Pauṇḍraka, the False Vāsudeva

Since Lord Rāma had gone to Nanda-vraja, Pauṇḍraka foolishly thought that Lord Kṛṣṇa would be alone and therefore easy to challenge. Thus he dared to send his crazy message to the Lord.

Pauṇḍraka foolishly accepted the flattery of ignorant persons.

According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, the reason Śukadeva Gosvāmī here mentions for the second time that Pauṇḍraka sent a message to Lord Kṛṣṇa is that the great sage is astonished at Pauṇḍraka’s extreme foolishness.

Inspired by Goddess Sarasvatī, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī gives the real import of these two verses: “I am not Vāsudeva incarnate, but rather You alone, and no one else, are Vāsudeva. Since You have descended to show mercy to the living beings, please make me give up my false designation, which is like that of an oyster claiming to be silver.” The Supreme Lord will certainly comply with this request.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī again interprets Pauṇḍraka’s words according to the inspiration of Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning. Thus they may be understood to mean “Out of foolishness I have assumed an imitation conchshell, disc, lotus and club, and You are maintaining these by allowing me to use them. You have not yet subdued me and gotten rid of these imitation symbols. Therefore please mercifully come and liberate me by forcing me to give them up. Give me battle, and grant me liberation by killing me.”

The Sanskrit word utsrakṣye means “I will hurl, throw, let loose, abandon, etc.” Foolish Pauṇḍraka demanded that Lord Kṛṣṇa give up His powerful weapons, such as the disc and the club, and here the Lord replies, utsrakṣye mūḍha cihnāni: “Yes, fool, I will indeed let loose these weapons when we meet on the battlefield.”

In Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrīla Prabhupāda nicely describes this scene as follows: “When all the members of the royal assembly, including King Ugrasena, heard this message sent by Pauṇḍraka, they laughed very loudly for a considerable time. After enjoying the loud laughter of all the members of the assembly, Kṛṣṇa replied to the messenger as follows: ‘O messenger of Pauṇḍraka, you may carry My message to your master. He is a foolish rascal. I directly call him a rascal, and I refuse to follow his instructions. I shall never give up the symbols of Vāsudeva, especially My disc. I shall use this disc to kill not only King Pauṇḍraka but all his followers also. I shall destroy this Pauṇḍraka and his foolish associates, who merely constitute a society of cheaters and the cheated.’”

Pauṇḍraka foolishly told the Supreme Lord to come to him for shelter, but here Lord Kṛṣṇa tells him, “You are not My shelter, but rather you will become the shelter of dogs when they happily feast on your dead body.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda vividly describes this scene as follows: “[Lord Kṛṣṇa told Pauṇḍraka, “When I shall destroy you,] foolish King, you will then have to conceal your face in disgrace, and when your head is severed from your body by My disc, it will be surrounded by meat-eating birds like vultures, hawks and eagles. At that time, instead of becoming My shelter, as you have demanded, you will be subject to the mercy of these lowborn birds. At that time your body will be thrown to the dogs, who will eat it with great pleasure.’”

In Kṛṣṇa, Śrīla Prabhupāda describes this incident as follows: “The messenger carried the words of Lord Kṛṣṇa to his master, Pauṇḍraka, who patiently heard all these insults. Without waiting any longer, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa immediately started out on His chariot to punish the rascal Pauṇḍraka, the King of Karūṣa. Because at that time the he was living with his friend the King of Kāśī, Kṛṣṇa surrounded the whole city of Kāśī.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments in Kṛṣṇa: “When the two kings came before Lord Kṛṣṇa to oppose Him, Kṛṣṇa saw Pauṇḍraka face to face for the first time.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda describes this scene as follows: “On the whole, however, [Pauṇḍraka’s] dress and makeup were clearly imitation. Anyone could understand that he was just like someone on stage playing the part of Vāsudeva in false dress. When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa saw Pauṇḍraka imitating His posture and dress, He could not check His laughter, and thus He laughed with great satisfaction.”

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī points out that it was a benediction from Lord Śiva that enabled Pauṇḍraka to imitate the Lord’s dress and appearance exactly — a fact gleaned from the Uttara-khaṇḍa of Śrī Padma Purāṇa.

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments as follows in Kṛṣṇa: “The soldiers on the side of King Pauṇḍraka began to shower their weapons upon Kṛṣṇa. The weapons, including various kinds of tridents, clubs, poles, lances, swords, daggers and arrows, came flying in waves, and Kṛṣṇa counteracted them. He smashed not only the weapons but also the soldiers and assistants of Pauṇḍraka, just as during the dissolution of this universe the fire of devastation burns everything to ashes. The elephants, chariots, horses and infantry belonging to the opposite party were scattered by the weapons of Kṛṣṇa.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda describes this scene as follows: “Although the devastated battlefield appeared like the dancing place of Lord Śiva at the time of the dissolution of the world, the warriors who were on the side of Kṛṣṇa were very much encouraged by seeing this, and they fought with greater strength.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda writes as follows in Kṛṣṇa: “At this time Lord Kṛṣṇa told Pauṇḍraka, ‘Pauṇḍraka, you requested Me to give up the symbols of Lord Viṣṇu, specifically My disc. Now I will give it up to you. Be careful! You falsely declare yourself to be Vāsudeva, imitating Me. Therefore no one is a greater fool than you.’ From this statement of Kṛṣṇa’s it is clear that any rascal who advertises himself as God is the greatest fool in human society.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda writes as follows: “Now, Pauṇḍraka, I shall force you to give up this false representation. You wanted Me to surrender unto you. Now this is your opportunity. We shall fight, and if I am defeated and you become victorious, I shall certainly surrender unto you.”

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī explains why Kṛṣṇa threw Kāśirāja’s head into the city: “As he went off to battle, the King of Kāśī had promised the citizens: ‘My dear residents of Kāśī, today I will bring the enemy’s head into the midst of the city. Have no doubt of this.’ The King’s sinful queens had also boasted to their maids-in-waiting: ‘Today our master will certainly bring the head of the Lord of Dvārakā.’ Therefore the Supreme Lord threw the King’s head into the city to astonish the inhabitants.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda writes as follows in Kṛṣṇa: “As far as Pauṇḍraka was concerned, somehow or other he always thought of Vāsudeva by falsely dressing himself in imitation of the Lord. Therefore Pauṇḍraka achieved sārūpya, one of the five kinds of liberation, and was thus promoted to the Vaikuṇṭha planets, where the devotees have the same bodily features as Viṣṇu, with four hands holding the four symbols. Factually, his meditation was concentrated on the Viṣṇu form, but because he thought himself Lord Viṣṇu, he was offensive. After being killed by Kṛṣṇa, however, that offense was also mitigated. Thus he was given sārūpya liberation, and he attained the same form as the Lord.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda writes as follows: “When the head of the King of Kāśī was thrown through the city gate, people gathered and were astonished to see that wonderful thing. When they found out that there were earrings on it, they could understand that it was someone’s head. They conjectured as to whose head it might be. Some thought it was Kṛṣṇa’s head because Kṛṣṇa was the enemy of Kāśirāja, and they calculated that the King of Kāśī might have thrown Kṛṣṇa’s head into the city so that the people might take pleasure in the enemy’s having been killed. But it was finally detected that the head was not Kṛṣṇa’s but that of Kāśirāja himself.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “The lord of the kingdom of Kāśi is Viśvanātha (Lord Śiva). The temple of Lord Viśvanātha is still existing in Vārāṇasī, and many thousands of pilgrims still gather daily in that temple.”

It is clearly stated here that the powerful Dakṣiṇāgni fire could be directed only against someone unfavorable to brahminical culture. Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, is most favorable to the brāhmaṇas and in fact maintains the brahminical culture. Lord Śiva thus knew that if Sudakṣiṇa attempted to direct the power of this ritual against Lord Kṛṣṇa, Sudakṣiṇa himself would perish.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī comments that Lord Kṛṣṇa, playing the part of a king, was absorbed in a gambling match and did not want to be disturbed by such an insignificant matter as the attack of a fiery demon. So He simply dispatched His cakra weapon and ordered him to take the necessary steps.

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments as follows: “Having failed to set fire to Dvārakā, the fiery demon went back to Vārāṇasī, the kingdom of Kāśirāja. As a result of his return, all the priests who had helped instruct the black art of mantras, along with their employer, Sudakṣiṇa, were burned into ashes by the glaring effulgence of the fiery demon. According to the methods of black-art mantras instructed in the tantra, if the mantra fails to kill the enemy, then, because it must kill someone, it kills the original creator. Sudakṣiṇa was the originator, and the priests assisted him; therefore all of them were burned to ashes. This is the way of the demons: the demons create something to kill God, but by the same weapon the demons themselves are killed.”