Meditation on the Story of Kuchela (The significance of the story)

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The Vedanta Kesari, p. 306-310, August 2005, Ramakrishna Mission

As a rule, the Lord is averse to bestowing affluence on His true devotees lest their devotional pursuits should face needless impediments. But, in the case of Kuchela, the Lord is not chary, when occasion demands, of conferring wealth on him.

This is because the Lord knows that the armour of devotion that Kuchela wears is proof against even the worst assaults of opulence. The moral of the Kuchela story is that true dispassion is more a mental state of renunciation than a physical abstention from wealth and its cozy comforts. True, Kuchela, as a typical devotee, does not grumble about his involuntary poverty but even welcomes it as a godsend. But, when involuntary poverty is withdrawn and denied, he does not sulk in helplessness but embraces, again as a typical devotee, voluntary poverty and spurns the comforts of wealth. He remains the same old Kuchela, austere and abstemious and ever in meditation on the Lord.

Kuchela's wife is symbolized by the bird of the Mundaka Upanisad that sits on the branch of a tree and eats fruits, both sweet and bitter. She is a typical samsarin going through the varied experiences of life in ignorance. Kuchela represents jiva's intellect-aspect, which, by discrimination, realizes the hollowness of empirical life, focuses on higher values and fastens on the non-dual Spirit. He is symbolized by the same bird less in its functional aspect of eating than in that of longingly looking at another bird perched quietly on a higher branch, a mute witness to its own stupid actions. The tranquil bird, ever in a state of lofty spiritual poise, represents Krishna, the Divine who is the absolute of Vedanta.

Kuchela's journey to Krishna represented by the agitated bird's slow gravitation to the tranquil bird, means jiva's shaking off of mind's tyranny and gradually coming under the chastening influence of discriminating intellect oriented to the Divine. Kuchela's delight in the company of Krishna represented by the agitated bird's discovery of its essential oneness with the tranquil bird means the ecstasy of jiva's spiritual awakening and experience of oneness with Brahman, the Absolute. It means that the differences between the Bhagavan and the bhakta are only apparent and melt away in the white heat of spiritual realization.

Kuchela, on his way back after his meeting with Krishna, represents the jivanmukta reveling in spiritual bliss and endowed with unitive vision. To Kuchela, the jivanmukta, a bar of gold and a clod of earth are one and the same. No wonder he remains stable and calm both in chronic adversity and cozy affluence. The relevant verses in the Mundaka Upanisad read as follows.

Two birds, companions (who are) always united, cling to the self-same tree. Of these two, the one eats the sweet fruit and the other looks on without eating.

On the self-same tree, a person immersed (in the sorrows of the world) is deluded and grieves on account of his helplessness. When he sees the other, the Lord who is worshipped and his greatness, he becomes freed from sorrow. Epics and Puranas are, essentially, magnifying glasses that enlarge and illumine the subtle truths of Vedanta. It is certainly apt and delightful to read the above allegorical meaning in the popular story of the great devotee Kuchela that occurs in the 10 canto of Srimad Bhagavatam.

About the author

Mr. Hariharan of Madurai occasionally contributes thoughtful articles to The Vedanta Kesari.