Chapter 60 - Conversation between Kṛṣṇa and Rukmiṇī (A Sweet Quarrel)

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

[Padaratnāvalī’s text gives the introductory background in 4 verses:]

King Parīkṣit enquired:

0.1 Every one of the queens of Kṛṣṇa was devotedly attached to him from the bottom of her heart and every one of them was confident in her heart that she was the only beloved-most queen of Kṛṣṇa.

0.2 Was Kṛṣṇa equal to all in his love of them or was he specially attached to one (of them)? As I strongly desire to know the fact of the matter, be pleased to narrate it to me.

Śrī Śuka said:

0.3 It is widely well-known to all that out of all his queens, Rukmiṇī, the princess of Bhīṣma, was the senior-most and the Lord was loving her the most of all.

0.4 On one occasion, a love-quarrel with her was provoked by Kṛṣṇa. I shall narrate to you the whole episode. Please listen to it, O descendant of the Kurus.

Śrī Śuka said:

1. On a certain occasion, Rukmiṇī, the princess of Bhīṣma was waiting upon her consort, the Creator and the Preceptor of the world who was comfortably seated on her own bed while the maid-servants^[1] were fanning.

2. That Unborn Lord, the Controller of the Universe, who, out of sport, creates, protects and destroys this universe, was born in the race of Yadus for the protection (and enforcement) of the moral ordinances laid down by him.

3-6. O King! (In her mansion) Rukmiṇī was waiting upon her Consort, the Lord of the three worlds, as he was comfortably relaxing on a cushion, white like the foam of milk, on an excellent couch, in her inner apartment which was beautified with a canopy fringed with strings of lustrous pearls suspended from it and with refulgent precious gems as lamps. It (the apartment) was decorated with flowers and wreaths of jasmine resonant with the swarms of humming bees; it was lit up with silvery moon-beams that entered through the appertures of the latticed windows. From the garden a gentle breeze surcharged with the fragrance of Pārijāta wafted in, while the incense of the fumes of burning aloe wood escaped out of the eyeholes of the lattice.

7. The queen (Rukmiṇī) too from her (female) friend’s hand the chowrie with a (gold) handle studded with gems and began to serve her Lord by fanning Him with it.

8. She was holding the chowrie in her hand adorned with rings and bracelets and was making a jingling sound with a pair of anklets studded with jewels. By the side of Lord Kṛṣṇa, she looked extremely charming with the lustre of necklace reddened with the saffron applied to her bosom covered in her upper garment and with her priceless girdle worn round her waist.

9. Gazing at her who was goddess Lakṣmī herself who was exclusively devoted to him and had assumed a form suitable to the form sportively adopted by him^[2], Lord Hari, being very much, pleased with her, smilingly spoke to her who appeared extremely charming with her countenance looking all the more beautiful with her curly locks of hair, ear-rings, gold necklace and her face splendidly beaming with nectar-like (sweet) smile.

The Lord said:

10. O princess (of excellent beauty and virtue)! You were desired and sought after by rulers of the earth whose affluence and power equalled to that of the divine protectors of worlds; were endowed with majestic splendour and were far- famed for their wealth, beauty of form, magnanimity and might.

111-12. O lady with beautiful eyebrows! Why did you reject the prince of Cedi (Śiśupāla) and others who arrived (at your place) seeking your hand and were mad with intense love for you and to whom you were (already) agreed to be offered (in marriage) by your brother and father? Why did you select us who were in no way their compeer—us, who being afraid of other Kings, have sought shelter in the sea, have contracted enmity with the powerful (monarchs like Jarāsandha) and have practically relinquished the royal throne.

13.^[3] O damsel with lovely brows! Women who (by marrying) follow the path of men whose ways are obscure and who generally follow paths untraversed by the (general) public, generally come to grief.

14. (Women generally approve of the rich even though they may not be good looking.) But we are have-nots and we are generally dear to people who possess nothing (and are poor). Hence affluent people generally do not resort to me, O lady with beautiful waist.

15. (It is advisable that) Marriage and friendship be contracted between those who are equal in wealth, heredity (or family prestige) sovereign power, beauty of form or future prospects but not between the inferiors or superiors.

16.^[4] O princess of Vidarbha! Without ascertaining the real situation, we who are really devoid of all qualities but are praised for nothing by beggars, have been selected by you due to your lack of foresight.

17. Even at this stage you may choose some prominent Kṣattriya hero who is suitable to you in every respect. You may thereby enjoy all the blessings both here and hereafter.

18. Kings like Śiśupāla, Śālva, Jarāsandha, Dantavakra and others—why even your elder brother Rukmī also—have been hating me (like an enemy), O lady with beautiful thighs.

19. In order to humiliate the pride of those haughty princes who are blinded with the arrogance of their prowess that you have been brought here by me who have to crush the pride of the wicked.

20. As a matter of fact, we do not hanker after women, children or wealth and are indifferent to the world. We are perfectly satisfied in our blissful Self. We are unconcerned to our body or to our household. Like a lamp we are simply a witness who have nothing to work for.

Śrī Śuka said:

21. Having spoken to her thus, the Lord who wished to remove the pride of Rukmiṇī who, due to her continuous association with him, regarded herself the beloved-most spouse of her Lord till then, became silent.

22. It is reported that at that time, on hearing this unpleasant speech, the like of which was never heard before—of her beloved, the Lord of the three worlds, queen Rukmiṇī shuddered at heart, began to tremble and shedding tears, sank into fathomless anxiety.

23. Scratching the floor with her shapely foot beautified with reddish nails, sprinkling profusely with tears darkened with collynum, her breasts rendered reddish by the application of saffron, she stood there with her face cast down and her speech choked with excessive grief.

24. As her reason became benumbed and lost with excessive agony, fear and grief, the fan dropped from her hand which became instantly so much shrivelled and loose that bangels were slipping from them and her body suddenly became unconscious and fell down with disheveled hair like a plantain tree uprooted in a stormy wind.

25. Observing that (indescribably powerful bondage of love of his beloved (owing to which) she could not understand the subtle significance of his joke, Lord Kṛṣṇa who was merciful by nature, took pity on her.

26. Quickly springing down from the couch, the fourarmed Lord^[5] lifted her up and gathering up her locks of hair, gently wiped her face with his lotus-hand.

27. He wiped out her eyes which were full of tears and her breasts soiled with her tears of grief. He hugged in his arms his chaste faithful consort who was exclusively and absolutely devoted to him, O king.

28. The Lord, who knew how to comfort and was pastmaster in offering consolation and is the last resort of the righteous and the saintly people comforted mercifully his broken-hearted queen whose mind was bewildered with the (harshness of the misunderstood) subtle joke for which she was the wrong target (lit. which she did not deserve).

The Lord consoled:

29. O princess of Vidarbha! No. Please do not be displeased with me. I know that you are absolutely devoted and faithful to me. O beautiful damsel! It is just with the desire of hearing your retort that I spoke that in jest.

30. It was just to behold your charming countenance with its lower lip throbbing with anger through love, with corners of eyes reddened while casting wrathful side-glances and the knitting of your beautiful eyebrows.

31. This is the highest benefit in the domestic life of the householders that they can spend some hours in joking and jesting with their beloved, O beautiful timid lady.

Śrī Śuka said:

32. O king! When that princess of Vidarbha was thus cajoled and comforted in these words by the glorious Lord, she realized that it was nothing but his jocular speech and got over her fear of being abandoned by her dear Lord.

33. Beholding (attentively) the Lord’s face through her beautiful affectionate side-glances accompanied with bashful smile, she addressed the most prominent of men, O descendant of Bharata.

Rukmiṇī said:^[6]

34. Verily, what Your Lordship has said is factually correct namely that I am not equal and similar to you who are endowed with infinite excellences (like greatness, beauty etc). There cannot be any comparison between you who are ever established in your own greatness, the glorious Lord of the trinity of gods (Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Rudra) and I who am Prakṛti (The Primordial Nature) consisting of three guṇas (sattva, rajas and tamas) and whose feet are resorted to by the ignorant.

35. O Supremely mighty Lord (or Lord of mighty strides in cosmic Form)! It is true that you, being as it were afraid of guṇas (sattva, rajas or qualities e.g. sound, smell, etc.) abide in the sea^[7] (i.e. shine eternally in hearts unfathomable like the sea). Being the Supreme Self of infinite pure consciousness, you are ever hostile to wicked senses (or persons who are controlled by wicked propensities). And sovereignty has been spurned away as a position of blinding darkness by your servants. (Then what of you?).

36. The paths of sages who enjoy the honey of your lotuslike feet are not clearly understandable (discernible). And to men of bestial nature, they are certainly incomprehensible. Hence the way of their behaviour like that of the Supreme Ruler is extraordinary and supernatural. Such being the case, need it be said that your course of conduct must be much more so, O Almighty Lord.

37. Are you really niṣ-kāñcana (a have-not possessing nothing as your own)? No. For there is none superior to you. Even god Brahmā and others who enjoy (sacrificial) offerings and worship (from others) offer worship to you. Persons who cater to the satisfaction of their senses and are blinded by their affluence do not know that you are the Kāla—the exterminator of all. Your worship is the dear-most to gods who enjoy oblations and (reciprocally) they are so to you.

38. You are indeed the embodiment of all the highest) purposes in human life, the very personification of the fruit thereof, with the desire of attaining which the wise and intelligent people renounce every thing, O Almighty Lord! The association between your worship and them (the masterservant relation)^[8] is quite proper. But not so that between a man and a woman who are attached to each other and are subject to pleasure and pain.

39. Your prowess and glory have been extolled by sages who have renounced the staff (the external index of being a recluse). You are the soul of the universe. You are ever willing to bestow your Soul (upon your votaries). Hence I have chosen you rejecting gods like Brahmā, Śiva, Indra whose blessings and positions are shattered down and destroyed by the (vehement) velocity of Time impelled by the slight movement of your brow. What of others (like Śiśupāla, Śālva and others mentioned by you).

40. O elder brother of Gada! Your words (of having taken shelter at the sea through the fear of kings) are meaningless (as fear is impossible in your case). Oh Lord! putting to flight all kings by the twanging of your Śārṅga bow, you carried me away like a lion which routing all beasts, appropriates his own prey. How can it be true that you became afraid of those kings and took shelter at the sea?

41. Longing for you, great (lit. crest-jewels of) monarchs like Aṅga, Pṛthu (the son of Vena), Bharata (the son of Jayantī, the queen of Ṛṣabha), Yayāti (the son of Nahuṣa), gaya and others renounced their undisputed sovereignty over the whole world and entered the forest(for performing penance). Did they suffer here for having taken to the path leading to you, O Lotus-eyed one?

42. What mortal woman with a clear vision that you, the abode of all excellences, are the real objective in life and has once enjoyed the fragrance of your lotus-feet which are extolled by saints and sages, which grants emancipation from saṃsāra to people and are the abode of the goddess Lakṣmī, will disregard them and take resort to another person who is ever subject to the fear of death and saṃsāra.

43. I resorted to you, the Supreme Ruler of the worlds, as a suitable partner, my very Soul who grant all wishes here and hereafter. May your feet which liberate from the false saṃsāra and protect those who resort to them, protect me who am wandering in the cycle of births.

44. O Imperishable Lord! Annihilator of enemies! May the kings (like Śiśupāla and others) listed by you be married to that unlucky woman to whose ears your stories sung in the assemblies of god Śiva and Brahmā, have not reached. For those kings (mentioned by you) behave like a donkey, an ox, a dog, a cat and a menial servant in the homes of their wives.

45. The stupid woman who has not tasted the fragrance of the honey in your lotus-feet will resort as a beloved to a living corpse covered from outside with skin, moustaches, beard, hair on the body, nails and filled inside with flesh, bones, bloody worms, refuse, phlegm, bile and wind.

46. O lotus-eyed Lord! You revel in your own self and you do not cherish any extraordinary outlook (i.e. any special love) for me. May my love to your feet be constant when for the advancement of the world you look at me (i.e. Prakṛti) with an excess of rajas, that itself is the highest grace on me.

47. O slayer of Madhu! I do not regard your speech as without significance or false. For sometimes, as in the case of Ambā^[9], some girls do set their hearts on somebody else (than the one for whom they are brought to marry).

48. In the case of an unchaste woman though married, her mind hunts after new persons. A wise man should not maintain i.e. marry an unchaste woman, for he falls both here and hereafter.

The Lord said:

49. O virtuous princess! It is only with the desire of hearing this (from you) that you were deceived (by that jocular speech). Whatever you spoke after my speech i.e. the interpretation you have put upon it—is quite true and correct.

50.^[10] Whatever blessings you seek from me shall always be fulfilled as you are absolutely devoted to me, O beautiful lady. But blessings sought from me lead to freedom from desires.

51. Your deep love to your husband and your fidelity to him has been proven, O sinless lady. Though I have tried to move you (and shift your allegiance) with my words, your mind (and fidelity) could not be alienated.

52. Those who, for the sake of conjugal happiness worship me, the bestower of emancipation from saṃsāra, by performing penance and observance of vows, and have given their hearts to sensual pleasure, are deluded by my Māyā.

53. Having attained to (i.e. propitiated) me, the Lord and Bestower of Liberation from saṃsāra as well as of wealth or worldly pleasures, those who long to have only worldly pleasures from me (and not me their Lord and Bestower) are really unfortunate, O proud lady. For, these pleasures can be obtained even in the hell or lower species of life. To men given to such sensual pleasures, life even in hell would be welcome and suitable.

54. O deity of my house (and wealth)! How glad I am that you have borne to me a constant attachment and devotion which liberates from saṃsāra^[11] and which is very difficult to practise for the wicked and still more so for deceitful women actuated by wicked tendencies and given to the gratification of low sensual appetites.

55. O Proud lady! In all the houses, I have not noticed such a loving wife like you who, at the time of your marriage disregarded all the suitor-monarchs assembled (at your place) and ḍespached a Brāhmaṇa-emissary with a confidential message to me of whom you have merely heard good accounts only.

56. You have patiently borne oft-recurring occasions of grief (caused by us) such as the disfiguration of your brother after taking him captive in the battle (by me), the death of your brother (at Balarāma’s hand) while playing at dice (in the gambling hall) on the occasion of (Aniruddha’s) marriage.^[12]

57. That a messenger with a secret clear-worded message was sent by you to secure me (as your consort), that you felt this whole world as void when (you felt that) I delayed and that then you wanted to cast away your body^[13] as not worthy of any other person (except me). This supreme love of yours (is impossible for me to repay) we can receive you gladly, hailing you with joy.

Śrī Śuka said:

58. In this way, imitating the human world in such amorous conversation, the glorious Lord of the Universe, though absorbed in his own spiritual Bliss, indulged in lovesport with Lakṣmī (in the form of Rukmiṇī).

59. In the same way, the Omni-present Lord, the Preceptor of the Universe was present severally in the mansions of all other queens as its Master and simultaneously carried out all the duties prescribed for house-holders.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Vide verse 7 below.

[2]:

devatve deva-deheyaṃ manuṣyatve ca mānuṣūn /
viṣṇor dehānurūpaṃ vai karotyeṣātmanas tanum //
  —Viṣṇu Purāṇa 1.9.145.

[3]:

The inner significance of these epithets seems to be as follows (as later brought out in Rukmiṇī’s reply).

Women who seek us whose nature is incomprehensible and who do not follow the trodden-orthodox path of action, reach the abode of the Supreme Man. Bhāgavata Candrikā and Subodhinī give a similar (though somewhat different) explanations.

[4]:

Some epithets in the verse have double meaning:

guṇair hīnaḥ—without i.e. transcending the guṇas (sattva, rajas) bhikṣubhir mudhā—who are eulogized by recluses disinterestedly (without any ulterior motive)

vide infra Rukmiṇī’s reply—verses 34-48.

[5]:

The Lord manifested his four arms for the purpose of lifting her up, embracing her, wiping her face etc. Bhāvāratha Dīpikā

[6]:

Bhāvāratha Dīpikā quotes verses enumerating all the epithets Kṛṣṇa used to show his inferiority to Rukmiṇī in his jocular speech above and attempts to show the hidden meaning or the puns used in each which extol the real greatness of Kṛṣṇa as expounded in Rukmiṇī’s speech here.

[7]:

Bhāgavata Candrikā: What fear can exist for you who covered the three worlds in your strides? It was just to exhibit your intense love for me that you resorted to the sea which has ‘sea-ness’ like my father, the milky ocean. I being your beloved-most you love everything related to me.

Padaratnāvalī samudra—Body constituted of five elements. You abide fully refulgent (of the size of a thumb) in the heart of the body consisting of five elements.

[8]:

Bhāgavata Candrikā calls it Śeṣa-Seṣī relation.

[9]:

Ambā, a princess of Kāśī, loved the king of Śālva even though Bhīṣma carried her away to marry his step brother Vicitra-vīrya.—Mahābhārata Adi 102.60-64.

[10]:

Padaratnāvalī Whatever you long to have is always with you already. Hence you do not wish to attain any greatness or power. Or Whatever blessing you wish to have, you have it in me.

[11]:

Wealth in the form of Devotion characterised by Love which is itself of the nature of liberation from saṃsāra—VT.

[12]:

An anachronism: vide infra ch. 61. 36.

[13]:

vide Supra 29.36:

yarhyambujākṣa na labheya bhavat-prasādam /
jahyām asūn vrata-kṛśān ṣaṭajanmabhiḥ syām //