19810720 On King Kulaśekhara's Mukundamālā Stotra

The following is a South Indian Bhajana Performance with explanations given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on July 20th, 1981 in Madras (Chennai), India.

*performers singing*

Jayapatākā Swami: He is glorifying his Lord who is the protector of His devotees and who is the ultimate shelter of all of the living entities.

Actually, Jagan-nivāse. The universe, all the living entities on the universe, they are all resting under the divine potency of the Lord. Some are conscious of that and some are unconscious. To become conscious means to become liberated from the material illusion. So this liberation or consciousness cannot be achieved by mental speculation, it cannot be achieved by any type of material endeavor. Therefore, Mahārāja Kulaśekhara takes shelter of praying to the Lord, Mukunda, the giver of this transcendental liberation, this transcendental realization. Because by His mercy alone can this be achieved very easily. He offers all glories unto the Lord who has taken birth in the womb of Devakī. He glorifies Kṛṣṇa who is the source, original source of all the Viṣṇu expansions. Just as it is mentioned in the Brahma-saṁhitā, that the Lord, He expands Himself. Just like a candle lighting another candle, He puts His full potency into the other Viṣṇu forms.

dīpārcir eva hi daśāntaram abhyupetya 
dīpāyate vivṛta-hetu-samāna-dharmā 
yas tādṛg eva hi ca viṣṇutayā vibhāti 
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
(Bs. 5.46)

The light of one candle being communicated to other candles, although it burns separately in them, is the same in its quality. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda who exhibits Himself equally in the same mobile manner in His various manifestations.

So Kulaśekhara glorifies Kṛṣṇa who has the color of a monsoon cloud and who has the features and beauty which is far greater than the lotus flower. That Lord, who is the giver of transcendental liberation from material illusion and who gives the devotion to His lotus feet. He surrenders to Mukunda, Lord Kṛṣṇa. And in His full surrender, He is not asking for anything but the service, the service at His lotus feet and the protection from this dangerous material world of birth and death. He offers the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa - Mukunda, his repeated obeisances and he offers his obeisances, seeing that the Lord is coming to him in the form of spiritual master to deliver him from the hellish existence of this material world. He prays to the Lord that he may manifest His transcendental presence in his heart. In this way, the transcendental presence of the Lord, constantly thinking about Him, remembering Him, hearing about Him – this is the absorption of Mahārāja Kulaśekhara.

Although Kulaśekhara was a king, he was a married man, this did not stop him from focusing his attention on thinking and hearing about the Lord. Therefore every family man or renounced person should take this example and allow the mind to go and meditate and think of the lotus feet of Mukunda, Kṛṣṇa. He says, cintayāmi harim eva santataṁ (Mukunda-māla-stotra 7) – thinking of the Lord who is always happy, always smiling. In this world there is no peace, but when we can think about the transcendental Lord who is always blissful, paramānanda mādhavam, then we become happy. This is what His Divine Grace Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda requested. Let everyone simply meditate on Nandagopa-tanayam – remember the beloved son of Nanda Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa. Be happy in that transcendental service and make others happy by preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So this Mahārāja Kulasekhara has also advised us, in this Mukunda-stotram, to thus become transcendental to the material world by always being absorbed in the meditation of these transcendental qualities of Kṛṣṇa.