Kṛṣṇa Defeats All Princes and Takes Rukmiṇī Home to Dvārakā

Chapter Fifty-four.

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"Krsna Defeats All Princes and Takes Rukmini Home to Dvaraka."

In this way, all the princes led by Jarasandha became very angry on the action of Krsna kidnapping Rukmini, and because they fell down from the back of their horses and elephants, stricken by the beauty of Rukmini, now they began to stand up and equip themselves with their weapons properly, fitted up their bows and arrows, and began to run after Krsna on their respective chariots, horses and elephants.

To check the progress of the opposing princes, the soldiers of Yadu dynasty also faced them, and a terrible fighting began between the two belligerent groups. The princes on the opposite side of Krsna were led by Jarasandha, and all of them were very expert in fighting. As such, they began to throw their arrows in the soldiers of Yadus exactly like the cloud on the head of a mountain splashes torrents of rain. Cloud gathered on the head of the mountain does not move very much; therefore, the force of rain is much severe on the mountain than on the land.

Similarly, the opposing princes were determined to defeat Krsna and take back Rukmini from His custody, and they fought with Him as severely as possible. Rukmini was seated by the side of Krsna when she saw that the bunches of arrow from the opposing party on the head of the soldiers of Yadu has clouded too much. She began to look on the face of Krsna in a fearful attitude, expressing her gratefulness that Krsna had taken so much risk only for herself. Her eyes were moving, and she appeared to be very much shy. Krsna could immediately understand the intention of Rukmini and encouraged her with the words, "My dear Rukmini, don't worry. You will see very soon the soldiers of the Yadu dynasty will kill all the opposing soldiers without delay."

As Krsna was speaking with Rukmini, the commanders of the Yadu dynasty soldiers headed by Lord Balarama, who is known as Sahkarsana as well as Gada, not tolerate the defiant attitude of opposing soldiers, thus began to strike over the horses, elephants and chariots of the enemies by their own arrows. When the fighting was thus going on, it was seen that the princes and soldiers of the enemy camp on the back of the horses, elephants or on the chariots began to fall down, cut off their heads, with all kinds of helmets and earrings. Within a very short time it was seen that millions of heads were struck down and fell on the battlefield. Their hands were cut off with their bows and arrows and clubs. One arm was piled over another, one thigh was piled over another thigh, one horse was piled over another horse. Similarly, other animals also-camels, elephants, asses-and after all the infantry soldiers, all their heads were cut off and fell down.

In this way, when the opposing enemy, headed by Jarasandha, found that they were gradually being defeated by the soldiers of Krsna, they thought it wise why they should lose in the battle for the sake of Cediraja. Actually, Sisupala was to fight himself for rescuing Rukmini from the hands of Krsna. But when they saw that Sisupala was not competent enough to fight with Krsna, they decided not to lose their strength unnecessarily, and therefore they ceased fighting and dispersed themselves hither and thither.

Some of the princes, of course, as a matter of etiquette, after all had lost all kinds of energies and all the luster of his body disappeared. They began to address Sisupala, repeating a formality only, and addressed him, "My dear Sisupala, you are the chief amongst the fighters. You belong to the royal order. Don't be discouraged in this way. For an active person like you there is no question of distress or happiness because none of the conditions are everlasting. Better you take courage. Don't be disappointed by this reverse position of your present situation. After all, we are not the final actor. We all of us are exactly dancing like the puppet in the hands of a magician. We are all dancing by the will of the Supreme, and according to His plan only we suffer distress or enjoy happiness. We should therefore be equipoised in all circumstances."

In other words, the princes being defeated, there was no other alternative than to encourage Sisupala in such flattering words, although in the beginning they were very much hopeful in their heroic action. Thus Sisupala, instead of marrying Rukmini, had to be satisfied with the flattering words of his friends, and certainly in frustration he had to go back to his place. The other kings who had come to assist him, also being disappointed, returned to their respective homes.

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After all, the whole catastrophe was due to the envious nature of Rukminis eldest brother Rukmi. Now Rukmi, having seen that his sister Rukmini has been forcibly married by Krsna or taken away, and his planned to get her married with Sisupala was frustrated. So on the return of his expected brother-in-law Sisupala and his friends to their respective homes, Rukmi personally became very much agitated and determined to teach some lessons to Krsna and called for his own soldiers, one division of military strength, aksauhini, which consists of several thousands of elephants, horses, chariots and infantry soldiers. So equipped with this military strength, he began to follow Krsna up to Dvaraka. Rukmi, in order to show his prestige, began to promise before all the returning kings that "You could not help Sisupala in the matter of his marriage with my sister, Rukmini, but I cannot allow Rukmini to be taken away by Krsna. I shall teach Him a lesson. Now I am going there."

In this way he addressed himself as a big commander and promised before all the princes present that "Unless I kill Krsna in this fight and bring back my sister from His clutches, I shall no more return to my capital city, Kunḍina, and just promising this vow before you all, and you will see that I shall fulfill it."

Thus after vibrating all these high-sounding words about his own heroism, Rukmi immediately got up on his chariot and asked his chariot driver to proceed to that place where Krsna is there. He said, "I want to fight with Him immediately." He further said that "This cowherds boy has become very much proud on account of His tricky way to fight with the ksatriyas, but today I shall teach Him a good lesson. Because He has got the impudency to kidnap my sister, I shall teach Him very good lesson with my sharpened arrows."

Thus this unintelligent man, Rukmi, without having any knowledge of the measurement of strength and activity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, began to vibrate various kinds of impudent vituperation, and in great stupidity stood before Krsna, asking Him repeatedly that "You stop for a minute and fight with me!" After saying this, he stuck up his bow very tightly and throw three forceful arrows against Krsna's body, and he condemned Krsna as the most abominable descendant of Yadu dynasty, asked Him to stand before him for a minute and he would teach Him good lesson. "You are carrying away my sister exactly like the crow stealing clarified butter meant for being used in the sacrifice. You are simply proud of Your military strength, but You cannot fight in regulative principle. You have stolen my sister; now I shall relieve You from Your false prestige. You can keep my sister under Your possession so long You do not lie down on the ground for good, being beaten by my arrows."

Lord Krsna, after hearing from Rukmi all these crazy words, immediately He took His arrow and cut off the string of his bow so that he was made unable immediately to use any other arrow. Rukmi also immediately took care of another bow, and thus he threw another five arrows upon Krsna. Krsna, being attacked for the second time by Rukmi, He again cut off the string of his bow. Rukmi again took a third bow, and Krsna again cut off the string of the bow for the third time also. This time, in order to teach Rukmi a lesson, Krsna threw six arrows on Rukmi personally, and after this He threw again eight arrows, out of which he killed his two horses by two arrows, He killed the chariot driver by one arrow (within brackets) [he killed four horses by four arrows], and by the remaining three arrows He chopped off the upper portion of his chariot with the flag. When Rukmi was finished of all his arrows, he took the assistance of other weapons like swords, shield, tridents, lances and similar other weapons used for fighting hand to hand, but Krsna in the same way cut them all immediately. Now Rukmi being repeatedly baffled in his attempt, he simply took his sword, now began to run very forcibly towards Krsna with his sword only, exactly like the fly proceeds towards a fire with great force. As soon as Rukmi came forward before Krsna, He immediately cut his weapon into pieces. This time Krsna took His sharpened sword and tried to kill him immediately. Rukmis sister, Rukmini, could understand that this time Krsna will not excuse her brother; therefore, trembling with great fear, fell down immediately on the lotus feet of Krsna and in a very piteous tone began to address her husband as follows.

Rukmini addressed Krsna as Yogesvara. This "Yogesvara" means "possessed of inconceivable opulences or energies," whereas his [her] brother was only with limited potency of military strength. Krsna is immeasurable, whereas his [her] brother is measured in every step of his life, for he was not even comparable to an insignificant insect with the unlimited power of Krsna. She also addressed Him as the God of the gods. There are many powerful demigods like Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, Indra, Candra, Varuna, sun, moon, but Krsna was also Lord for them, whereas his [her] brother was ordinary human being and that also lowest of them because he had no idea what Krsna is. In other words, a human being who has no conception of the actual position of Krsna is lowest of the human society. Krsna was also addressed as Jagatpati, the master of the whole cosmic manifestation, and his [her] brother was only an ordinary prince.

Krsna was also addressed as Mahabhuja, this means "with unlimited strength." In this way, Rukmini compared the position of his [her] brother and that of Krsna, and very feelingly appealed to her husband to excuse his [her] brother so that he may not be killed in the auspicious situation of their being united together. In other words, she submitted her real position as woman. She was so happy to get Krsna as her husband, and in that moment if that marriage is performed at the cost of his [her] own elder brother, who after all in his calculations loved the younger sister and wanted to hand her over to a better man in his own calculation.

In this way, while Rukmini was praying for the life of her brother from Krsna, his [her] whole body was trembling, and being fully anxious, his…, her face appeared to be dried up. Her throat became choked up, and on account of dexterity the ornaments of her body became scattered and fell down on the ground. In this manner, when Rukmini was very much perturbed and fell down on the ground, Lord Krsna immediately became compassionate and stopped killing the foolish [indistinct] Rukmi. But at the same time, He wanted to give him some light punishment, so He tied him up with some cloth piece and He shaved her [his] moustaches and beard and hair, keeping some spots here and there.

While Krsna was dealing with Rukmi in this way, the soldiers of Yadu dynasty, commanded by Balarama Himself, exasperated the whole strength of Rukmi, exactly like the elephant discards the feeble stem of lotus flowers in the tank. In other words, as an elephant breaks the whole construction of lotus flower in the reservoir of water while taking bath, similarly, the military strength of Rukmi appeared to be as feeble as the lotus stem before the elephant. But when the commanders of Yadu dynasty came back to see Krsna, they were all surprised to see the condition of Rukmi in that position. Especially Lord Balarama became too much compassionate with His sister-in-law, now newly married with His brother. In order to please Rukmini, Balarama personally untied the bindings of Rukmi so that his sister may be pleased. And in order to please her, as elder brother of Krsna, He spoke some words of chastisement.

"Krsna, Your action like this is not at all satisfactory. It is very much abominable to Our family tradition. Whatever Rukmi might have been, he is now Our brother-in-law, relative of Our family. You should not have put him into such a condition. Because to cut one on his head and similarly to shave a friend's hairs, moustaches and beard is almost equally compared with death."

After this, in order to pacify Rukmini, Lord Balarama said that "You should not be very much sorry because your brother has been made very odd-looking from his bodily feature. Everyone suffers or enjoys the result of his own actions." Lord Balarama wanted to impress upon Rukmini that she should not have been sorry on the resultant action of his [her] brother. There was no need of becoming too much affectionate to such brother.

Lord Balarama again turned towards Krsna and said, "My dear Krsna, a relative, even though he commits such a blunder as to be killed, he should be excused because such relative, when he is conscious of his own fault, that consciousness itself is like death for him. Therefore, there is no need of killing such person."

And again He turned towards Rukmini and informed her that the strong duty of the ksatriya such in the human society is so fixed that in the fighting principle, if one's brother becomes enemy on the opposite side, a ksatriya does not hesitate to kill his own brother. In other words, Lord Balarama wanted to instruct Rukmini that her brother Rukmi and Krsna, although now happened to be brother-in-laws, but because there was fighting, both of them were right in not showing any mercy in family consideration.

Sri Balarama continued to inform Rukmini that "Ksatriyas are a typical emblem of materialistic way of life. Therefore, when there is fight between the ksatriyas on account of kingdom or on account of land, wealth, woman, prestige, power, for all of these the ksatriyas are generally very much puffed up, and whenever there is question of all this material acquisition, through belligerence ksatriyas try to put one another in the most abominable condition."

Balarama again turned towards Rukmini and began to instruct her that her affectionate consideration towards her brother was a sort of partiality shown by the ordinary materialistic person. Because her brother Rukmi has created enmity with so many persons, his character was not at all admirable in the consideration of his treatment towards other friends. And still Rukmini, as an ordinary woman, was too much affectionate towards her brother. Practically he was not befitting to become her brother, and still Rukmini showed her leniency towards him.

"Besides that, any person who considers somebody as enemy, somebody as friend or somebody as neutral, such considerations are generally made by persons who are in the concept of bodily life. In other words, such foolish persons become bewildered by the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord. Actually, the spirit soul in every embodiment of matter is of the same pure quality, but those who are not sufficiently intelligent, they see the pure spirit soul covered by the body as animal, man, literate, illiterate, rich, poor and so on, with diverse differentiation. Such observations are purely on the basis of the body. Such differentiation is exactly like differentiating the fire on account of different size of the fuel. In other words, whatever size and shape of the fuel it may be, when the fire comes out there is no such varieties of size and shape, as much as there is no difference of size or shape of the sky after the destruction of the pots of different shape and size." In this way, Balarama made the whole situation very much congenial by His moral and ethical instruction to both Rukmini and Krsna.

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"This body is part of material manifestation, consisting of the material elements, living condition and interaction of the modes of material nature. The living entity, spirit soul, being in contact with them out of illusory enjoyment is transmigrating from one body to another, and that is known as material existence. Actually, this contact of the living entity with this material manifestation has neither integration or disintegration. My dear chaste sister-in-law, of course the spirit soul is the cause of this material body, as much as the sun is the cause of sunlight, the eyesight and the forms of material manifestation."

The example of the sun, the sunshine and material manifestation is very appropriate in the matter of understanding the living entities' contact with this material world. In the morning, when there is sunrise, the heat and light expands gradually throughout the whole day, and the sunshine being the cause of all material production, the shapes and forms, integration and disintegration of material elements all take place. But as soon as the sun is set, the whole manifestation has nothing to do with the passing away of the sun from one place to another. When the sun passes from the eastern hemisphere to the western hemisphere, the interaction due to the sunshine in the eastern hemisphere remains, but the sunshine is visible again on the western hemisphere. Similarly at a particular circumstances the living entity accepts or produces a different kind of body and different kinds of bodily relationship. But as soon as the living entity gives up the present body and accepts another body, the former body has nothing to do with the living entity. Similarly, the next body accepted by the living entity has nothing to do with him; he is always free from the contact of this bodily contamination.

Therefore the conclusion is that the appearance and disappearance of the body has nothing to do with the living entity, as much as the waxing and waning of the moon has got nothing to do factually with the moon planet. When there is waxing of the moon, we falsely think that the moon is developing, and when there is waning of the moon we think that the moon is decreasing. But actually, the moon planet, as it is, is always the same; it has nothing to do with such visible waxing and waning activities.

"This consciousness of material existence is just like the situation of a sleeping and dreaming man. When a man sleeps, he dreams so many nonfactual happenings, and as a result of such dreaming experience he becomes subjected to different kinds of distress and happiness. Similarly, when a person is in material consciousness, or dreaming condition, in material existence, he suffers the effects of accepting a body and giving it up again. Opposite to this material consciousness is Krsna consciousness. In other words, when a man is elevated to the platform of Krsna consciousness, he becomes free from this false concept of life."

In this way, Sri Balarama instructed about spiritual knowledge and addressed His sister-in-law as "Sweetly smiling Rukmini, do not be aggrieved by false notions out of ignorance only. Just because on account of false notions only one becomes unhappy, but this unhappiness is immediately removed by discussing the philosophy of actual life. So be pleased on that platform only."

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Rukmini also, after hearing such enlightening instruction from Sri Balarama, immediately became pacified and happy and adjusted her mental condition, which was very much afflicted on seeing the degraded position of her brother Rukmi. So far Rukmi was concerned, neither his promise was fulfilled nor his mission was successful. He came out of home with his soldiers and military phalanx to defeat Krsna and release his sister, but on the contrary, all his soldiers and military strength were lost. He was personally so much degraded, so in that condition he was very, very sorry. But by the grace of the Lord he could continue his life with a fixed-up destination. Because he was a ksatriya, he could remember his promise that he would not return to his capital city Kunḍina without killing Krsna and releasing his sister, which he failed. And therefore, he decided not to return to his capital city out of anger, and as such he constructed a small cottage in the village known as Bhojakata and he began to reside there for the rest of his life.

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Now after this incidence Lord Krsna, defeating all the opposing elements, He forcibly carried away Rukmini and then brought her in His capital city, Dvaraka, and then married according to the Vedic ritualistic principle. After His marriage, Krsna became the king of the Yadus at Dvaraka, and all the inhabitants were so happy that on the occasion of His marriage with Rukmini, in every house there was great ceremonies. The inhabitants of Dvaraka City became so much pleased that they dressed themselves with the nicest possible ornaments and garments and went to present gifts, according to their means, to the newly married couple, Krsna and Rukmini. All the houses of Yadupuri (within bracket) [Dvaraka] was decorated with highly raised flags, festoons and flowers. In each and every house there was an extra constructed gate specifically prepared on this occasion, and on both sides of the gates there were big water jugs filled with water. The whole city was flavored by burning first-quality incenses, and at night there was illumination by thousands of lamps, decorated in each and every building.

In this way, the whole city looked in jubilant feature on the occasion of Lord Krsna's marriage with Rukmini. The whole city was profusely decorated with banana trees and betel nut trees. These two trees are considered very auspicious in such happy ceremonies. At the same time, there were assembly of many elephants, who carried the respective kings from different friendly kingdoms. It is the habit of the elephants whenever they see some small plants and trees, out of their sportive, frivolous activities they uproot such trees and throw it hither and thither. The elephants assembled on this occasion, they also scattered the banana trees and the betel nut trees hither and thither. But in spite of their such action of intoxication, the whole city looked very, very nice on account of the trees being strewn here and there.

The friendly kings like the Kurus and the Panḍavas represented by Bhisma, Dhrtarastra, the five Panḍu brothers, the king Drupada, the king Santardana, as well as Rukminis father also [indistinct] the ceremony, although in connection with the affair of Rukmini's kidnap by Krsna there was some misunderstanding between the two families. Still, later on Sri Balarama approached the king of Vidarbha, Bhismaka, and was persuaded by many saintly person. Thus he was also induced to participate in the marriage ceremony of Krsna with Rukmini.

Although the incidence of Krsna's kidnapping Rukmini was not very happy occurrence in the kingdom of Vidarbha, still, this kidnapping was not an unusual affair amongst the ksatriyas. Almost in all marriages like that, this kidnapping business is current. Besides that, King Bhismaka was from the very beginning inclined to hand over his beautiful daughter to Krsna. So some way or other, his purpose being served, he was pleased to join the marriage ceremony, although his eldest son was degraded in the fight. In this marriage ceremony, from Vrndavana Maharaja Nanda and the cowherds boy also joined. That is mentioned in the Padma Purana. And all the kings from different kingdoms like the Kurus, Srnjaya, Kekaya, Vidarbha, Kunti came to the Dvaraka in this connection were seen loitering here and there very joyfully.

Another specific performance was done that the whole story of Rukmini's being kidnapped by Krsna was made into poetry, and the professional reciters were reciting those poetries everywhere. All the assembled kings and especially their daughters were struck with wonder and became very much pleased by hearing the chivalrous activities of Krsna. In this way, all visitors as well as the inhabitants of Dvaraka City, after seeing Krsna and Rukmini together-in other words the Supreme Lord, maintainer of everyone, and the goddess of fortune united together-all of them felt extremely jubilant.

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Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of Krsna Chapter Fifty-four in the matter of "Krsna Defeats all Princes and Takes Rukmini at Home."