The King Who Served the Gods
King Muchukunda was a great warrior of ancient times who had fought alongside the gods for ages, protecting them from the asuras. His years of service were so long that by the time the gods no longer needed him, everyone and everything he had known on earth had perished.
Indra offered him any boon. Muchukunda said: "I am exhausted beyond measure. Let me sleep. And let any person who wakes me be burned to ash instantly by my gaze."
Indra agreed. Muchukunda lay down in a mountain cave and slept.
The Running Stranger
When Krishna was at Dvaraka, an asura king named Kalayavana — the foreigner-king — led a massive army against him. Rather than fight directly (there were reasons for this strategic restraint), Krishna led Kalayavana on a chase through the countryside and into a mountain cave.
Inside the cave was a figure lying in darkness. Kalayavana, thinking it was Krishna, kicked the sleeping form.
Muchukunda opened his eyes.
The gaze of his eyes, burning with the heat of ages of sleep and the boon of Indra, incinerated Kalayavana in an instant.
The Recognition
Muchukunda looked at Krishna standing in the entrance of the cave, radiant. He recognized the Lord immediately.
"I see before me the Lord of all worlds," he said, "dressed as a beautiful human, with arms that could embrace the cosmos. My eyes, opened to burn an enemy, have instead fallen on the Lord himself. This is the greatest fortune."
Krishnaa told him the truth about his long sleep — that entire ages had passed. Everything he had known was gone.
Muchukunda chose to renounce everything and go into the forest to perform tapasya. He was liberated in that life itself.