In the previous episode, we had witnessed a critical juncture wherein Rukmini Devi’s proposal to Bhagawan Krishna is under “consideration”! 🙂 We’ve witnessed how Rukmini Devi had fallen in love with Bhagawan Krishna, just by listening to His divine “Leelas” and how she was deeply rooted to Bhagawan in all ways! We’ve also in the meanwhile witnessed how this is one of the highest levels of Bhakti, wherein we’ve witnessed few other examples of Aalwars, Aachaaryas, etc. who had pratised the “Naayika Bhaava” as a path to their devotion. We’ve also witnessed yesterday how Aandal was also love-stricken for Bhagawan Krishna and she was of a savage resolution that if at all she had to get married, it would only be to Bhagawan Krishna and nobody else. It is the same level of Bhakti that Rukmini Devi is also exhibiting towards Bhagawan Krishna here and we’ve witnessed that the messenger had handed over her letter to Bhagawan.
Upon seeing through the letter, Bhagawan Krishna’s heart melted for Rukmini Devi. He immediately acknowledged her true love for Him and shed tears of joy. Bhagawan Krishna wanted to see Rukmini Devi immediately and asks the messenger, what can be done now. The messenger replies to Bhagawan Krishna thus, “Oh Bhagawan! Rukmini’s father, Rukmi has already fixed her marriage with your cousin brother, Sishupaala. The marriage is about to take place within the next two days. If you’ve to respond to Rukmini Devi’s call, you’ve to do it immediately. It’s now or never!” As Bhagawan Krishna hears this from the messenger, He gets tensed up. He had to do something immediately to stop this marriage with Sishupaala. And in the meanwhile, Sishupaala was already on his way for the grand event. Given this tricky situation, Bhagawan Krishna asks the messenger thus, “Oh Brahmin pandit! You’re a knowledgable person and you’ve been highly educated. With all your intellect, please suggest a way through which I can reach your place within a jiffy!”
Hearing thus from Bhagawan, the messenger didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry! He was wondering, how come Bhagawan would come down to his level and ask him for suggestions! Nevertheless, the messenger replies thus, “Oh Bhagawan! You’re all pervasive and you obviously know much better than I do! However, please understand that Rukmini Devi and family would come to their family deity temple for a small prayer, the day before the marriage ceremony starts. Perhaps, you can enter inside at that time and wreak havoc there. Things might be simpler that way. Also, during the prayer ceremony at that temple, there wouldn’t be much of a security problem for Rukmini Devi. There’s a huge lawn surrounding the temple. You can perhaps enter into that lawn, hide yourself in a corner and have a look at her. Then perhaps, things might fall in place one after the other!”
As the messenger explains thus, Bhagawan Krishna is so immersed into reading Rukmini Devi’s letter again and again. In fact, at the end of the letter, Rukmini Devi herself had given pretty much the same suggestion to Bhagawan. She had in fact gone one step further and explained a detailed “plan of action” thus, “Oh Bhagawan! Please hurry up and come to the temple’s lawn. Come in your chariot. Park your chariot near the temple and come inside the lawn. I shall be waiting for you at the temple. You can come to the temple and pick me up from there. Take me to the chariot and start riding fast towards Dwaaraka. Obviously there would be people who would come behind the chariot to stop you. They would try and unleash weapons on you. But I’m sure that you would be able to easily defeat all of them and take me safely to Dwaaraka!”
Upon seeing this, Bhagawan was astonished beyond words! In fact, Rukmini Devi was extremely smart too! This is where we understand that along with devotion, one has to be “smart enough” to attain Bhagawan’s proximity! Of course, this is just on the lighter side, but if we’re devoted to Bhagawan so much, smartness and the ways to attain Bhagawan would automatically open up for us. Afterall, these are all instituted by Bhagawan Himself to take us near Him, isn’t it? Afterall we’re all His children and if Bhagawan isn’t going to unleash all His “Leelas” on us, who else on earth is He going to unleash them on? Hence, we’ve to understand that if we’ve got the devotion in place, Bhagawan would automatically enter into our intellect and show us the path to attain Him! This is exactly what we’re witnessing in the case of Rukmini Devi as well here.
Further to this, Rukmini Devi, in her letter had mentioned the concluding note thus: “Oh Bhagawan Krishna! If by any chance, I’m unable to see you by tomorrow evening at the temple, you would not see me alive any further. I can never get married to a Raakshasa called Sishupaala. If you’re not going to protect me, there is no point of me being alive any further!” This is the sentence that made Bhagawan Krishna jump up immediately! He said to the messenger thus, “Oh Brahmin pandit! Come on, let’s start!” There was no looking back after this point! This is how Bhagawan Krishna responds to a devotee who had total surrender to Him! Rukmini Devi had exhibited this to Him isn’t it? This was enough! He immediately gets into the chariot along with the messenger and starts hurrying towards Rukmini Devi’s place.
So for today, let us stop with this point and in the next episode we shall witness how Bhagawan Krishna reached Rukmini Devi’s place, and what happened further! Did Bhagawan Krishna succeed in taking Rukmini Devi away from her? What was Sishupaala’s reaction? An absorbing and a dramatic discussion awaits us in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 
Please suggest a good ‘srimad bhagvatham’ in english..
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