The Life of King Kulashekara

[Guest guest]

One

of the chief saints of the Sri Vaishnava tradition of South India

by Shyamasundara Dasa

 

The name of King Kulashekara is well known to followers

of Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada used to relish the Mukunda-mala-stotra,

written by this great saintly king.

 

Who Are the Alvars?

Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.39-40) states, "In the Age of Kali those

persons who drink the waters of the holy rivers of Dravida-desha [south

India], such as the Tamraparni, Krtamala, Payasvini, the extremely pious

Kaveri, and the Pratichi Mahanadi, will almost all be pure-hearted

devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva." The Alvars

are twelve especially great devotees who appeared in South India.

According to the traditions of the Sri Vaishnavas (one of the four

disciplic successions of Vaishnavas, devotees of Krishna or Vishnu),

the Alvars are not ordinary jivas (living entities) but are

incarnations of the parshadas (paraphernalia) of Lord Sri Krishna. The

Tamil word alvar means "drowned in love of God."

 

Although modern scholars say the Alvars appeared in the seventh to

ninth century A.D., according to the tradition of the Sri Sampradaya

they appeared between 4,700 and 6,200 years ago. Dates aside, the Alvars

all composed devotional songs, mostly in the Tamil language, in praise

of Lord Krishna and His incarnations. The songs embody elevated

knowledge of the science of God, and the followers of the Sri Sampradaya

consider them as good as the Vedas. The acharyas, or great spiritual

teachers, of the Sri Sampradaya, such as Nathamuni, Yamunacharya,

Ramanujacharya, Vedantadeshika, and Viraraghavacharya, learned not only

the four Sanskrit Vedas but also the Tamil Veda, or the

Divya-prabandha, consisting of the four thousand songs of the Alvars.

 

A Hidden Saint

Maharaja Kulashekara was born into the Chera dynasty of the royal

family of Travancore, the southern half of the modern state of Kerala,

in southwest India. The rulers of the land did not claim to own the

kingdom but considered themselves vassals and ministers to Ananta

Padmanabha Swami, the Deity of Vishnu, whom they regarded as the actual

owner of the land. Ananta Padmanabha, situated at Thiruvananthapuram

(Trivandrum), was, and still is, the worshipable Deity of the people of

that area. The kings of Travancore would come before the Lord at least

twice a day to offer obeisances and report on the administration of the

country. (The tradition of the Maharaja of Travancore's visiting Lord

Ananta Padmanabha Swami goes on to the present day, even though the king

has no real political power.) Such was the pious and saintly quality of

the ancient line of Vedic kings among whom Maharaja Kulashekara appeared.

 

Before the birth of Kulashekara (around 3,000 BC), his parents were

childless, a worrisome situation for a monarch. Kulashekara's father,

Drdhavrata Maharaja, prayed intensely and worshiped Lord Narayana, an

expansion of Lord Krishna. The Lord was pleased and blessed Drdhavrata

to have as his son a plenary portion of the Kaustubha gem, which Lord

Sri Krishna wears as a pendant on His neck. That son was Kulashekara.

 

To prepare for the throne of the Chera dynasty, Prince Kulashekara

learned warfare and government, as well as the Vedic scriptures. When

Kulashekara came of age, Drdhavrata installed him as the king and

retired to the forest to pursue undisturbed spiritual life, as

recommended in the scriptures for saintly kings.

Kulashekara was a kshatriya (ruler and military man) of great prowess

and became king not only of the Chera lands but also of the neighboring

lands of the Pandya and Chola dynasties. Kulashekara's flawless

administration stood for peace, virtue, justice, and happiness. He

nourished the people, and he personified magnanimity.

 

But despite his good qualities, the king was spiritually blind. Playing

the part of a worldly king given over to his senses, he considered

himself independent of God. But Lord Krishna had a plan for His servant

Kulashekara. By the causeless mercy of Lord Krishna, King Kulashekara's

consciousness gradually transformed. Spiritual perceptions dawned, and

he saw the world and its concerns at their real value. He was also

blessed with visions of the true nature of the Lord. According to the

Sri Vaishnava tradition, Lord Narayana sent Vishvaksena, His

commander-in-chief, to Kulashekara Alvar to initiate him into

Vaishnavism.

Blessed by the

mercy of the Lord, Kulashekara would often go into ecstasy. He recorded

his spiritual visions and deep realizations in devotional songs, which

became part of the Divya-prabandha. He now saw everything with purified

spiritual eyes and developed a strong sense of detachment. He would

daily condemn his responsible worldly position as king, ever hankering

to go to Sri Rangam, to the temple of the Deity Ranganatha Swami, to

stay there at the feet of the Lord forever. Sometimes he would sigh,

hankering to visit the holy shrine of Tirumalai (Tirupati) and have the

audience of the Deity Sri Venkateswara Swami. He would sometimes yearn

to go to another holy place—and another, and yet another—and at each

place reside for life. A divine love-sickness had set in.

 

Kulashekara felt shackled to the throne and could find no happiness in

royal wealth and splendor. To alleviate his spiritual thirst, he invited

sages to his capital. With them he carefully studied all the Vedic

scriptures. He plucked out the best pearls of wisdom and strung them

into a garland (mala) of poems called the Mukunda-mala. Srila Prabhupada

was especially fond of this work and would often sing one verse in

particular:

 

krsna tvadiya-pada-pankaja-panjarantam

adyaiva me visatu manasa-raja-hamsah

prana-prayana-samaye kapha-vata-pittaih

kanthavarodhana-vidhau smaranam kutas te

 

"O Lord Krishna, let the royal swan of my mind now enter the tangled

stems of the lotus of Your feet. How will it be possible for me to

remember You at the time of death, when my throat will be choked with

mucus, bile, and air?"

 

Lover of Rama

Kulashekara Alvar chose to hear daily from the Valmiki Ramayana, the

history of Lord Ramachandra, Lord Krishna's incarnation as the ideal

king. Kulashekara was so entranced in spiritual consciousness that he

lived and breathed the pastimes of Sri Rama and felt them to be ever

fresh and present.

 

One day, during the recitation of the Ramayana by his guru, Kulashekara

heard the following passage:

 

There twice seven thousand giants stand

With impious heart and cruel hand.

Here Rama stands, by virtue known;

How can the hero fight alone?

 

On hearing the line "How can the hero fight alone?" Kulashekara rose in

a frenzy of devotion for his Rama and commanded his army to march with

him to where Rama was fighting alone and helpless. To relieve

Kulashekara's distress, the ministers arranged for a party of soldiers

to meet him as he was going out and tell him that Rama had been

victorious. In spiritual delirium, Kulashekara believed their tale and

returned home.

 

The king celebrated with great care every important event mentioned

during the daily recital of the Ramayana. Kulashekara would have the

Deity of Sri Rama carried through the streets of the city in procession,

and then he would serve everyone a feast of prasadam, food offered to

Sri Rama.

 

To prevent Kulashekara from slipping into spiritual madness, his guru

sometimes skipped parts of the Ramayana that might disturb the king. One

day, however, the guru was absent and his son performed the reading

without discrimination. On hearing of the demon Ravana's kidnapping of

Sita, Lord Rama's wife, King Kulashekara, greatly angry in spiritual

ecstasy, shouted, "I must march across the sea, reduce Lanka to ashes,

slay its ruler Ravana with all his friends and kinsmen, rescue my

weeping mother Sita, and join Her with my father Sri Rama!"

 

Kulashekara rose, armed himself, gathered his army, marched to the sea,

and plunged in. It is said that the king's Deity of Lord Rama then

appeared to Kulashekara and consoled him.

 

In the company of Sita, Lord Rama said to Kulashekara, "O my faithful

servant, listen. We are returning victorious from the battlefield. Our

enemies have all perished, and we have rescued Sita Devi. Your wish has

been fulfilled. Let us all return to the city. Let me carry you to the

shore, just as I carry souls from the ocean of birth and death to the

shores of the spiritual world."

 

Then Sri Rama caught hold of Kulashekara, brought him safely to the

shore, and after accompanying him to the city, disappeared.

 

The king's ministers were deeply troubled. How could they help the king

manage the kingdom when he was in such a state? They concluded that his

association with devotees was the cause of his divine infatuation, and

they decided to wean him from that association. Meanwhile, the king had

decided to retire to Sri Rangam.

 

The ministers thought, "Once the king is there, he will never return."

So the ministers schemed to keep the king at home. Whenever the king

said he was about to leave for Sri Rangam, the ministers had a group of

Sri Vaishnavas come to the city, and the king would postpone his journey

on their account.

 

Soon, however, the king's court, his palace, his private apartments,

and all the public places were filled with Sri Vaishnavas. The king

allowed the devotees free access and familiarity; he venerated and

adored them.

 

The ministers saw the saintly

devotees as a nuisance and were in a quandary about what to do. If they

tried to dissuade the king from going to Sri Rangam, they would have to

suffer bringing the godly devotees to the kingdom; and if they tried to

cut the root of the king's divine ailment—the association of

devotees—the king would simply renounce his kingdom and depart.

 

The ministers then tried to discredit the devotees by blaming them for

the theft, which they arranged, of a valuable necklace belonging to the

king's personal Deity of Sri Rama. But when Kulashekara heard the

accusations, he exclaimed, "O ministers, lovers of God are incapable of

stealing. There is no vice in their thoughts or actions. To prove the

truth of my conviction and the falsity of your accusations against these

innocent devotees, let a vessel be brought to me with a venomous cobra

in it, and I shall thrust into that vessel my hand."

 

A servant carried out the command. The king thrust his hand into the

vessel of death, but withdrew it unharmed.

 

Ashamed, the ministers hung their heads. To trifle with the king, they

realized, was useless. They fell at his feet, confessed their trick,

brought the necklace, and placed it before him in fear and respect.

Maharaja Kulashekara pardoned them and asked them to become servants of

the Sri Vaishnavas.

 

"No more will I dwell with these vile and scheming ministers," the king

thought. "I am disgusted with them. Indeed, I am weary of the whole

world. I would prefer to leap into fire than keep company with brutes

turned away from God."

 

The King Retires

The saintly King Kulashekara decided to give up his kingdom. He

installed on the throne his son Drdhavrata (named after the young man's

grandfather) and, accompanied by his daughter, left for Sri Rangam.

 

On arriving at Sri Rangam, Kulashekara gave his daughter in marriage to

the Deity, Lord Ranganatha Himself. (Kulashekara's daughter is

considered a portion of Nila-devi, one of the Lord's energies.)

Kulashekara stayed at Sri Rangam for many years, engaged in the service

of the Lord and His devotees. He would sometimes go on pilgrimage to

other holy places, such as Tirupati, Ayodhya, and Chitrakuta. In Sri

Rangam, Kulashekara composed the Perumal-tirumoli, a work containing 103

devotional songs.

 

In his last days Kulasekara went to the shrine of Nammalvar at

Tirunagari,* near present-day Tirunelveli. From Tirunagari, he went to

the holy place called Brahmadesha Mannar-Koil, where he stayed for some

time serving the presiding Deity, Raja-gopala Swami. There, at age 67,

Kulashekara returned to the spiritual world.

 

*Tirunagari is the Tamil name for the Adi Keshava temple, where Lord

Chaitanya found the important scripture Brahma-samhita. Sri Vaishnava

scholars believe that the Brahma-samhita was revealed to Nammalvar in

trance and that he wrote it down. •