Rukmini-dvadasi—Reaching Out to Krishna

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

We welcome you to the first of many consecutive days of celebrations here in New Dvaraka. Today is Rukmini-dvadasi, the appearance day of Srimati Rukmini-devi. Tomorrow we will be celebrating the appearance of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva. Although the actual date of Nṛsiṁha-caturdaśi is Monday, but to facilitate the congregants, we will be celebrating tomorrow and Monday. And then Tuesday is another important day, the appearance day of Sri Madhavendra Puri, one of the most important acharyas in our line. In fact he introduced pure devotional service in the mood of separation, especially in the mood of Srimati Radharani in separation from Krishna. It is also the appearance day of the Deity of Radha-Ramana, the Deity of Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, because on Nṛsiṁha-caturdaśi all the other Gosvamis and devotees had their Deities of Krishna with a form, they could dress Them and decorate Them, but he had only a śālagrāma-śilā and he was wishing that he could have a Deity like they had so that he could also dress Them and decorate Them and serve Them. And then the next morning when he woke up he found that his śālagrāma-śilā had a beautiful form of Radha-Ramana.

But today we are observing Rukmini-dvadasi. There have been wonderful festivities all day long beginning with a special darshan of the Deities in Their flower outfits and we just had a wonderful abhiseka. I must say that being present for the abhiseka I really felt like I was in Vrindavan. There was so much devotion, really so much spontaneous devotion, devotees singing. Every time the pujaris would pour another substance there would be squeals of approval and ecstasy and it was really wonderful. And that is our life in Krishna consciousness just somehow being captivated by Krishna, the beauty of Krishna and His beauty is manifest in His Deity form, in the holy name, in the revealed scriptures. So somehow or other, we want to be absorbed in Krishna and that will cleanse the heart naturally and make us happy—all of these different activities.

Beginning with the tattva (ontology), I hope many of you know—most of you—that Krishna is the Absolute Truth. From Him everything emanates. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam. [Bs 5.1] He is the cause of all causes. 

Once on a morning walk here with Srila Prabhupada at Cheviot Hills Park I asked him that, “We say that Krishna is the origin of everything but sometimes people ask us, ‘You say Krishna is the origin, well what is the origin of Krishna?’ So what should we answer?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “You should tell them that according to our information Krishna is the origin of everything and He has no origin, but if you find someone or something that is the origin of Krishna, we will worship that person or that thing, but until then you should worship Krishna.” [laughter]

So Krishna is the origin but in terms of tattva, again there are two basic categories: viṣṇu-tattva and śakti-tattva that Krishna is the source of all energy and from Him so many expansions come like Balarama, Balarama is the first expansion of Krishna. Saṅkarṣaṇa, Vasudeva, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, so many expansions on the side of the energetic. Similarly, there are many expansions on the side of the energy and the first expansion on the side of the energy is Srimati Radharani and then from Her so many gopīs are expanded in Vrindavan and so many queens are expanded in Dvaraka. So Queen Rukmini is the principal queen of Krishna of Dvaraka but she is actually an expansion of Srimati Radharani and all of her qualities are present in Srimati Radharani although Srimati Radharani manifests some qualities that Queen Rukmini does not manifest. 

Many of the pastimes of Rukmini and Krishna are described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and they are very relishable and instructive. I remember when I was first reading the story of Rukmini and Krishna in the Kṛṣṇa book, I thought that this is the most wonderful story. It could make a fantastic movie that has romance, it has suspense, it has adventure, it has chivalry, and it has a happy ending. I thought this is amazing. You get everything in Krishna consciousness but completely pure, completely spiritual.

Rukmini was born in a royal family of Vidarbha and many kings would visit the royal palace and many sages would also come and they would talk about Krishna. The sages knew Krishna to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead and therefore they were pleased to glorify Him who was present on earth at the time but He was appearing as a king Himself and so the kshatriya also would speak about Krishna. And by hearing about Krishna, Princess Rukmini became attached to Him or in more popular language we could say she fell in love with Him. She had never met Him but just by hearing about Him she developed great faith and attraction and love for Him. 

This is very instructive for all of us that if we hear about Krishna we will also become attracted to Him. Of course she was a very pious girl, very religious girl, very pure girl. I say girl but actually she is, as we mentioned, an expansion of Srimati Radharani. But because she was pure and religious and cultured, hearing about Krishna had very powerful effects upon her heart. So, in the same way, if we lead a pure life as the scriptures advise, as Srila Prabhupada has taught, and we hear the pastimes of Krishna, hear about the beauty and qualities of Krishna, we will also become attracted. 

And she became so attracted to Krishna that she wanted to marry Him because He was present on earth, He was a king and she was a princess. So she wanted to marry. In a very bold move she sent a letter to Him through a brahman messenger expressing her heart’s desire to have Him as her husband. 

Now meanwhile her brother Rukmi who was friendly with Sisupala who was against Krishna, envious of Krishna—from the very beginning he was envious of Krishna—Rukmi wanted her to marry Sisupala. The system then was to have arranged marriages. Now actually there is a lot of virtue to the idea of having one’s elders help one select one’s match. My good friend, His Holiness Ṛtadhvaja Swami, he spent a lot of time teaching the youth in ISKCON and one would think the youth are growing in the culture in America and in the times with us now, that they would want to make their own choice or selection, but Ṛtadhvaja Swami, he is a very, very friendly person, so he asked them and they all said, “No, we want our parents and elders and teachers to be involved in the choice. We don’t want to do it just on our own.” So that is actually a good system. It is not forced but it is a good system. 

But in this case it was being forced upon her. But Rukmini just would not think of marrying anyone but Krishna. In her letter she wrote that she wanted to marry Krishna and only Krishna and not some conditioned soul imprisoned in a material body that externally is a bed of skin with some mustaches and hairs and internally is flesh and bones and blood and muscles and a lot of pretty disgusting things. So she didn’t want that kind of a husband. She wanted Krishna who has an eternal, blissful, spiritual form.

It wasn’t only Sisupala. She was so beautiful that so many kings and princes were lusting after her, they wanted to enjoy her. That also is a fair representation of what we experience in the material world is pretty much everyone is looking at us as objects to exploit and enjoy. They may deal in a polite way. Recently I was trying to instruct a devotee in Vaishnava etiquette that before you leave the room you ask, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Now any company you phone at the end of the conversation the person will ask, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” It is all scripted. The whole idea is just to get your money but at least they ask, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” And again Ṛtadhvaja Swami made a joke, he said that sometimes when they ask, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” he says, “Well yes, actually I need someone to do my laundry,” just to break through that scripted artificial talk. Underneath it all people just want to get something from you. They want to exploit your body, exploit your mind, your exploit your resources. They are just like those lusty kings and princes that were hovering around Rukmini.

In that very delicate predicament, that very awkward situation, she reached out to Krishna, she called out to Krishna to save her. And that is the only recourse she had and that ultimately is the only recourse that any of us have because we are in an ocean surrounded by sharks who are just ready to devour us and the only one who can save us is Krishna. Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te, that this material nature consisting of the three modes is very difficult to overcome but one who surrenders to Krishna can easily cross over it. [Bg 7.14]

But she did so in utter and complete sincerity. Sometimes we also pray to Krishna but there is some duplicity. We want Krishna to help us but at the same time we still want to enjoy materially without Krishna. There is a saying about soldiers in battle, “There are no atheists in the foxholes.” Foxholes are positions underground where the soldiers shoot them in and go down. There are no atheists in the foxholes because when someone is in extreme danger he will naturally pray to God because he knows intuitively that only God can save him. But then afterwards when he is saved from his immediate danger he forgets God. He thinks, “I am the controller, I am the enjoyer, I am the proprietor,” and he goes back to his ordinary way of life which is quite self-centered and mundane and inauspicious. 

But Princess Rukmini, she was completely sincere. She wanted to serve Krishna and nothing else. Nothing else would satisfy her. Now one could say that that is true, she got Krishna, but along with Krishna she got a beautiful palace—there are fantastic descriptions of the opulence of Dvaraka—and she had so many nice children and servants and maidservants and so much opulence. Now there is no harm in opulence as long as Krishna is in the center. The main thing is that Krishna should be in the center. A chaste and faithful wife—that is another instruction from the narration of Rukmini and Krishna in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—will follow her husband. He maybe in an opulent position, so be it; he may by circumstances come into a poor condition, but still she will stay with him. Sometimes it happens that the poor husband by the grace of Krishna becomes opulent if he is a devotee. 

Here one example is Sudama Vipra. Sudama was a classmate of Krishna’s in the gurukula in the ashram of Sandipani Muni and they had a very affectionate relationship from when they were in the gurukula. Sudama as a brahman ended up being very poor and Krishna as a prince ended up being very rich. Sudama’s wife was tired of being so poor and leading such a hard life so she said to her husband that, “Your friend Krishna is the king of Dvaraka. He has immense opulence. Why don’t you go and visit Him. Maybe He will give you something.” 

Sudama was not very keen on asking for something material from Krishna but he did like the idea of meeting Krishna after such a long time and of course the etiquette is when you meet a respectable person—the king or a sage, any respectable person—you bring a gift, but they were so poor, what to give? They have nothing, absolutely nothing. So they borrowed some broken rice—they were so poor that was all they could do—to give as a presentation to Krishna. Sudama bounded in his cloth and went happily to Dvaraka.

When Krishna understood that Sudama had come He personally went to receive him, invited him into His palace, He seated him very nicely, He washed his feet, and Queen Rukmini, the goddess of fortune herself personally came and fanned the poor brahman. And then Krishna, of course He is the omniscient Supreme Lord, but He noticed Sudama had something tied in his cloth. So He said, “Sudama, you have come to see Me after such a long time. You didn’t bring Me anything?” And Sudama was so ashamed and embarrassed he was silent and Krishna said, “What is that? What is that?” Then He took a morsel of the rice. He said, “Oh, this is such nectar. I’ve never tasted such nectar like this in My life. Let Me take some more.”

Rukmini became very concerned that Krishna is so affectionate to His devotees and He feels so obliged to His devotees for even the smallest modicum of service she thought that, “If Krishna eats anymore of that rice, He will give everything He has to that brahman yet even I, the goddess of fortune, will not have anything left. Krishna will give it all to the brahman.” 

So she intervened and she wouldn’t let Him eat anymore and they passed some time remembering the old days in the gurukula and the brahman never asked Krishna for anything. It just wasn’t in his heart to ask for something material from Krishna and he went home thinking that his wife was going to be very upset because he went to see Krishna in Dvaraka and he didn’t come back with anything.

But when he came to the place of his former poor residence, it was transformed into a palace without Sudama asking Krishna for anything and without Krishna telling Sudama that He was going to give him anything. He gave him more than Sudama or his wife could ever have imagined.

So we are not against opulence and we are not for poverty but we are for Krishna. Sometimes, however, opulence can be an impediment. Then we have to choose do we want Krishna or maya. Sometimes poverty in a way can be an impediment. But whatever is destined to us will come to us. We don’t have to bother about that. It’s ordained. Some people are rich automatically, some people are poor. It is ordained. So that will come. Whatever happiness is due to us will come, whatever distress is due to us will come, but the main thing is Krishna, to have Krishna, to make Krishna the center of our lives—the Deity of Krishna, the holy name of Krishna, the pastimes of Krishna, the philosophy of Krishna, everything Krishna—and if Krishna wants, He will give us more facility to serve Him. And that is what He did with Sudama Brahmana. He knew the brahman would not misuse the facility that he would remain a humble devotee and so He gave him everything. 

So if we worship Krishna, Rukmini-Dvarakadisa, Rukmini-Dvarakanatha, and make Them the center of lives then we may enjoy some of Their opulence. Actually New Dvaraka itself is quite opulent. We are already enjoying some of Their opulence. But that is incidental because material things without Krishna will not make us happy. Only Krishna can make us happy and with Krishna we will be happy with or without material things.

It is a very wonderful festival we are having today because it infuses us with thoughts of Krishna, it inspires our attraction for Krishna and that is why Srila Prabhupada established this temple, that is why he installed the Deities, that is why he trained the devotees so that they could always be busy with Krishna, busy for Krishna, and by their association they could inspire others and teach others also how to be absorbed in Krishna. The main process in the present age of Kali among all of them, the main in the sense that it’s most easily accessible and most easily performed, is the chanting of the holy names: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

So we request you to chant Hare Krishna, dance, feast (that will be coming soon), and be happy in Krishna consciousness. Hare Krishna.