We were discussing events in Mathura after Kamsa was killed by Krishna. Kamsa’s father-in-law, namely Jarasandha was furious about the killing of Kamsa. He wanted to wipe out the entire Yadava clan to which Krishna belonged to avenge Kamsa’s death.
Jarasandha encircled Mathura from all sides with his huge army. His soldiers started massacring the residents of Mathura. Krishna and Balarama resisted his attack. But Jarasandha refused to fight with them since he felt that they were no match for him, being young boys. But these were no ordinary boys. They went on attacking Jarasandha and finally, Balarama captured him. But Krishna had no intention to kill Jarasandha. He had a different plan for him. So, he asked Balarama to free Jarasandha.
Jarasandha was quite humiliated by the defeat. He returned to his Kingdom. But he did not keep quiet. He kept attacking Mathura again and again, though he failed each time. Krishna was tired of Jarasandha’s attempts. But for some strange reason he did not want to kill him. Probably, Jarasandha’s death was to happen in some other way!
While Krishna was busy repelling attacks by Jarasandha, one Warrior from far west of India attacked Mathura. This warrior was called Kalayavana. He came with a huge army of Mlechchas. Normally, the word Yavana was used to refer to Greeks in ancient India. And the so called Barbaric Mlechchas are supposed to be people residing in far west of India between Greece and India. So, Kalayavana was probably a Greek warrior. He had heard so much about Krishna that he wanted to challenge him in a fight.
Now Krishna was in a fix. On one hand, Jarasandha was creating intermittent problems. And on the other, this Yavana was challenging him for a fight. If Krishna focused on Yavana, Jarasandha would massacre Yadavas to avenge Kamsa’s death. So, finally Krishna decided to shift all the Yadavas to a safe place far away from Mathura, completely out of reach of Jarasandha.
Krishna chose Dwarika, an island city near the coasts of modern day Gujarath in western India, as the place to settle the Yadavas. That was an ancient city built on the land reclaimed from the sea. It was a well-planned city with tall skyscrapers and well laid out roads and other amenities. Krishna got the city renovated and moved his people to that place. Today, this city is completely submerged in the sea leaving back only the remnants of old structures and well-planned roads.
After diverting the attention of Jarasandha for the moment, Krishna wanted to finish off the Yavana. Instead of confronting him directly, Krishna stealthily walked out from his palace, completely unarmed with no guards or other security measures. The Yavana was quite curious about this move of Krishna. He did not want to attack Krishna since Krishna was unarmed. He merely followed Krishna from a distance.
Krishna kept misleading the Yavana and finally entered a forest. The Yavana saw Krishna entering a cave in the forest. So, he too followed Krishna into the cave. It was completely dark inside. In the darkness, Yavana saw Krishna taking rest in the cave. Yavana thought that Krishna must have been tired and hence taking rest. So, he went near the sleeping person and kicked him hard.
But the person who was sleeping there was not Krishna. He was a great warrior called Muchukunda. This Muchukunda belonged to a bygone era. As a warrior, Muchukunda had been a great protector of the people in distress. The Gods were so pleased with Muchukunda that they advised him to take some rest, assuring him that no one would ever disturb his sleep. If anyone did, then such a person would burn to ashes.
Assured by the Gods, it was Muchukunda who was resting in the cave. Krishna’s purpose of leading the Yavana there was both to give an audience to Muchukunda and finish off the Yavana. So, when the Yavana kicked Muchukunda, Muchukunda was woken up. And as per the boon he had received from the Gods, Yavana at once burnt to ashes. Muchukunda also had the opportunity to meet face to face with the God incarnate.
Muchukunda wanted to attain liberation. But Krishna advised him to take up Sanyasa and move to Himalayas. Krishna promised him that he would attain liberation in his next birth after clearing all his Karmic bonds.
Krishna returned to Mathura only to be faced with Jarasandha. Krishna was in no mood to fight with Jarasandha. So, Krishna started running towards a mountain along with Balarama. Jarasandha followed Krishna with his army with the intention to capture Krishna. Once Krishna reached the mountain, he appeared to have just vanished.
Jarasandha’s soldier searched for Krishna, but found him nowhere. Furious Jarasandha set fire to the entire forest on the mountain. He was sure that Krishna would be caught in that fire and die. But nothing of that sort really happened. Krishna escaped unscathed. He quietly moved to Dwarika where his people were waiting for him.
Jarasandha waited for a while. But finally concluded that Krishna could have been burnt alive in the wild fire that he raised. So, he returned back to his kingdom with the satisfaction of having killed all the Yadavas including Krishna.
In this way, one big chapter in Krishna’s life was coming to an end. He was born in the North Indian city of Mathura. He spent his toddler days among the cowherds in Gokul and Vrindavan. He went to Avanti in central India for his studies. He established his contacts with another of the big empires in Northern India, namely Hastinapur. That connection played a big role in his future life as we see later.
And finally, Krishna left Mathura and migrated to Dwarika in the western coast of India, along with his people. From a mischievous rustic child, he was gradually shaping into a mature statesman during the process.
Let us move our spotlight to Dwarika for the next part of the story. Please join me in the next episode.
Got to know many details that I hadn't known earlier,like the story of muchukunda.
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