and other weapons and destroyed the enemies. Then, he severed pauNdraka’s head using his chakra. Then, he severed the kASirAja’s head using arrows. He then returned to dhvArakA. Since pauNdraka was always thinking about krishNa, he attained the ultimate destination.
Subsequently, kASirAja’s son sudhakshiNa performed a great penance towards rudhra to take revenge against krishNa. Appreciating his penance, rudhra told sudhakshiNa to engage in abhichAra vidhi (black magic to harm someone) with dhakshiNAgni and he obliged. A huge form of fire came out of it and went towards dhvArakA. The residents of dhvArakA became frightened and surrendered to krishNa. krishNa with his chakra drove away that fire. That fire returned to kASi and killed sudhakshiNa who sent that fire and the town of kASi and finally it also got finished.
In AzhwArs’ pAsurams, this incident is shown in a few places.
- thirumazhisai AzhwAr in his thiruchchandha virtuththam says “kAysinaththa kAsi mannan vakkaran pavuNdiran” (krishNa killed the king of kASi who was very angry, dhanthavakra and pauNdraka).
- In the commentary for nammAzhwAr’s thiruvAimozhi pAsuram “oru nAyagamAy Oda ulagudan ANdavar” nampiLLai explains “Kings like pauNdraka vAsudhEva”.
- In the commentary for thirumangai AzhwAr’s periya thirumozhi pAsuram “pugarAr uruvAgi munindhavanaip pugazh vIda munindhu uyir uNdu asuran nagarAyina pAzh pada nAmam eRindhu” (the demon who was having a greatly radiant form and who showed anger, destroyed, to turn his capital cities into ruins and to even make his name erased), periyavAchchAn piLLai says the demon here could either be pauNdraka or hiraNyAksha.
A similar incident of seemAlika getting killed is shown by periyAzhwAr in his periyAzhwAr thirumozhi “seemAlikan avanOdu thOzhamai koLLavum vallAy sAmARu avanai nI eNNich chakkaraththAl thalai koNdAy” (You are able to have friendship with seemAlika; but you also severed his head with your chakra to have him killed).
maNavALa mAmunigaL who has mercifully given commentary for this has explained seemAlika charithram beautifully. He also says that this incident is shown in ithihAsam etc. mAlika, who was a demon, was considered as a friend by krishNa. He learnt weaponry from bhagavAn. But he tormented noble sages with that ability. krishNa was thinking “Since he is my friend, how can I kill him?” One day mAlika came to krishNa and requested “You teach me how to use the chakra”. krishNa first refused. mAlika then spoke to him angrily. krishNa considered that as a reason to kill mAlika. He taught seemAlika how to launch the chakra. But he did not teach how to receive the chakra in return. When mAlika took the chakra from krishNa’s hand and launched it, as it was returning, mAlika did not know how to receive the chakra, it severed seemAlikA’s head and returned to krishNa. Since he was krishNa’s friend, his name SrImAlika (seemAlika) remained eternally.
Essence in this incident:
- The truth is, all the AthmAs are bhagavAn’s servitors. Some claim themselves to be bhagavAn, ISvara etc. If one believes them and follows them, they will also go to the path of destruction along with them who claim they are god themselves.
- One may dress like bhagavAn, be friends with bhagavAn, if one does not have true love towards bhagavAn, bhagavAn easily destroys them
Source – https://granthams.koyil.org/2023/10/17/krishna-leela-41/
adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan
archived in https://granthams.koyil.org
pramEyam (goal) – https://koyil.org
pramANam (scriptures) – https://granthams.koyil.org
pramAthA (preceptors) – https://acharyas.koyil.org
srIvaishNava Education/Kids Portal – https://pillai.koyil.org