Who are the four Kumāras?

Just as Nārada Muni, the four Kumāras are empowered by the Lord to transmit transcendental knowledge. At the beginning of their lives, they were Brahmavādīs, but later became attracted by the Lord.

The four Kumāras are briefly described in the Srimad Bhagavatam in the chapters dealing with the creation of Brahma, and later became the protagonists of the curse of Jaya and Vijaya, which led to the appearance of Hiraṇyākṣa and Hiraṇyakaśipu. Another pastime involving the four Kumāras is their appearance in the assembly of Pṛthu Maharaja and the deep spiritual instructions they give to him.

Just as Nārada Muni, the four Kumāras are empowered by the Lord to transmit transcendental knowledge. At the beginning of their lives, they were Brahmavādīs, who had received instructions on the jñāna-kāṇḍa section of the Vedas from Brahma and were more attracted to the impersonal aspect of the absolute truth. However, when they went to the Vaikuṇṭha-lokas, they were immediately attracted by the aroma of the Tulasī offered to the Lord and became perfect Vaishnavas.

The four Kumāras live in the planetary system of Tapoloka, the planetary system immediately under Brahmaloka. That’s a place inhabited by great mystics. Just like Lord Brahma, the four Kumāras have very refined bodies, practically without any trace of material elements. They are so exalted that they can’t even be seen by human beings or ordinary demigods, but on some special occasions, they become visible to give spiritual instructions. They are described as siddheśvaras, masters of all mystic power due to their perfection in yoga-practice, and as naiṣṭhika-brahmacārīs, because they never got involved with women. When they were born, Brahma asked them to get married and help to increase the population, but the Kumāras refused to do so, preferring to remain as young children who are never affected by sexual desires. This incident led to the appearance of Lord Shiva from between the eyebrows of Brahma when he became angry at their response.

In the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, Gopa Kumāra eventually reached Tapoloka, where he met with the Kumāras. Initially, being fully absorbed in meditation, they ignored him, but eventually, they became compassionate and showed him the forms of the Lord they were meditating on inside their hearts.

Later in the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is described that the four Kumāras appeared in the royal assembly of Pṛthu Maharaja to give him spiritual instructions. In this event, everyone could see the four Kumāras coming from the sky, just like four suns descending to the Earth, and hear their enlightening dialogue with Pṛthu Maharaja.

Just like Nārada Muni, the four Kumāras can travel in outer space by their own powers, without the need for any vehicle. Because their bodies are so pure and subtle, they travel invisibly to most of the inhabitants of the universe until they decide to make themselves visible to fulfill some purpose. They never desire to visit any sinful place, and therefore, they rarely come to Earth, apart from visiting Lord Shiva in Kailāsa. However, Pṛthu was such a pious ruler that during his reign, the whole planet became sinless, and thus the Kumāras decided to come and see the King.

Prabhupada explains that “birds of a feather flock together.” One of the symptoms of a saintly person is that he is eager to associate with other saintly persons. Being a wise and saintly King, Pṛthu Maharaja surrounded himself with ministers and officers of the same nature, and they were also very eager to receive and serve the Kumāras.

King Pṛthu acted exemplarily by respectfully receiving the sages, sitting them, bowing down in all humility, and worshiping them. He personally washed their feet and sprinkled the water over his hair. The Kumāras are the ācāryas of the Kumāra sampradāya, which, together with the Brahma sampradāya, Śrī sampradāya, and Rudra sampradāya, form the four bona fide Vaishnava sampradāyas. The four Kumāras are thus extremely exalted personalities, and King Pṛthu received them in the most exemplary way.

After they were comfortably seated on a golden throne, Pṛthu Maharaja offered heartfelt prayers to the great sages. These prayers are described in chapter 4.22 of the Sriimad Bhagavatam.

“King Pṛthu spoke: My dear great sages, auspiciousness personified, it is very difficult for even the mystic yogīs to see you. Indeed, you are very rarely seen. I do not know what kind of pious activity I performed for you to grace me by appearing before me without difficulty.

Any person upon whom the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas are pleased can achieve anything which is very rare to obtain in this world as well as after death. Not only that, but one also receives the favor of the auspicious Lord Śiva and Lord Viṣṇu, who accompany the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas.” (SB 4.22.7-8)

“Mahārāja Pṛthu offered his welcome to the four Kumāras, addressing them as the best of the brāhmaṇas. He welcomed them, saying: From the beginning of your birth you strictly observed the vows of celibacy, and although you are experienced in the path of liberation, you are keeping yourselves just like small children.” (SB 4.22.12)

It’s customary etiquette that when we receive a person, we ask about their welfare. In the case of the Kumāras, however, there was no question of any misery or sorrow, since they are fully situated in the transcendental platform. As Krsna explains on the Gītā (18.54), as soon as one attains the platform of liberation, he becomes completely joyful, and never laments or desires anything. This platform of liberation, however, is just the beginning of a higher stage, where one gradually develops pure devotional service to the Lord. This is the stage of turīya, described in the Māṇḍūkya Upanisad. The four Kumāras are extremely high in this ultimate platform, and therefore, we can imagine how much beyond ordinary material lamentation they are. King Pṛthu thus avoided wasting time asking about their welfare, concentrating instead on inquiring about how to become free from materialistic life.

In his purport to text 4.22.14, Prabhupada expands this idea, making the point that in reality all souls exist eternally in a platform of spiritual bliss, and the material conditioning is just like a hallucination or a dream:

“We think ourselves created by material nature exactly as we think ourselves experiencing so many things in a dream. The spirit soul, however, is always transcendental. There is no question of becoming materially covered. This covering is simply something like a hallucination or a dream. In Bhagavad-gītā (2.62) it is also said, saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ: simply by association we create artificial material necessities. Dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ saṅgas teṣūpajāyate: when we forget our real constitutional position and wish to enjoy the material resources, our material desires manifest, and we associate with varieties of material enjoyment. As soon as the concoctions of material enjoyment are there, because of our association we create a sort of lust or eagerness to enjoy them, and when that false enjoyment does not actually make us happy, we create another illusion, known as anger, and by the manifestation of anger, the illusion becomes stronger. When we are illusioned in this way, forgetfulness of our relationship with Kṛṣṇa follows, and by thus losing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, our real intelligence is defeated. In this way we become entangled in this material world.”

In other words, Prabhupada makes the point that our stay in this material world is not factual, and happens only due to material illusion. As soon as this material illusion is removed by realized transcendental knowledge, we immediately see ourselves again as pure souls engaged in the eternal service of the Lord. This idea is strongly supported in the teachings of Lord Kapila in the 3rd canto, where he describes how the original consciousness of the soul is reflected in the false ego, mind, intelligence and senses, and from there permeates the material body, without directly coming in contact with it, just like the light of the sun entering a dark room through a small orifice, being reflected in a vessel of water and from there reflected again in the walls of the room, illuminating the whole place.

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