The Lord and his pretender – Paundraka Vasudeva

 

The Lord and his pretender – Paundraka Vasudeva

We all hero worship many people – sportsmen or sports women, leaders, scientists, teachers and in many cases even actors / actresses. We buy clothes like theirs, try and copy their mannerisms, way of talking etc. We think this is a modern day phenomenon? Certainly not. It was happening 5000 years ago during Krishna’s times.

Once in a kingdom called as Karusha there was a king by the name of Paundraka. Paundraka was a friend of King Kamsa. Naturally being a friend of Kamsa, he was against Krishna. He was also jealous of Krishna’s popularity. Knowing his weakness, all his friends told him he is equal to or better than Krishna. They foolishly even encouraged him to dress up and behave like Krishna.

Paundraka was foolish and vain enough to believe them and start doing the same. He painted his body dark blue in colour, attached some arms with shanka and chakra. He carried a flute too. Unfortunately, a donkey dressing as a peacock does not become a peacock.

Paundraka decided to take his dramatics one step further. Egged by his sycophantic friends he sent a messenger to Dwaraka. The messenger arrived at Dwaraka and met Krishna in his court. The messenger came to Krishna. Lord Krishna gave him a mischievous smile knowing fully well what was to come. “Oh do tell us what the King of Karusha has sent you for.”

The messenger conveyed to the assembly. “Lord, My Lord and king, the great Paundraka, has conveyed that he is the real son of Vasudeva, who has descended on Mother Earth to protect and show mercy to all living beings. He has asked you to give up your pretence and throne and ask him for mercy.”

The whole assembly of Krishna laughed hearing the arrogant boasts of Paundraka as conveyed by the messenger. Once the laughter died down, Lord Krishna said to the messenger “Please convey to your king that I shall certainly give him the symbols that I carry – the shanka and the chakra. But I will do it in battle. Your king’s dead body can be the shelter for birds and animals on a hot day.”

The messenger conveyed this reply of Lord Krishna to the pretender Paundraka. Things got worse and eventually Krishna came to battle Paundraka. Paundraka’s army and Krishna were to face each other. Hearing about this, the King of Kashi also brought his three akshohini forces to help his friend Paundraka.

Paundraka like the fool that he was carried all the symbols that are associated with the Lord – a conch, a disc that looked like the Sudarshana, a bow, sword and a mace. He wore yellow garments and had a garland of flowers. He was wearing a peacock feather too in his crown. He looked like an actor in a play rather than a king.

Paundraka’s and Krishna’s armies attacked Lord Krishna together with various weapons – swords, arrows, axes and clubs. Krishna was unfazed. He destroyed the entire akshohinis of both the kings that of Paundraka and the king of Kashi. The armies were destroyed completely. Then Krishna told Paundraka “Paundraka, I am now releasing the symbols of mine that you imitate and talked about through your messenger.” Then Krishna destroyed the chariot of Paundraka with his arrows and released the might Sudarshana chakra. The chakra severed the head of Paundraka and threw it at the palace gates of Paundaraka.

Seeing the severed head the citizens of Paundraka were distressed. His son Sudeshna got angry. He performed his father’s last rites and then a sever penance praying to Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva, being the kind hearted God that he is asked Sudeshna what he wanted. When asked for a way to kill his father’s slayer, Krishna, Shiva told him to render service Dakshinagni. Shiva told him that the Dakshniagni will burn anyone except one who is a protector of brahmins.

The Dakshinagni came as a fiery creature and moved towards Dwaraka. The citizens of Dwaraka came running to Krishna for protection. Krishna released his Sudarashana chakra again. Unable to bear the heat of the chakra, the fiery creature went back to its creators and burnt down Sudeshna, his priests who chanted the mantra for creating it and the city of Kashi. Having done its job, it came back to Lord Krishna.

This story tells us that divinity is not just symbols but much more. It also is a strong lesson on misuse of vedic mantras for destructive purposes. It is not allowed and can harm the creators themselves.