Shri Shatadhanva Ji

Shatadhanva was a Yadava nobleman of Dwaraka, and his story is bound to the Syamantaka jewel, one of the most coveted treasures in all the Puranas. The Syamantaka had been given by Surya, the Sun god, to Satrajit, and it possessed the power to produce eight loads of gold each day. Whichever land held the jewel would never suffer drought, famine, or calamity. The gem drew envy as a lamp draws moths, and its brilliance cast long shadows over the politics of the Yadava court.

When Krishna was away from Dwaraka, Akrura and Kritavarma incited Shatadhanva to murder Satrajit, the jewel's custodian and Krishna's own father-in-law, and to seize the Syamantaka for himself. Shatadhanva carried out the deed. Satyabhama, the daughter of the slain Satrajit and wife of Krishna, rushed to Hastinapura bearing her father's body preserved in oil, and there she reported the crime to her Lord. Krishna and Balarama returned to Dwaraka at once, resolved to bring the murderer to justice.

Shatadhanva, learning of their return, fled on his swiftest horse. The animal carried him a hundred yojanas at full gallop before its heart gave out and it collapsed on the outskirts of Mithila. Shatadhanva abandoned the dead horse and continued on foot, but Krishna pursued him on foot as well. The Lord overtook him and struck off his head. This account is given in the tenth canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, chapter fifty-seven, and forms a central episode in the saga of the Syamantaka jewel.

The Bhaktamal draws a particular teaching from this death. Even though Shatadhanva was a murderer and a thief, his destruction at the hands of the Lord was not mere punishment. Krishna granted him mukti, liberation from the cycle of birth and death. In the vision of the Bhagavata tradition, the Lord's weapons are not instruments of annihilation alone. The Sudarshana Chakra severs the bonds of samsara. Those whom Krishna slays are delivered, not destroyed. The touch of God, even when it arrives as the stroke of death, opens the door to freedom.

The same verse of the Bhaktamal also names Shri Utanka Ji. Utanka was a rishi who lived as a wandering ascetic in the Maru desert. His story appears in two places in the Mahabharata. In the Ashvamedhika Parva, the fourteenth book, Krishna encountered Utanka while returning to Dwaraka after the great war. The sage, who had been practicing austerities far from the battlefield, demanded to know why Krishna had not prevented the slaughter at Kurukshetra. He was furious and ready to curse the Lord Himself.

Krishna calmly explained that He had tried every path of peace, that Duryodhana had refused every offer, and that the war had been unavoidable for the restoration of dharma. Then, to dispel Utanka's rage entirely, Krishna revealed His Vishvarupa, His cosmic universal form. Utanka is counted among the very few beings in all of scripture who have witnessed that form. The others include Arjuna, Yashoda, Akrura, Dhritarashtra, Sanjaya, and Veda Vyasa. The sight dissolved Utanka's anger into devotion. Krishna then offered him a boon, and the sage asked only that he should find water whenever thirst seized him in the desert. From that day, the rare rain clouds that appear over the Maru desert have been called "Utanka's clouds."

The tilak commentary also mentions Shri Deval Ji and Shri Haridas (Amritang) Ji. Deval was a Brahmana and a mauni, a sage who had taken a vow of perpetual silence. Haridas, also known by the name Amrit, was his companion in renunciation. Both of them, from childhood onward, lived as tyagis, souls who had abandoned all worldly attachment, and both were devoted to Lord Rama. They are named together because their paths were inseparable. What one expressed through silence, the other echoed in devotion. Nabhadas honors them as "bada-bhagi," greatly fortunate, a term he reserves for those whose good fortune is not worldly prosperity but the early and total flowering of vairagya.

Finally, the verse turns to Shri Nahush Ji. There are two kings named Nahush in the Hindu lineages, one in the Solar dynasty and one in the Lunar dynasty. The tilak identifies the Nahush honored here as the Solar dynasty king of Ayodhya. When Indra, king of the gods, was forced to flee his throne on account of the sin of Brahma-hatya (the killing of a Brahmana, in his case the slaying of Vritra), the gods appointed Nahush to rule heaven in his place. But the intoxication of supreme power corrupted Nahush. He commanded the great rishis to carry his palanquin and, in his impatience to reach Indrani, kicked the sage Agastya and shouted "sarpa, sarpa" (move faster). Agastya, enraged, cursed Nahush with the very word he had used: "sarpo bhava," become a serpent. Nahush fell from heaven and lived for ages as a great snake in a mountain cave.

His liberation came during the exile of the Pandavas, countless years later. The serpent Nahush seized Bhima in his coils and refused to release him unless someone could answer his questions. Yudhishthira came searching for his brother and entered into a long philosophical dialogue with the snake, discussing dharma, the nature of caste, and the supremacy of conduct over birth. Yudhishthira's answers satisfied Nahush completely. By the power of that righteous conversation and the accumulated merit of the Pandava king, the curse was broken. Nahush shed his serpent form, regained his celestial body, and ascended to the highest abode. The Bhaktamal counts him among the blessed because even his fall was a preparation for grace. Pride brought him low, but the Lord arranged, across the long arc of time, the precise encounter that would set him free.