Jarasandha was a very powerful demon. He had given both his daughters in marriage to King Kansa of Mathura. After Lord Krishna had killed Kansa, his two wives went back to their father Jarasandha and lied, “Father, Krishna killed Kansa by unfair means and we will not be satisfied until the death of our husband is avenged.” So, Jarasandha vowed to destroy Lord Krishna to avenge his son-in-law’s death. He raised a huge army of demons from all over the world to help him conquer Mathura. Jarasandha decided to teach Lord Krishna and His clan, Yadavas, a lesson.
Jarasandha attacked Mathura seventeen times with his demon army. Lord Krishna killed his entire army every time but avoided killing Jarasandha.
One day, Lord Krishna received disturbing news that Jarasandha had forged an alliance with several other kings to destroy the Yadava clan forever.
Jarasandha’s alliance had only one aim–destroy Mathura and the Yadava clan.
When the alliance began its march towards Mathura, the Yadavas were helpless. Jarasandha then hit upon the idea of shifting the capital from Mathura to Dwarka. Lord Krishna placed the suggestion before his grandfather, King Ugrasena. King Ugrasena said, “Krishna, if You run away from the battlefield, You shall forever be known as a Ranchod or the one who has run away from a battlefield.” Lord Krishna smiled at this.
Lord Krishna did not worry about being called a Ranchod. He said to his grandfather, “I already have many names and one more does not make any difference.” But Balarama wanted to fight against Jarasandha.
Lord Krishna gently reminded him, “War is not the way to solve all the problems. The confederacy of kings against Mathura is so great that it would lead to the death of countless people.” Everyone reluctantly accepted Lord Krishna’s suggestion.
King Ugrasena wondered how a new city could be built in such a short span of time. When the citizens of Mathura were sleeping, Lord Krishna called for Vishwakarma, the architect of the demi-gods, and told him to build the beautiful city of Dwarka within the sea.
The architect showed Krishna and King Ugrasena the plan of the new city, saying, “My Lord, the city will be built only if Samudradeva, the god of the sea, gives us some land.” Thus, Lord Krishna worshipped Samudradeva, who was pleased and gave them land. Soon, Vishwakarma built Dwarka, the ‘city of gold’.
Lord Krishna said to Balarama, “This city, with a fortified fort surrounded by the ocean, will protect my people while we deal with the demons.” Then, Lord Krishna transported everyone to Dwarka. When they woke up in the morning, they were living in a beautiful city in the middle of the ocean.
A demon king, Kalyavana, wanted to avenge his father’s insult. His father was Garg Muni and he wanted to destroy the Yadava clan. So, he joined hands with Jarasandha to destroy Mathura. They planned to attack from the east and the west, simultaneously. However, when Jarasandha and Kalyavana reached Mathura, an empty city awaited them.
An enraged Jarasandha destroyed Mathura and called Krishna a Ranchod: Ran meaning war and Chod meaning run away. Just then, Lord Krishna came to meet Kalyavana, in His Vishnu form. Immediately, Kalyavana started chasing Lord Krishna, who quickly ran away towards a distant mountain-cave.
King Kalyavana had performed severe penances and obtained a boon from Lord Shiva that he could not be killed by any Yadava. Lord Krishna knew that he could not kill Kalyavana because of Lord Shiva’s boon and decided to kill him through trickery.
When Kalyavana came after Him, He pretended fear and ran away from the battlefield. But Kalyavana followed Him like a shadow. Running on and on, Krishna led Kalyavana into a cave where a king named Muchukunda was sleeping soundly. As soon as Krishna went near him, He took off his yellow silk garment and laid it over the sleeping king. ‘This cowherd is now hiding in the cave,’ thought demon-king Kalyavana, and he came inside the cave. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Lord Krishna sleeping inside.
Evil Kalyavana kicked the sleeping man assuming him to be Lord Krishna. This man was King Muchukunda, who had been sleeping there for a long time. King Muchukunda ruled the Earth during the Krita Yuga and had helped the gods in the battle against demons. Then Karttik, son of Lord Shiva, took over as the general of the army of the gods. King Muchukunda had not slept for many years as he often fought against the demons to protect the gods in heaven; he was very tired. Thousands of years had elapsed and there was no one on the earth that King Muchukunda could relate to.
King Muchukunda wanted to attain moksha (salvation) for the services he offered to the gods. The gods said, “We want to help you but we are incapable of granting moksha as it could be granted by Lord Vishnu only.” So, King Muchukunda asked the gods to grant him the boon of sleep, and whoever disturbed his sleep, should be instantaneously reduced to ashes. The gods granted King Muchukunda the boon and showed him a cave where he could rest.
When Kalyavana kicked King Muchukunda, he opened his eyes and the rays of fire emanated from his eyes. At once, Kalyavana turned into ashes. King Muchukunda who was now fully awake was blessed with the rare sighting as Lord Krishna appeared before the king in the form of Lord Vishnu. The king was granted moksha for his devotion. Thus, Lord Krishna’s plan of destroying another demon succeeded.
