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Narayaneeyam Dasakam:83 Slaying of Paundraka&Sudhesna
Dasakam: 83 Slaying of Paundraka
When Balaram went to the cowherd village of Nanda, the King of Karusha thinking that he is the son of Vasudeva sent a messenger to KrishnaWith glories of Krishna being sung about, Krishna was well established in everybody's mind as the son of Vasudeva..
Paundraka was the king of Kashi. Emboldened by the flattery of childish courtiers Paundraka imagined himself to be Krishna the son of Vasudeva. So the foolish King sent a messenger to Lord Krishna. The messenger arrived in Dwaraka and conveyed the message to Krishna in the Royal assembly. He said,” I am the son of Vasudeva. The only one, who descended to this world, for showing mercy to the living beings. You give up your false designation. O Satvata !the symbols you carry out of ignorance do give them up and come to me for shelter, if not battle with me ‘ .
Hearing the boasts of the foolish King Paundraka with no intelligence, the members of the assembly headed by the King Ugrasena laughed loudly. After laughing off the challenge Lord Krishna conveyed his message through the messenger. “Oh Foolish King, the symbols you are talking about, I shall certainly throw them at you. When you are lying dead surrounded by vultures you will certainly be the shelter for the dogs “.
Having conveyed these strong words, Krishna mounted his chariot and left for Kasi. Learning that Krishna was coming, Paundaka moved with two Akshahaunis of army to face Krishna. His friend the King of Kasi too joined the battle with three Akshaunis of army. Paundraka carried all the symbols of the Lord carrying conch, disc like the Sudarshan, bow and sword and mace. He was wearing yellow garments, and a garland of flowers. He looked like an actor entering the stage. The enemies of the Lord attacked with tridents, clubs, bludgeons, swords axes and arrows.
The Lord attacked furiously using his arrows, his famous disc and the sword. Having destroyed his armies, Lord addressed the King,“Oh Paundraka, those symbols you talked about through the messenger, I am releasing them now “. So saying Lord destroyed Paundraka's chariot with his arrows and then cut of the head of Paundraka with his famous disc. When he severed the head of Paundraka with his disc, the head flew off and fell at the gates of his royal palace. People recognized that the severed head as that of their King, they were distressed. The King's son Sudheshna performed the last rites and with a will to destroy the enemies of his father performed worship of Lord Siva.
Satisfied by the worship, the Lord Siva gave the benediction desired by Sudheshna without thinking. The chosen benediction was to give means to slay the killer of his father. The Lord Siva told Sudhesna, to render service to Dakshinagni following the ritual specified by the Brahmans. The fire so propitiated can be directed against anybody not inimical to Brahmans. He will attack such persons with full force of Lord Sivas followers.
So instructed Sudheshna followed the rituals and invoked the Dakshinagni which released a fiery creature and the creature was directed against Lord Krishna. The uncontrollably torrid fiery creature approached Dwaraka; the residents of Dwaraka were terrified. But the Lord Krishna as always gave them protection and released his Sudarshan disc. The Lords power disabled and frustrated the fiery creature which retreated and burned down its own creator and his priests. Lord's Disc also entered Varanasi and burned down the city.After burning all of Varanasi, Lord Vishnu's disc, the Sudarshan returned to the side of Lord Krishna who accomplished everything without difficultyLord Krsna killed Paundraka and his friend Kasiraja on the battlefield, and then He returned to His capital city, Dvaraka.
When Lord Krsna returned to the city of Dvaraka, all the Siddhas from the heavenly planets were singing the glories of the Lord. As far as Paundraka was concerned, somehow or other he was always thinking of Lord Vasudeva by falsely dressing himself in that way, and therefore Paundraka achieved sarupya, one of the five kinds of liberation, and was thus promoted to the Vaikuntha planets, where the devotees have the same bodily features as Visnu, with four hands holding the four symbols. Factually, his meditation was concentrated on the Visnu form, but because he thought himself to be Lord Visnu, it was offensive. After being killed bykrishna, however, that offense was also mitigated. Thus he was given sarupya liberation, and he attained the same form as the Lord.