Kṛṣṇa's contact with Rukmiṇī

Chapter Fifty-two. Subject: "Krsna's contact with Rukmini."

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In this way when Mucukunda, the celebrated descendant of the Iksvaku dynasty, became favored specifically by Lord Krsna, he circambulated the Lord within the cave and then came out of it. When Mucukunda came out of the cave, he surprisingly saw that the status of the human being had reduced to pygmy size. Similarly, the trees also were far reduced in size. He could immediately understand that the running age was of Kali-yuga. Therefore, without diverting it…, his attention to any other direction, he began to march towards the northern side.

Gradually he reached towards the mountain known as Gandhamadana. It appears that in this mountain there are many trees, just like sandalwood trees and other flower trees, the flavor of which engladdens anyone who reaches there. He decided to remain in that Gandhamadana Mountain regions in order to execute austerity and penances for the rest of his life. It appears that this place is situated in the northernmost part of the Himalayan Mountain and where the place of Nara-Narayana is situated. This place is still existing and is called Badarikasrama. In this Badarikasrama place he engaged himself in the worshipment of Lord Krsna, tolerating all kinds of dualities, pains and pleasures of this material world.

Lord Krsna also returned to the vicinity of the city of Mathura and began to fight with the soldiers of Kalayavana and killed them one after another. And after this killing business, He collected all the booties out of the dead bodies and brought them back in Dvaraka. When the booties were being carried by hand under the direction of the Lord for depositing in Dvaraka by loading them on bullock carts, in the meantime, Jarasandha again attacked Mathura with bigger divisions of soldiers, numbering twenty-three aksauhinis.

On the arrival of the great military divisions of Jarasandha, Lord Sri Krsna wanted to save them, because King Jarasandha attacked the Mathura City for the eighth [eighteenth] time. In order to save further killing of the soldiers and with an intention for attending other important business, Lord Sri Krsna pretended Himself as ordinary human being, and it appeared that He was afraid of the vast mass of soldiers of Jarasandha. Therefore, He left the battlefield without fighting and in spite of presence of His immense soldiers and resources. He was not at all afraid of the great military strength of Jarasandha, still, He was going away as if He has been very much afraid of Jarasandha. His hand was completely empty, without any weapons, and in this fashion He began to proceed for a very, very long distance on legs, although His lotus feet was as soft as the petals of lotus flower.

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Jarasandha, however, thought that Krsna and Balarama this time has been very much afraid of his military strength and were fleeing away from the battlefield. Therefore, he began to follow Him with all his chariots, horses and infantry soldiers. He did not know that Krsna and Balarama were not ordinary human being; therefore, he wanted to measure the activities of the Lord.

Krsna is known as Ranacora, means "who has left the battlefield," and in India, especially in Gujarat, there are many temples of Krsna which is known as the temple of Ranacoraji. In the ordinary way, if some king has left battlefield without fighting, he is designated as coward. But Krsna's this pastime of leaving the battlefield without fighting is worshiped by the devotee. That is the difference between a demon and devotee. A demon always tries to measure the opulence of Krsna, whereas the devotee never tries to measure His strength and opulence but always surrenders unto Him and worships Him. By following the footsteps of pure devotees, we should know that Krsna the Ranacoraji did not leave the battlefield being afraid of it, but He had some other purpose within Him.

The purpose, as it will be revealed in next few lines, was to attend a confidential letter sent by Rukmini, His future first married wife. This act of Krsna leaving the battlefield is also one of the six opulences of Krsna. Krsna is the supreme powerful, supreme influential, supreme famous, supreme wise, supreme beautiful; similarly, He is supreme renouncer. In this connection, in the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is clearly stated that in spite of His having ample military strength, He left it. And even without having military strength, He alone personally was sufficient to kill all the soldiers and military strength of Jarasandha, as He had already done for seven [seventeen] times. Therefore, His leaving the battlefield is an example of His supermost opulence of renunciation.

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In this way, the two brothers continually began to run away from the battlefield, and after traversing a very, very long distance They pretended to become very much tired. And to mitigate the tiredsomeness, both of Them got up on a very high hill, which was several miles high from the sea level. This hill, this mountain was so high that it was generally known as Pravarsana. It was so named because the summit of this mountain…

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Jarasandha, however, took it for granted that these two brothers being afraid of his military power now have taken shelter on the top of the hills, and thus They must have hidden Themselves. First of all he tried to find Them out, searching out for a long time, but when he failed, then he thought it wise that the two brothers may be captivated there and killed by setting fire on all sides of the summit. In this way he surrounded with fuel all around the summit and set on fire. When the blazing fire gradually become more and more expanding, Krsna and Balarama, in order to save Themselves for being burned into ashes, as Jarasandha thought it, jumped from the top down to the ground, comprising a distance of eighty-eight miles. In this way, while the summit of the mountain was in burning fire, Krsna and Balarama escaped, and neither Jarasandha nor Their own men could see Them. And thus gradually They reached the city of Dvaraka, which was surrounded all sides by the sea. Note: the word summit may be replaced by the word peak.

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Jarasandha, however, concluded that the two brothers have been burned into ashes, so there was no need of fighting anymore. He was successful in his attempt, and therefore he left the city of Mathura and went back to his home in the kingdom of Magadha.

After this, Sri Balarama was married. The king of the Anarta Province, known as Raivata, got his daughter Revati married with Balarama. This incident is explained in the Ninth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. After the marriage of Baladeva, Krsna was also married with Rukmini, the daughter of King Bhismaka. King Bhismaka was the ruler of the province known as Vidarbha. As Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Vasudeva, similarly, Rukmini is also the supreme goddess of fortune, Maha-Laksmi. According to the authority of Caitanya-caritamrta, the expansion of Krsna and expansion of Sri Radharani are simultaneous. As Krsna expands Himself into various visnu-tattva forms, similarly, Srimati Radharani expands Herself into various sakti-tattva, or internal potency, in multiforms of goddess of fortune.

Krsna and Rukmini was married in the process of raksasa system. According to Vedic convention, there are eight kinds of marriages, out of which the first-class marriage system is that the parents of the bride and bridegroom arranges the marriage date, and the bridegroom in royal style goes to the house of the bride, and in the presence of brahmanas and priests and relatives the bride is given in charity to the bridegroom. Besides that, there are other procedures, like gandharva or raksasa marriages. So Rukmini was married with Krsna by the raksasa's process, because she was kidnapped by Krsna in the presence of His many rivals, like Sisupala and his associates. The story is that while Rukmini was being given in charity for marriage to Sisupala, she was snatched from the marriage arena by Krsna, exactly like Garuḍa snatched the pot of nectarean from the demons. Rukmini, the only daughter of King Bhismaka, was exquisitely beautiful. Specifically she is known as Ruciranana, which means "the beautiful faced expanding like lotus flower."

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The story of Krsna's kidnapping Rukmini from the marriage arena is very interesting. Amongst the ksatriyas, mostly the marriage takes place in such a way, and Krsna married Rukmini in the presence of His many contemporary royal enemies like Salva, Jarasandha, Sisupala and others. Devotees of Krsna, they are always anxious to hear about the transcendental activities of the Lord. Therefore, His fighting activities or His kidnapping activities or His running away from the battlefield activities, all of them being equally on the absolute platform, they are all transcendental, and devotees take transcendental interest in hearing all of them. The pure devotee does not make any distinction that a particular type of activities of the Lord should be heard and the other should be avoided. There is, however, a class of so-called devotees known as prakrta-sahajiya; they are very much interested in hearing about krsna-rasa-lila with gopis but not His fighting activities with His enemies, without knowing that Krsna's fighting activities with the enemies and His friendly activities with the gopis are equally transcendental and on the absolute platform. The transcendental pastimes of Krsna described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam are therefore relished by submissive aural reception by pure devotees, without rejecting even a drop of it.

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The story of Krsna's marriage with Rukmini are described as follows. The king of Vidarbha, Maharaja Bhismaka, was very qualified and devotee prince, and he had very qualified sons and one daughter. He had five sons, one daughter only. The first son was known as Rukmi; the next son was known as Rukmaratha; the third son was known as Rukmabahu; the fourth and the youngest son was known as Rukmakesa; the last son was known as Rukmamali. All these five brothers had one younger sister, and she was known as Rukmini, the most beautiful, qualified, chaste daughter of King Bhismaka meant for being married with Krsna. As usual, many saintly persons and sages like Narada Muni and others used to visit the palace of King Bhismaka. Naturally, Rukmini had the chance of talking with them, and she got information about Krsna from such saintly persons. She was informed about the six opulences of Krsna, and even without seeing Krsna, simply by hearing about Him, Rukmini surrendered herself to the lotus feet of Krsna to become His future wife.

On the other hand, Sri Krsna also heard of Rukminiabout her intelligence, good bodily symptoms, liberal-mindedness, exquisite beauty, upright behavior, and the reservoir of all transcendental qualities-and thus Krsna also decided that she was the fit woman who could be His equal matchable wife. He therefore decided that He would marry Rukmini only. Family members and relatives of King Bhismaka and other brothers of Rukmini, all of them decided that Rukmini should be given in marriage to Krsna. But her elder brother was no...

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...the black-eyed, beautiful daughter of the king of Vidarbha heard the settlement, she immediately become very much morose. But after all, she was also a king's daughter; she knew all kinds of politics and diplomacy. Therefore, she decided that there was no use simply to become morose, but some steps should be taken immediately. Considering this, she wanted to select one brahmana as her messenger to send news to Krsna without delay. After deliberation, she wanted to select a qualified brahmana to be her messenger because a qualified brahmana is always truthful and a devotee of Visnu. She wanted therefore to disclose her mind to such brahmana so that he may not deceive her. The brahmana messenger who was selected by Rukmini went to Dvaraka to see Krsna on behalf of Rukmini.

Reaching the gate of Dvaraka, the brahmana sent news to Krsna about his arrival through the doorkeeper, and the doorkeeper led him to the place where Krsna was sitting on a golden throne. Taking the opportunity of becoming the messenger of Rukmini, the brahmana was fortunate enough to see personally the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna, who is the original cause of all causes. Lord Sri Krsna also, in order to teach everyone the etiquette how to respect a brahmana, immediately got up from His seat and offered it to the brahmana for his reception. Although Lord Sri Krsna was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, still, in order to teach the Vedic social convention, He showed respect to the brahmana, who is supposed to be the spiritual teacher of all the different social divisions. When the brahmana was seated on the golden throne, Lord Sri Krsna worshiped the brahmana exactly in the manner in which the demigods worship Lord Sri Krsna. By this incidence, Lord Sri Krsna taught everyone that worshipment of His devotee is still more valuable than the worshipment of the Lord Himself.

Thus the brahmana gradually took his bath and accepted his meals, and when he was given to rest on a bedstead completely bedecked with soft silk, and when the brahmana began to rest on it, Lord Sri Krsna very silently approached the brahmana and with great respect took the legs of the brahmana on His lap for massaging. In this way, Lord Sri Krsna introduced Himself to talk with the brahmana and began to say as follows: "My dear brahmana, I hope your execution of religious principles are being done without any difficulty, and I hope your mind must be always in peaceful condition." As different grades of people in the social status are engaged in different professional business, the inquiry of well-being of a particular person must be on the basis of that occupation. Therefore, when a brahmana is to be inquired about his welfare, the questions should be whether circumstantial condition of life are not disturbing for him.

Peaceful condition of the mind is a basic principle for becoming truthful, cleansed, equilibrium, self-controlled, forbearance, and thereby attaining knowledge and its practical application in life, and thereby becoming convinced about the Absolute Truth. This brahmana, as it will be revealed in the following lines, knew Lord Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and still he accepted the respectful service of the Lord on the grounds of Vedic social convention. Lord Sri Krsna was playing just like a human being belonging to the ksatriya division of social status and happened to be a young boy. Therefore, it was His primary duty to show respect to such brahmanas.

Lord Sri Krsna continued to advise the brahmana: "My dear the best of all brahmanas, you should always remain satisfied, because if a brahmana is always self-satisfied, then he cannot be deviated from his prescribed duties. And simply by sticking to one's prescribed duties, especially the brahmanas, one can attain the highest perfection of all desires." Lord Sri Krsna continued to say that "A person, even he happens to be most opulent as good as the king of heaven, Indra, still, if he is not satisfied in his mind, then he has to inevitably transmigrate from one planet to another, thus can never be happy in any circumstances, whereas a person, even he is bereft of all possessions, but if he is satisfied in his mind, then he can live anywhere and everywhere in completely relief."

This instruction of Krsna to the brahmana is very significant. The idea is that a true brahmana should not be disturbed in any circumstances. In the modern age of Kali-yuga, the so-called brahmanas have accepted abominable service of sūdras or less than a sūdra, and still they want to pass over as qualified brahmana. But actually a qualified brahmana always sticks to his principle and never accepts the occupation of a sūdra or less than a sūdra. It is advised in the authorized scriptures that a brahmana in awkward circumstances may accept the profession of a ksatriya or even of a vaisya, but never to accept the profession of a sūdra. Lord Krsna, however, advised herein that a brahmana, if he scrupulously sticks to his religious principles, he will never be disturbed by any adverse condition of life.

Lord Sri Krsna in conclusion said that "My respectful obeisances are to the brahmanas and the Vaisnavas, because the brahmanas are always self-satisfied and the Vaisnavas are always engaged in actual welfare activities of the human society. They are the best friends of the people in general. Both of them are free from the false egotism, and both of them are always in peaceful condition of mind." Lord Krsna therefore offered His obeisances unto them.

After finishing the inquiry of the brahmana, then Lord Krsna desired to inquire about the ksatriyas. Thus He inquired from the brahmana whether the citizens of his kingdom are all happy. A king's qualification is judged by the temperament of the people in general in the kingdom. If the people in general in the kingdom are very happy in all respects, then it is to be understood that the king of that particular country is honest and executing his duties rightly. Lord Sri Krsna especially said in this connection that the king in whose kingdom the citizens are happy are very much dear to Him. Lord Krsna, of course, could understand that the brahmana came to Him with some confidential message. Therefore, He requested the brahmana that if he had no objection, he could disclose the mission on which he had come there. The Lord said that "I am now giving you permission to speak about your mission."

The brahmana, thus being permitted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who was present before him as a human being in His transcendental pastimes, and the brahmana, being very much satisfied by the dealings of Lord Krsna and being questioned by Him, narrated the whole history of his mission to come and see Him. After this, the brahmana got out the letter written by Rukmini addressed to Krsna and said, "These are the words of Princess Rukmini as follows: 'My dear Krsna, the infallible, the most beautiful, any human being who happens to hear about Your transcendental quality, form, pastimes, immediately he absorbs through his ears Your name, fame, quality, and thus he subsides all his material pangs and fixes Your form in his heart, and through such transcendental love for You he sees You always within himself. By this process, all his desires become fulfilled.

'Fortunately, I have also similarly heard Your transcendental qualities, and I may be shameless because I am expressing myself to Yourself, but I have been captivated by You and my heart has been taken by You. It may be suspected by You that I am an unmarried girl, young in age, how could I approach You directly without any shame? And in that way You may doubt about my steadiness of character. But my dear Mukunda, You are the supreme lion amongst the human beings. You are the supreme person amongst the persons.

[break] …are the enjoyers. Any girl, even though she has not come out of home, or any woman who may be of the highest quality of chastity, after hearing about Your unprecedented character, knowledge, opulence, possessions, all of which can draw the attention of everyone, and after such understanding, who will not be captivated to get oneself married with You at the marriageable age like me?

'I have therefore accepted You as my husband because I know You are the husband of the goddess of fortune. Not only that, You are very kind towards Your devotee. I know this fact very well; therefore, I have decided to become Your eternal maidservant, and after such decision, my dear Lord, I am offering my respectful obeisances unto Your lotus feet.

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'My dear the Supreme Personality of Godhead, on account of the reasons above mentioned, I have already accepted Your Lordship as my selected husband, and I have dedicated my life and soul under Your lotus feet. I therefore request You to accept me as Your wife. You are the supreme powerful, O the lotus-eyed. Now I belong to You. If therefore the eatable or enjoyable things by the lion is taken away by the jackal, it will be a ludicrous affair. I request You, therefore, to be immediately taking care of me before I have been taken away by Sisupala and other princes like him. My dear Lord, if in my previous life I have done any pious activity as public welfare activities by digging well and sowing trees, performing ritualistic ceremonies and sacrifices, serving the superior spiritual master, brahmanas and the Vaisnavas, by which the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, might have been pleased upon me, then I wish that Yourself, Lord Krsna, the brother of Lord Balarama, may please come here and catch hold of my hand, thus may not allow me to be touched by Sisupala and his company.'"

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Rukminis marriage with Sisupala was already settled up. Therefore, Rukmini tried to give a suggestion to Krsna how the settled things can be unsettled. She therefore suggested Krsna to kidnap her. This sort of marriage by kidnapping the girl under force was practiced among the ksatriyas, or the administrative, martial-spirited class of men, and it is known the system of raksasa. Therefore, Rukmini informed Krsna that her marriage was already settled up to take place the next day. Therefore Krsna should come there incognito, and after the kidnapping business is finished, He should fight with Sisupala and his allies like the king of Magadha. In this way, after fighting with the opposite party, certainly He would come out victorious because Krsna's name is Ajita, nobody can conquer Him. She specifically therefore addressed Krsna with the name Ajita, "unconquerable."

In this way, Rukmini suggested Krsna that she may be married with Him in the raksasa's process instead of being married with Sisupala under systematic royal process of marriage. As the king of a country thinks in all diplomatic ways for achieving his object, similarly Rukmini, the daughter of a king, also gave Krsna suggestion that He should not bother Himself on the fact that Rukmini would be within the palace, and if the fighting takes place within the palace, then many of the Rukmini's family members or women might be wounded or even be killed in order to kidnap Rukmini. She therefore suggested Krsna how this unnecessary and undesirable killing could be avoided.

She suggested that as it was the custom of their family to visit the temple of goddess Durga, their family deity, before the marriage... The ksatriya kings, although most of them were staunch Vaisnavas, worshiper of Lord Visnu either in Radha-Krsna or Laksmi-Narayana forms, still, for their material welfare they used to worship goddess Durga. But they never did this mistake that the demigods were accepted as the Supreme Lord on the level of visnu-tattva-although some of the less intelligent men class of men used to worship various demigods-but they were never bewildered about the supremacy of Visnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Rukmini as such suggested Krsna that as soon as she would go out of the palace to worship goddess Durga, on the way to the temple or on the way to the palace after finishing the worship of the goddess, it would be easier for Krsna to kidnap her without any unnecessary killing of her relatives.

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Rukmini also explained to Krsna why she was so much anxious to be kidnapped and married with Krsna, although it was a settled fact that her marriage would take place with Sisupala, who was also a prince, a son of a big king, at the same times qualified. Why she should change her mind to marry Krsna instead of Sisupala? Rukmini therefore explained her position as follows. She did not think anyone greater than Krsna. Even the greatest of all demigods, namely Lord Siva, who is known as Mahadeva, the greatest of all demigods, he also seeks the pleasure of Lord Krsna for being delivered from his entanglement in the quality of ignorance within this material world.

Lord Siva is also the greatest of all great souls, mahatmas, and in spite of his becoming so, he desired to keep Ganges water on his head, which is emanating from the toe of Lord Visnu. Lord Siva is in charge of the material quality of ignorance. In order to keep himself always in the transcendental position, he is always in meditation of Lord Visnu, or Krsna, and always tries to purify himself by the water of Ganges.

She therefore knew it very well that to obtain the favor of Krsna is not easy job. For this purpose, even Lord Siva tries to be purified, and what to speak of Rukmini, who is only a daughter of a ksatriya king. Therefore, she desired her life being sacrificed for attaining this success of achieving Krsna's favor by observing severe austerities and penances, without any bodily comforts and fasting throughout. In that way, she wanted to give her life up. If it was not possible to attain Krsna's mercies in that way in one life, she was prepared to do the same activities life after life unless she was able to achieve the favor of Lord Krsna.

In the Bhagavad-gita it is said, "Pure devotees of the Lord execute devotional service with great vow." Such kind of determination, as exhibited by Rukmini-devi, is the only price for purchasing Krsna's favor. One should be strongly determined in Krsna consciousness, and that is the way of ultimate success.

In this way, after explaining the statement of Rukmini-devi before Krsna, the brahmana who brought the news said, "My dear the chief of the Yadu dynasty, Krsna, I have brought this confidential message f or You from Rukmini. Now it is placed before You for Your consideration, and after due deliberation You can act as You please. But if You want to do something, You must do it immediately. There is no much time for this action."

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Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Fifty-second Chapter Krsna in the matter of "Krsna the Ranacora, who Fled Away from the Battle."