Sri Krishna Madbhagavatam
59. Talks Between Kṛṣṇa and
Rukmiṇī
Once upon a time, Lord Kṛṣṇa the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, the bestower of all knowledge to all living entities
from Brahmā to the insignificant ant, was sitting in the bedroom of Rukmiṇī, who was
engaged in the service of the Lord along with her assistant maidservants. Kṛṣṇa was sitting on
the bedstead of Rukmiṇī,
and the maidservants were engaged in fanning Him with cāmaras (yak-tail
fly-whisks).
Lord Kṛṣṇa's dealings with Rukmiṇī as a perfect
husband is a perfect manifestation of the supreme perfection of the Personality
of Godhead. There are many philosophers who propound a concept of the Absolute
Truth in which God cannot do this or that. They deny the incarnation of God, or
the Supreme Absolute Truth in human form. But actually, the fact is different:
God cannot be subject to our imperfect sensual activities. He is the
all-powerful, omnipresent Personality of Godhead, and by His supreme will, He
can not only create, maintain and annihilate the whole cosmic manifestation,
but He can also descend as an ordinary human being in order to execute the
highest mission. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, whenever there are
discrepancies in the discharge of human occupational duties, He descends. He is
not forced to appear by any external agency, but descends by His own internal
potency in order to reestablish the standard functions of human activities as
well as to simultaneously annihilate the disturbing elements in the progressive
march of human civilization. In accordance with this principle of the
transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He descended in
His eternal form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa in
the dynasty of the Yadus.
The palace of Rukmiṇī was
wonderfully furnished. There were many canopies hanging on the ceiling with
laces bedecked with pearl garlands, and the whole palace was illuminated by the
effulgence of valuable jewels. There were many flower orchards of baela and
cāmeli, which are considered to be the most fragrant flowers in India. There
were many clusters of these plants, with blooming flowers enhancing the beauty
of the palace. And because of the exquisite fragrance of the flowers, little
groups of humming bees were gathered around the trees, and at night the
pleasing moonshine glittered through the network of holes in the windows. There
were many heavily flowered trees of pārijāta, and the mild wind stirred the
flavor of the flowers all around. Within the walls of the palace, there was
incense burning, and the fragrant smoke was leaking out of the window shutters.
Within the room there were mattresses covered with white bedsheets resembling
the foam of milk; the bedding was as soft and white as milk foam. In this
situation, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa
was very comfortably sitting and enjoying the service of Rukmiṇījī assisted by
her maidservants.
Rukmiṇī was also very eager to get the opportunity of
serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead as her husband. She therefore wanted
to serve the Lord personally and took the handle of the cāmara from the hand of
the maidservant and began to move the fan. The handle of the cāmara was made of
gold, decorated and bedecked with valuable jewels, and it became more beautiful
when it was taken by Rukmiṇī, because all of her fingers were beautifully set
with jeweled rings. Her legs were decorated with ankle bells and jewels, which
rang very softly between the pleats of her sari. Rukmiṇī's raised
breasts were smeared with kuṅkuma and saffron; thus her beauty was enhanced by
the reflection of the reddish color emanating from her covered breasts. The
highly raised lower part of her buttocks was decorated with a jeweled lace
girdle, and a locket of great effulgence hung on her neck. Above all, because
she was engaged in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa--although at that time she was old enough to have
grown-up sons--her beautiful body was beyond compare in the three worlds. When
we take account of her beautiful face, it appears that the curling hair on her
head, the beautiful earrings on her ears, her smiling mouth, and her necklace
of gold, all combined to shower rains of nectar; and it was definitely proved
that Rukmiṇī
was none other than the original goddess of fortune who is always engaged in
the service of the lotus feet of Nārāyaṇa.
The pastimes of Kṛṣṇa and Rukmiṇī in Dvārakā are
accepted by great authorities as manifestations of those of Nārāyaṇa and Lakṣmī, which are of
an exalted opulence. The pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana are simple and rural, distinguished from
the polished urban characteristics of those of Dvārakā. The characteristics of
Rukmiṇī
were unusually bright, and Kṛṣṇa was very much satisfied with her behavior.
Kṛṣṇa had experienced that when Rukmiṇī was offered a
pārijāta flower by Nārada Muni, Satyabhāmā had become envious of her co-wife
and had immediately demanded a similar flower from Kṛṣṇa. In fact, she
could not be pacified until she was promised the whole tree. That was actually
done by Kṛṣṇa;
the tree was brought down to the earth planet from the heavenly kingdom. After
this episode, Kṛṣṇa
expected that because Satyabhāmā had been rewarded by a full tree of pārijāta,
Rukmiṇī
would also demand something. Rukmiṇī did not mention anything of the incident,
however, for she was grave and simply satisfied in her service. Kṛṣṇa wanted to see
her a bit irritated, and therefore He schemed in order to see the beautiful
face of Rukmiṇī in
an irritated condition. Although Kṛṣṇa had more than 16,100 wives, He used to behave
with each of them with familial affection; He would create a particular
situation between Himself and His wife in which the wife would criticize Him in
the irritation of love, and Kṛṣṇa would enjoy this. In this case, because Kṛṣṇa could not find
any fault with Rukmiṇī,
for she was very great and always engaged in His service, He smilingly, in
great love, began to speak to her. Rukmiṇī was the daughter of King Bhīṣmaka, a powerful
king. Thus Kṛṣṇa
did not address her as Rukmiṇī; He addressed her this time as the princess.
"My dear princess, it is very surprising. Many great personalities in the
royal order wanted to marry you. Although not all of them were kings, all
possessed the opulence and riches of the kingly order; they were well-behaved,
learned, famous among kings, beautiful in their bodily features and personal
qualifications, liberal, very powerful in strength, and advanced in every
respect. They were not unfit in any way, and over and above that, your father
and your brother had no objection to such marriages. On the contrary, they gave
their word of honor that you would be married with Śiśupāla; the marriage was
sanctioned by your parents. Śiśupāla was a great king and was so lusty and mad
after your beauty that if he had married you, I think he would always have
remained with you just like your faithful servant.
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"In comparison to Śiśupāla, with his
personal qualities, I am nothing. And you may personally realize it. I am
surprised that you rejected the marriage with Śiśupāla and accepted Me, who
am inferior in comparison to Śiśupāla. I think Myself completely unfit to be
your husband because you are so beautiful, sober, grave and exalted. May I
inquire from you the reason that induced you to accept Me? Now, of course, I
can address you as My beautiful wife, but still I may inform you of My actual
position--that I am inferior to all those princes who wanted to marry you.
"First of all, you may know that I was so
much afraid of Jarāsandha that I could not dare to live on the land, and thus
I have constructed this house within the water of the sea. It is not My
business to disclose this secret to others, but you must know that I am not
very heroic; I am a coward and am afraid of them. Still I am not safe,
because all the great kings of the land are inimical to Me. I have personally
created this inimical feeling by fighting with them in many ways. Another
fault is that although I am on the throne of Dvārakā, I have no immediate
claim. Although I got a kingdom by killing My maternal uncle, Kaṁsa, the
kingdom was to go to My grandfather; so actually I have no possession of a
kingdom. Besides that, I have no fixed aim in life. People cannot understand
Me very well. What is the ultimate goal of My life? They know very well that
I was a cowherd boy in Vṛndāvana. People expected that I would follow the
footsteps of My foster father, Nanda Mahārāja, and be faithful to Śrīmatī
Rādhārāṇī
and all Her friends in the village of Vṛndāvana. But all of a sudden I left them. I
wanted to become a famous prince. Still I could not have any kingdom, nor
could I rule as a prince. People are bewildered about My ultimate goal of
life; they do not know whether I am a cowherd boy or a prince, whether I am
the son of Nanda Mahārāja or the son of Vasudeva. Because I have no fixed aim
in life, people may call Me a vagabond. Therefore, I am surprised that you
could select such a vagabond husband.
"Besides this, I am not very much polished,
even in social etiquette. A person should be satisfied with one wife, but you
see I have married many times, and I have more than 16,000 wives. I cannot
please all of them as a polished husband. My behavior with them is not very
nice, and I know you are very much conscious of it. I sometimes create a
situation with My wives which is not very happy. Because I was trained in a
village in My childhood, I am not well acquainted with the etiquette of urban
life. I do not know the way to please a wife with nice words and behavior.
And from practical experience it is found that any woman who follows My way
or becomes attracted by Me is ultimately left to cry for the rest of her
life. In Vṛndāvana,
many gopīs were attracted to Me, and now I have left them, and they are
living but are simply crying for Me in separation. I have heard from Akrūra
and Uddhava that since I left Vṛndāvana, all My cowherd boy friends, the gopīs
and Rādhārāṇī,
and My foster father Nanda Mahārāja, are simply crying constantly for Me. I
have left Vṛndāvana
for good and am now engaged with the queens in Dvārakā, but I am not
well-behaved with any of you. So you can very easily understand that I have
no steadiness of character; I am not a very reliable husband. The net result
of being attracted to Me is to acquire a life of bereavement only.
My dear beautiful princess, you may also know
that I am always penniless. Just after My birth, I was carried penniless to
the house of Nanda Mahārāja, and I was raised just like a cowherd boy.
Although My foster father possessed many hundreds of thousands of cows, I was
not proprietor of even one of them. I was simply entrusted to take care of
them and tender them, but I was not the proprietor. Here also, I am not
proprietor of anything, but am always penniless. There is no cause to lament
for such a penniless condition; I possessed nothing in the past, so why
should I lament that I do not possess anything at present? You may note also
that My devotees are not very opulent persons; they also are very poor in
worldly goods. Those who are very rich, possessing worldly wealth, are not
interested in devotion to Me or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. On the contrary, when a person
becomes penniless, whether by force or by circumstances, he may become
interested in Me if he gets the proper opportunity. Persons who are proud of
their riches, even if they are offered association with My devotees, do not
take advantage of consciousness of Me. In other words, the poorer class of
men may have some interest in Me, but the richer class of men have no
interest. I think, therefore, that your selection of Me was not very
intelligent. You appear to be very intelligent, trained by your father and
brother, but ultimately you have made a great mistake in selecting your
life's companion.
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"But there is no harm; it is better late than
never. You are at liberty to select a suitable husband who is actually an equal
to you in opulence, family tradition, wealth, beauty, education--in all
respects. Whatever mistakes you may have made may be forgotten. Now you may
chalk out your own lucrative path of life. Usually a person does not establish
a marital relationship with a person who is either higher or lower than his
position. My dear daughter of the King of Vidarbha, I think you did not
consider very sagaciously before your marriage. Thus you made a wrong selection
by choosing Me as your husband. You mistakenly heard about My having very
exalted character, although factually I was nothing more than a beggar. Without
seeing Me and My actual position, simply by hearing about Me, you selected Me
as your husband. That was not very rightly done. Therefore I advise you that it
is better late than never; you can now select one of the great kṣatriya princes
and accept him as your life's companion, and you can reject Me."
Kṛṣṇa was proposing that Rukmiṇī divorce Him at
a time when Rukmiṇī
already had many grown-up children. Therefore Kṛṣṇa's whole proposition to Rukmiṇī appeared to be
something unexpected, because according to Vedic culture there was no such
thing as separation of husband and wife by divorce. Nor was it possible for Rukmiṇī to do so in
advanced age, when she had many married sons. Each and every one of Kṛṣṇa's proposals
appeared to Rukmiṇī to
be crazy, and she was surprised that Kṛṣṇa could say such things. Simple as she was, her
anxiety was increasing more and more at the thought of separation from Kṛṣṇa.
Kṛṣṇa continued: "After all, you have to prepare
yourself for your next life. I therefore advise that you select someone who can
help you both in this life and the next life, for I am completely unable to
help. My dear beautiful princess, you know that all the members of the princely
order, including Śiśupāla, Śālva, Jarāsandha, Dantavakra and even your elder
brother Rukmī, are all My enemies; they do not like Me at all. They hate Me
from the cores of their hearts. All these princes were very much puffed up with
their worldly possessions, and they did not care a fig for anyone who came
before them. In order to teach them some lessons, I agreed to kidnap you
according to your desire; otherwise I actually have no love for you, although
you loved Me even before the marriage
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"As I have already explained, I am not very
much interested in family life or love between husband and wife. By nature, I
am not very fond of family life, wife, children, home and opulences. As My
devotees are always neglectful of all these worldly possessions, I am also
like that. Actually, I am interested in self-realization; that gives Me
pleasure, and not this family life." After submitting His statement,
Lord Kṛṣṇa
suddenly stopped.
The great authority Śukadeva Gosvāmī remarks that
Kṛṣṇa
almost always passed His time with Rukmiṇī, and Rukmiṇī was a bit proud to be so fortunate that Kṛṣṇa
never left her even for a moment. Kṛṣṇa, however, does not like any of His devotees to
be proud. As soon as a devotee becomes so, by some tactic He cuts down that
pride. In this case also, Kṛṣṇa said many things which were hard for Rukmiṇī to hear. She
could only conclude that although she was proud of her position, Kṛṣṇa
could be separated from her at any moment.
Rukmiṇī was conscious that her husband was not an
ordinary human being. He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master
of the three worlds. By the way He was speaking, she was afraid of being
separated from the Lord, for she had never heard such harsh words from Kṛṣṇa
before. Thus she became perplexed with fear of separation, and her heart
began to palpitate. Without replying to a word of Kṛṣṇa's
statement, she simply cried in great anxiety, as if being drowned in an ocean
of grief. She silently scratched the ground with the nails of her toes, which
were reflecting reddish light on the ground. The tears from her eyes were
pink, mixed with the black cosmetic ointment from her eyelids, and the waters
were dropping down, washing the kuṅkuma and saffron from her breasts. Choked up on
account of great anxiety, unable to speak even a word, she kept her head
downward and remained standing just like a stick. Due to extremely painful
fearfulness and lamentation, she lost all her reasoning powers and became so
weak that immediately her body lost so much weight that the bangles on her
wrists became slackened. The cāmara rod with which she was serving Kṛṣṇa
immediately fell from her hand. Her brain and memory became puzzled, and she
lost consciousness. The nicely combed hair on her head scattered here and
there, and she fell down straight, like a banana tree cut down by a
whirlwind.
Lord Kṛṣṇa immediately realized that Rukmiṇī had not
taken His words in a joking spirit. She had taken them very seriously, and in
her extreme anxiety over immediate separation from Him, she had fallen into
this condition. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is naturally very affectionate toward His
devotees, and seeing Rukmiṇī's condition, His heart immediately became
softened. At once He became merciful to her. The relationship between Kṛṣṇa
and Rukmiṇī
was as Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa; therefore,
He appeared before her in His four-handed manifestation of Nārāyaṇa. He got down
from the bedstead, brought her up by her hands, and, placing His cooling
hands on her face, smoothed the scattered hairs on her head. Lord Kṛṣṇa
dried the wet breast of Rukmiṇījī with His hand. Understanding the seriousness
of Rukmiṇī's
love for Him, He embraced her to His chest.
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The Supreme Personality is very expert in putting a
thing reasonably for one's understanding, and thus He tried to retract all that
He said before. He is the only resort for all the devotees, and so He knows
very well how to satisfy His pure devotees. Kṛṣṇa understood that Rukmiṇī could not
follow the statements which He had made in a joking way. To counteract her
confusion, He again began to speak, as follows.
"My dear daughter of King Vidarbha, My dear
Rukmiṇī,
please do not misunderstand Me. Don't be unkind unto Me like this. I know you
are sincerely and seriously attached to Me; you are My eternal companion. The
words which have affected you so much are not factual. I wanted to irritate you
a bit, and I was expecting you to make counter answers to those joking words.
Unfortunately, you have taken them seriously; I am very sorry for it. I
expected that your red lips would tremble in anger on hearing My statement and
you would chastise Me in many words. O perfection of love, I never expected
that your condition would be like this. I expected that you would put your blinking
eyes upon Me in retaliation, and in that way, I would be able to see your
beautiful face in that angry mood.
"My dear beautiful wife, you know that we are
householders. We are always busy in many household affairs, so we long for a
time that we can enjoy some joking words between us. That is our ultimate game
in household life. Actually, the householders work very hard day and night, but
all fatigue of the day's labor becomes minimized as soon as they meet, husband
and wife together, and enjoy life in many ways." Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted to
exhibit Himself just an ordinary householder who delights himself by exchanging
joking words with his wife. He therefore repeatedly requested Rukmiṇī not to take
those words very seriously.
In this way, when Lord Kṛṣṇa pacified Rukmiṇī by His sweet
words, she could understand that what was formerly spoken by Him was not
actually meant, but was spoken to evoke some joking pleasure between
themselves. She was therefore pacified by hearing the words of Kṛṣṇa. Gradually she
was freed from all fearfulness of separation from Him, and she began to look on
His face very cheerfully with her naturally smiling face. She said, "My
dear lotus-eyed Lord, Your statement that we are not a fit combination is
completely right. It is not possible for me to come to an equal level with You
because You are the reservoir of all qualities, the unlimited Supreme
Personality of Godhead. How can I be a fit match for You? There is no
possibility of comparison with You, who are the master of all greatness,
controller of the three qualities and object of worship for great demigods like
Brahmā and Lord Śiva. As far as I am concerned, I am a production of the three
modes of material nature. The three modes of material nature are impediments
towards the progressive advancement of devotional service. When and where can I
be a fit match for You? My dear husband, You have rightly said also that being
afraid of the kings, You have taken shelter in the water of the sea. But who is
the king of this material world? I do not think that the so-called royal
families are kings of the material world. The kings of the material world are
the three modes of material nature. They are actually the controllers of this
material world. You are situated in the core of everyone's heart, where You
remain completely aloof from the touch of the three modes of material nature,
and there is no doubt about it.
"You say You always maintain
enmity with the worldly kings. But who are the worldly kings? I think the
worldly kings are the senses. They are most formidable, and they control
everyone. Certainly You maintain enmity with these material senses. You are
never under the control of the senses; rather, You are the controller of the
senses, Hṛṣīkeśa.
My dear Lord, You have said that You are bereft of all royal power, and that is
also correct. Not only are You bereft of material world supremacy, but even
Your servants, those who have some attachment to Your lotus feet, also give up
the material world supremacy because they consider the material position to be
the darkest region, which checks the progress of spiritual enlightenment. Your
servants do not like material supremacy, so what to speak of You? My dear Lord,
Your statement that You do not act as an ordinary person with a particular aim
in life is also perfectly correct. Even Your great devotees and servants, known
as great sages and saintly persons, remain in such a state that no one can get
any clue to the aim of their lives. They are considered by the human society to
be crazy and cynical. Their aim of life remains a mystery to the common human
being; the lowest of mankind can know neither You nor Your servant. A
contaminated human being cannot even imagine the pastimes of You and Your
devotees. O unlimited one, when the activities and endeavors of Your devotees
remain a mystery to the common human being, how can they understand Your motive
and endeavor? All kinds of energies and opulences are engaged in Your service,
but still they are resting at Your shelter.
"You have described Yourself as
penniless, but this condition is not poverty. Since there is nothing in
existence but Yourself, You do not require to possess anything--You Yourself
are everything. Unlike others, You do not require to purchase anything
extraneously. With You all contrary things can be adjusted because You are
absolute. You do not possess anything, but no one is richer than You. In the
material world no one can be rich without possessing. Since Your Lordship is
absolute, You can adjust the contradiction of possessing nothing but at the
same time being the richest. In the Vedas it is stated that although You have
no material hands and legs, You accept everything which is offered in devotion
by the devotees. You have no material eyes and ears, but still You can see
everything everywhere, and You can hear everything everywhere. Although You do
not possess anything, the great demigods who accept prayers and worship from
others come and worship You to solicit Your mercy. How can You be categorized
among the poor?"My dear Lord, You have stated that a marriage between persons equal in status of social standing, beauty, riches, strength, influence and renunciation can be a suitable match. But this status of life can only be possible by Your grace. You are the supreme perfectional source of all opulences. Whatever opulent status of life one may have is all derived from You. As described in the Vedānta-sūtra, janmādyasya yataḥ: You are the supreme source from which everything emanates, the reservoir of all pleasures. Therefore, persons who are endowed with knowledge desire only to achieve You, and nothing else. To achieve Your favor, they give up everything--even the transcendental realization of Brahman. You are the supreme ultimate goal of life. You are the reservoir of all interests of the living entities. Those who are actually well-motivated desire only You, and for this reason they give up everything to attain success. They therefore deserve to be associated with You. In the society of the servitors and served in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one is not subjected to the pains and pleasures of material society, which functions according to sex attraction. Therefore, everyone, man or woman, should seek to be an associate in Your society of servitors and served. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead; no one can excel You, nor can anyone come up to an equal level with You. The perfect social system is that in which You remain in the center, being served as the Supreme, and all others engage as Your servitors. In such a perfectly constructed society, everyone can remain eternally happy and blissful.
"My Lord, You have stated that only the beggars praise Your glories, and that is also perfectly correct. But who are those beggars? Those beggars are all exalted devotees, liberated personalities and those in the renounced order of life. They are all great souls and devotees who have no other business than to glorify You. Such great souls forgive even the worst offender. These so-called beggars execute their spiritual advancement of life, tolerating all kinds of tribulations in the material world. My dear husband, do not think that out of my inexperience I accepted You as my husband; actually, I followed all these great souls. I followed the path of these great beggars and decided to surrender my life unto Your lotus feet.
"You have said that You are penniless, and that is correct. You distribute Yourself completely to these great souls and devotees. Knowing this fact perfectly well, I rejected even such great personalities like Lord Brahmā and King Indra. My Lord, the great time factor acts under Your direction only. The time factor is so great and powerful that within moments it can effect devastation anywhere within the creation. Considering all these factors, I thought Jarāsandha, Śiśupāla and similar other princes who wanted to marry Me to be no more important than ordinary insects.
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"My dear all-powerful son of Vasudeva, Your
statement that You have taken shelter within the water of the ocean, being
afraid of all the great princes, is quite suitable, but my experience with
You contradicts this. I have actually seen that You kidnapped me forcibly in
the presence of all these princes. At the time of my marriage ceremony,
simply by giving a jerk to the string of Your bow, You very easily drove the
others away and kindly gave me shelter at Your lotus feet. I still remember
vividly that You kidnapped me in the same way as a lion forcibly takes his
share of hunted booty, driving away all other small animals within the
twinkling of an eye.
"My dear lotus-eyed Lord, I cannot
understand Your statement that women and other persons who have taken shelter
under Your lotus feet pass their days only in bereavement. From the history
of the world we can see that princes like Aṅga, Pṛthu, Bharata, Yayāti and Gaya were all great
emperors of the world, and there were no competitors to their exalted
positions. But in order to achieve the favor of Your lotus feet, they
renounced their exalted positions and entered into the forest to practice
penances and austerities. When they voluntarily accepted such a position,
accepting Your lotus feet as all in all, does it mean that they were in lamentation
and bereavement?
"My dear Lord, You have advised me that I
can still select another from the princely order and divorce myself of Your
companionship. But, my dear Lord, it is perfectly well-known to me that You
are the reservoir of all good qualities. Great saintly persons like Nārada
Muni are always engaged simply in glorifying Your transcendental
characteristics. If someone simply takes shelter of such a saintly person, he
immediately becomes freed from all material contamination. And by coming in
direct contact with Your service the goddess of fortune agrees to bestow all
her blessings. Under the circumstances, what woman who has once heard of Your
glories from authoritative sources and somehow or other has tasted the
nectarean flavor of Your lotus feet can be foolish enough to agree to marry
someone of this material world who is always afraid of death, disease, old
age and rebirth? I have therefore accepted Your lotus feet, not without
consideration, but after mature and deliberate decision. My dear Lord, You
are the master of the three worlds. You can fulfill all the desires of all
Your devotees in this world and the next, because You are the Supreme Soul of
everyone. I have therefore selected You as my husband, considering You to be
the only fit personality. You may throw me in any species of life according
to the reaction of my fruitive activities, and I haven't the least concern
for this. My only ambition is that I may always remain fast to Your lotus
feet, because You can deliver Your devotees from illusory material existence
and are always prepared to distribute Yourself to Your devotees.
"My dear Lord, You have advised me to select
one of the princes such as Śiśupāla, Jarāsandha or Dantavakra, but what is
their position in this world? They are always engaged in hard labor to
maintain their household life, just like the bulls working hard day and night
with the oil-pressing machine. They are compared to asses, beasts of burden.
They are always dishonored like the dogs, and they are miserly like the cats.
They have sold themselves like slaves to their wives. Any unfortunate woman
who has never heard of Your glories may accept such a man as her husband, but
a woman who has learned about You--that You are praised not only in this
world, but in the halls of the great demigods like Lord Brahmā and Lord
Śiva--will not accept anyone besides Yourself as her husband. A man within
this material world is just a dead body. In fact, superficially, the living
entity is covered by this body, which is nothing but a bag of skin decorated
with beards and moustaches, hairs on the body, nails on the fingers and hairs
on the head. Within this decorated bag there are bunches of muscles, bundles
of bones, and pools of blood, always mixed up with stool, urine, mucus, bile
and polluted air, and enjoyed by different kinds of insects and germs. A
foolish woman accepts such a dead body as her husband and, in sheer
misunderstanding, loves him as her dear companion. This is only possible
because such a woman has never tasted the ever-blissful flavor of Your lotus
feet.
"My dear lotus-eyed husband, You are
self-satisfied. You do not care whether or not I am beautiful or qualified;
You are not at all concerned about it. Therefore Your nonattachment for me is
not at all astonishing; it is quite natural. You cannot be attached to any
woman, however exalted her position and beauty. Whether You are attached to
me or not, may my devotion and attention be always engaged at Your lotus
feet. The material mode of passion is also Your creation, so when You
passionately glance upon me, I accept it as the greatest boon of my life. I
am ambitious only for such auspicious moments."
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After hearing Rukmiṇī's statement and her clarification of each and
every word which He had used to arouse her anger of love toward Him, Kṛṣṇa addressed
Rukmiṇī as
follows: "My dear chaste wife, My dear princess, I was expecting such an
explanation from you, and for this purpose only I spoke all those joking words,
so that you might be cheated of the real point of view. Now My purpose has been
served. The wonderful explanation that you have given to each and every word of
Mine is completely factual and approved by Me. O most beautiful Rukmiṇī, you are My
dearmost wife. I am greatly pleased to understand how much love you have for
Me. Please take it for granted that no matter what ambition and desire you
might have and no matter what you might expect from Me, I am always at your
service. And it is a fact also that My devotees, My dearmost friends and
servitors, are always free from material contamination, even though they are
not inclined to ask from Me such liberation. My devotees never desire anything
from Me except to be engaged in My service. And yet because they are completely
dependent upon Me, even if they are found to ask something from Me, that is not
material. Such ambitions and desires, instead of becoming the cause of material
bondage, become the source of liberation from this material world.
"My dear chaste and pious wife, I have tested,
on the basis of strict chastity, your love for your husband, and you have
passed the examination most successfully. I have purposely agitated you by
speaking many words which were not applicable to your character, but I am
surprised to see that not a pinch of your devotion to Me has been deviated from
its fixed position. My dear wife, I am the bestower of all benedictions, even
up to the standard of liberation from this material world, and it is I only who
can stop the continuation of material existence and call one back to home, back
to Godhead. One whose devotion for Me is adulterated worships Me for some
material benefit, just to keep himself in the world of material happiness,
culminating in the pleasure of sex life. One who engages himself in severe
penance and austerities just to attain this material happiness is certainly
under the illusion of My external energy. Persons who are engaged in My
devotional service simply for the purpose of material gains and sense
gratification certainly are very foolish. Material happiness based on sex life
is available in the most abominable species of life, such as the hogs and dogs.
No one should try to approach Me for such happiness, because it is available
even if one is put into a hellish condition of life. It is better, therefore,
for persons who are simply after material happiness and not after Me to remain
in that hellish condition."
Material contamination is so strong that everyone
is working very hard day and night for material happiness. The show of
religiousness, austerity, penance, humanitarianism, philanthropy, politics, science--everything
is aimed at realizing some material benefit. For the immediate success of
material benefit, the materialistic persons generally worship different
demigods, and under the spell of material propensities they sometimes take to
the devotional service of the Lord. Sometimes it so happens that if a person
sincerely serves the Lord and at the same time maintains material ambition, the
Lord very kindly removes the sources of material happiness. Without finding any
recourse in material happiness, the devotee then engages himself absolutely in
pure devotional service.
Lord Kṛṣṇa continued, "My dear best of the queens, it is clearly understood by Me that you have no material ambition; your only purpose is to serve Me, and you have long been engaged in unalloyed service. Exemplary unalloyed devotional service not only can bestow upon the devotee liberation from this material world, but it also promotes him to the spiritual world for being eternally engaged in My service. Persons who are too addicted to material happiness cannot render such service. Women whose hearts are polluted and full of material desires devise various means of sense gratification while outwardly showing themselves to be great devotees.
Lord Kṛṣṇa continued, "My dear best of the queens, it is clearly understood by Me that you have no material ambition; your only purpose is to serve Me, and you have long been engaged in unalloyed service. Exemplary unalloyed devotional service not only can bestow upon the devotee liberation from this material world, but it also promotes him to the spiritual world for being eternally engaged in My service. Persons who are too addicted to material happiness cannot render such service. Women whose hearts are polluted and full of material desires devise various means of sense gratification while outwardly showing themselves to be great devotees.
"My dear honored wife, although I have thousands
of wives, I do not think that any one of them can love Me more than you. The
practical proof of your extraordinary position is that you had never seen Me
before your marriage; you had simply heard about Me from a third person, and
still your faith in Me was so fixed that even in the presence of many
qualified, rich and beautiful men of the royal order, you did not select any
one of them as your husband, but insisted on having Me. You neglected all the
princes present, and very politely you sent Me a confidential letter inviting
Me to kidnap you. While I was kidnapping you, your elder brother Rukmī
violently protested and fought with Me. As a result of the fight, I defeated
him mercilessly and disfigured his body. At the time of Aniruddha's marriage,
when we were all engaged in playing chess, there was another fight with your
brother Rukmī on a controversial verbal point, and My elder brother Balarāma
finally killed him. I was surprised to see that you did not utter even a word
of protest over this incidence. Because of your great anxiety that you might be
separated from Me, you suffered all the consequences without speaking even a
word. As the result of this great silence, My dear wife, you have purchased Me
for all time; I have become eternally under your control. You sent your
messenger to Me inviting Me to kidnap you, and when you found that there was a
little delay in My arriving on the spot, you began to see the whole world as
vacant. At that time you concluded that your beautiful body was not fit to be
touched by anyone else; therefore, thinking that I was not coming, you decided
to commit suicide and immediately end that body. My dear Rukmiṇī, such great
and exalted love for Me will always remain within My soul. As far as I am
concerned, it is not within My power to repay you for your unalloyed devotion
to Me."
The Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa certainly has
no business being anyone's husband or son or father, because everything belongs
to Him and everyone is under His control. He does not require anyone's help for
His satisfaction. He is ātmārāma, self-satisfied; He can derive all pleasure by
Himself, without anyone's help. When the Lord descends to play the part of a
human being, He plays a role either as a husband, son, friend or enemy, in full
perfection. As such, when He was playing as the perfect husband of the queens,
especially of Rukmiṇījī,
He enjoyed conjugal love in complete perfection.
According to Vedic culture, although polygamy is
allowed, none of the wives should be ill-treated. In other words, one may take
many wives only if he is able to satisfy all of them equally as an ideal
householder; otherwise it is not allowed. Lord Kṛṣṇa is the world-teacher; therefore, even though He
had no need for a wife, He expanded Himself into as many forms as He had wives,
and He lived with them as an ideal householder, observing the regulative
principles, rules and commitments in accordance with the Vedic injunctions and
the social laws and customs of society. For each of His 16,108 wives, He simultaneously
maintained different palaces, different establishments and different
atmospheres. Thus the Lord, although one, exhibited Himself as 16,108 ideal
householders
60. The Genealogical Table of the Family of Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa had 16,108 wives, and in each of them He begot
ten sons, all of them equal to their father in the opulences of strength,
beauty, wisdom, fame, wealth and renunciation. "Like father like
son." All the 16,108 wives of Kṛṣṇa were princesses, and when each saw that Kṛṣṇa was always
present in her respective palace and did not leave home, they considered Kṛṣṇa to be a
henpecked husband who was very much attached to them. Every one of them thought
that Kṛṣṇa
was her very obedient husband, but actually Kṛṣṇa had no attraction for any of them. Although each
thought that she was the only wife of Kṛṣṇa and was very, very dear to Him, Lord Kṛṣṇa, since He is
ātmārāma, self-sufficient, was neither dear nor inimical to any one of them; He
was equal to all the wives and treated them as a perfect husband just to please
them. For Him, there was no need for even a single wife. In fact, since they
were women, the wives could not understand the exalted position of Kṛṣṇa nor the truths
about Him.
All the princesses who were wives of Kṛṣṇa were
exquisitely beautiful, and each one of them was attracted by Kṛṣṇa's eyes, which
were just like lotus petals, and by His beautiful face, long arms, broad ears,
pleasing smile, humorous talk and sweet words. Influenced by these features of
Kṛṣṇa,
they all used to dress themselves very attractively, desiring to attract Kṛṣṇa by their
feminine bodily appeal. They used to exhibit their feminine characteristics by
smiling and moving their eyebrows, thus throwing sharpened arrows of conjugal
love just to awaken Kṛṣṇa's
lusty desires for them. Still, they could not arouse the mind of Kṛṣṇa or His sex
appetite. This means that Kṛṣṇa never had any sex relations with any of His many
wives, save and except to beget children.
The queens of Dvārakā were so fortunate
that they got Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as
their husband and personal companion, although He is not approachable by
exalted demigods like Brahmā. They remained together as husband and wife, and Kṛṣṇa, as an ideal
husband, treated them in such a way that at every moment there was an increase
of transcendental bliss in their smiling exchanges, talking and mixing
together. Each and every wife had hundreds and thousands of maidservants, yet
when Kṛṣṇa
entered the palaces of His thousands of wives, each one of them used to receive
Kṛṣṇa personally
by seating Him in a nice chair, worshiping Him with all requisite
paraphernalia, personally washing His lotus feet, offering Him betel nuts,
massaging His legs to relieve them from fatigue, fanning Him to make Him
comfortable, offering all kinds of scented sandalwood pulp, oils and aromatics,
putting flower garlands on His neck, dressing His hair, getting Him to lie down
on the bed and assisting Him in taking His bath. Thus they served always in
every respect, especially when Kṛṣṇa was eating. They were always engaged in the
service of the Lord.
Of the 16,108 queens of Kṛṣṇa, each of whom
had ten sons, there is the following list of the sons of the first eight
queens. By Rukmiṇī, Kṛṣṇa had ten sons:
Pradyumna, Cārudeṣṇa,
Sudeṣṇa,
Cārudeha, Sucāru, Cārugupta, Bhadracāru, Cāarucandra, Vicāru and Cāru. None of
them were inferior in their qualities to their divine father, Lord Kṛṣṇa. Similarly,
Satyabhāmā had ten sons, and their names are as follows: Bhānu, Subhānu,
Svarbhānu, Prabhānu, Bhānumān, Candrabhānu, Bṛhadbhānu, Atibhānu, Śrībhānu and Pratibhānu. The
next queen, Jāmbavatī, had ten sons, headed by Sāmba. Their names are as
follows: Sāmba, Sumitra, Purujit, Śatajit, Sahasrajit, Vijaya, Citraketu,
Vasumān, Draviḍa
and Kratu. Lord Kṛṣṇa
was specifically very affectionate to the sons of Jāmbavatī. By His wife Satyā,
the daughter of King Nagnajit, Lord Kṛṣṇa had ten sons. They are as follows: Vīra, Candra,
Aśvasena, Citragu, Vegavān, Vṛṣa, Āma, Śaṅku, Vasu and Kunti. Amongst all of them, Kuntī was
very powerful. Kṛṣṇa
had ten sons by Kālindī, and they are as follows: Śruta, Kavi, Vṛṣa, Vīra, Subāhu,
Bhadra, Śānti, Darśa, Pūrṇamāsa
and the youngest, Somaka. For His next wife, Lakṣmaṇā, the daughter of the King of Madras Province, He
begot ten sons, of the names: Praghoṣa, Gātravān, Siṁha, Bala, Prabala, Ūrdhvaga, Mahāśakti, Saha, Oja
and Aparājita. Similarly, His next wife, Mitravindā, had ten sons. They are as
follows: Vṛka,
Harṣa,
Anila, Gṛdhra,
Vardhana, Annāda, Mahāṁsa,
Pāvana, Vahni and Kṣudhi.
His next wife, Bhadrā, had ten sons, of the names Saṅgrāmajit, Bṛhatsena, Śūra,
Praharaṇa,
Arijit, Jaya, Subhadrā, Vāma, Āyu and Satyaka. Besides these eight chief
queens, Kṛṣṇa
had 16,100 other wives, and all of them had ten sons each.
The eldest son of Rukmiṇī, Pradyumna,
was married with Māyāvatī from his very birth, and afterwards he was again
married with Rukmavatī, the daughter of his maternal uncle, Rukmī. From this
Rukmavatī, Pradyumna had a son named Aniruddha. In this way, Kṛṣṇa's family--Kṛṣṇa and His wives,
along with their sons and grandsons and even great-grandsons--all combined
together to include very nearly one billion family members.
Rukmī, the elder brother of Kṛṣṇa's first wife,
Rukmiṇī,
was greatly harassed and insulted in his fight with Kṛṣṇa, but on the
request of Rukmiṇī
his life was saved. Since then Rukmī had held a great grudge against Kṛṣṇa and was always
inimical toward Him. Nevertheless, his daughter was married with Kṛṣṇa' son, and his
granddaughter was married with Kṛṣṇa's grandson, Aniruddha. This fact appeared to be a
little astonishing to Mahārāja Parīkṣit when he heard it from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. "I
am surprised that Rukmī and Kṛṣṇa, who were so greatly inimical to one another,
could again be united by marital relationships between their descendants."
Parīkṣit
Mahārāja was curious about the mystery of this incident, and therefore he
inquired further from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Because Śukadeva Gosvāmī was a
practical yogi, nothing was hidden from his power of insight. A perfect yogi
like Śukadeva Gosvāmī can see past, present and future in all details.
Therefore, from such yogīs or mystics there can be nothing concealed. When
Parīkṣit
Mahārāja inquired from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Śukadeva Gosvāmī answered as follows.
Pradyumna, the eldest son of Kṛṣṇa, born of Rukmiṇī, was Cupid
himself. He was so beautiful and attractive that the daughter of Rukmī, namely
Rukmavatī, could not select any husband other than Pradyumna during her svayaṁvara. Therefore,
in that selection meeting, she garlanded Pradyumna in the presence of all other
princes. When there was a fight among the princes, Pradyumna came out
victorious, and therefore Rukmī was obliged to offer his beautiful daughter to
him. Although a far-off enmity was always blazing in the heart of Rukmī because
of his being insulted by Kṛṣṇa's kidnapping of his sister, Rukmiṇī, when his
daughter selected Pradyumna as her husband Rukmī could not resist consenting to
the marriage ceremony just to please his sister, Rukmiṇī. And so
Pradyumna became the nephew of Rukmī. Besides the ten sons described above,
Rukmiṇī
had one beautiful daughter with big eyes, and she was married to the son of Kṛtavarmā, whose
name was Balī.
Although Rukmī was a veritable enemy of
Kṛṣṇa,
he had great affection for his sister, Rukmiṇī, and he wanted to please her in all respects. On
this account, when Rukmiṇī's
grandson Aniruddha was to be married, Rukmī offered his granddaughter Rocanā to
Aniruddha. Such marriage between immediate cousins is not very much sanctioned
by the Vedic culture, but in order to please Rukmiṇī, Rukmī offered
his daughter and granddaughter to the son and grandson of Kṛṣṇa. In this way,
when the negotiation of the marriage of Aniruddha with Rocanā was complete, a
big marriage party accompanied Aniruddha and started from Dvārakā. They
traveled until they reached Bhojakaṭa, which Rukmī had colonized after his sister had
been kidnapped by Kṛṣṇa.
This marriage party was led by the grandfather, namely Lord Kṛṣṇa, accompanied
by Lord Balarāma, as well as Kṛṣṇa's first wife, Rukmiṇī, His son Pradyumna, Jāmbavatī's son Sāmba and
many other relatives and family members. They reached the town of Bhojakaṭa, and the
marriage ceremony was peacefully performed.
The King of Kaliṅga was a friend
of Rukmī's and he gave him the ill advice to play with Balarāma and thus defeat
Him in a bet. Amongst the kṣatriya kings, betting and gambling in chess was not
uncommon. If someone challenged a friend to play on the chessboard, the friend
could not deny the challenge. Śrī Balarāmajī was not a very expert chess
player, and this was known to the King of Kaliṅga. So Rukmī was advised to retaliate against the
family members of Kṛṣṇa by
challenging Balarāma to play chess. Although not a very expert chess player,
Śrī Balarāmajī was very enthusiastic in sporting activities. He accepted the
challenge of Rukmī and sat down to play. Betting was with gold coins, and
Balarāma first of all challenged with one hundred coins, then 1,000 coins, then
10,000 coins. Each time, Balarāma lost, and Rukmī became victorious.
Śrī Balarāma's losing the game was an
opportunity for the King of Kaliṅga to criticize Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Thus the King of Kaliṅga was talking jokingly and purposefully showing
his teeth to Balarāma. Because Balarāma was the loser in the game, He was a
little intolerant of the sarcastic joking words. He became a little agitated,
and when Rukmī again challenged Balarāma, he made a bet of 100,000 gold coins.
Fortunately, this time Balarāma won. Although Balarāmajī had won, Rukmī, out of
his cunningness, began to claim that Balarāma was the loser and that he himself
had won. Because of this lie, Balarāmajī became most angry with Rukmī. His
agitation was so sudden and great that it appeared like a tidal wave in the
ocean on a full moon day. Balarāma's eyes are naturally reddish, and when He
became agitated and angry His eyes became more reddish. This time He challenged
and made a bet of a hundred million coins.
Again Balarāma was the winner according
to the rules of chess, but Rukmī again cunningly began to claim that he had
won. Rukmī appealed to the princes present, and he especially mentioned the
name of the King of Kaliṅga.
At that time there was a voice from the air during the dispute, and it
announced that for all honest purposes Balarāma, the actual winner of this
game, was being abused and that the statement of Rukmī that he had won was
absolutely false.
In spite of this divine voice, Rukmī
insisted that Balarāma had lost, and by his persistence it appeared that he had
death upon his head. Falsely puffed up by the ill advice of his friend, he did
not give much importance to the oracle, and he began to criticize Balarāmajī.
He said, "My dear Balarāmajī, You two brothers, cowherd boys only, may be
very expert in tending cows, but how can You be expert in playing chess or
shooting arrows on the battlefield? These arts are well-known only to the
princely order." Hearing this kind of pinching talk by Rukmī and hearing
the loud laughter of all the other princes present there, Lord Balarāma became
as agitated as burning cinders. He immediately took a club in His hand and,
without any further talk, struck Rukmī on the head. From that one blow, Rukmī
fell down immediately and was dead and gone. Thus Rukmī was killed by Balarāma
on that auspicious occasion of Aniruddha's marriage.
During this strife between Balarāma and Rukmī, Lord Kṛṣṇa did not utter a word, for He knew that if He supported Balarāma, Rukmiṇī would be unhappy, and if He said that the killing of Rukmī was unjust, then Balarāma would be unhappy. Therefore, Lord Kṛṣṇa was silent on the death of His brother-in-law, Rukmī, on the occasion of His grandson's marriage. He did not disturb either His affectionate relationship with Balarāma or with Rukmiṇī. After this, the bride and the bridegroom were ceremoniously seated on the chariot, and they started for Dvārakā, accompanied by the bridegroom's party. The bridegroom's party was always protected by Lord Kṛṣṇa, the killer of the Madhu demon. Thus they left Rukmī's kingdom, Bhojakaṭa, and happily started for Dvārakā.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My humble salutations H H Swami Sri Prabhupada ji, Sri Krishnalilas
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