Radha Krishna - Chapter 54: Rukmî's Defeat and Krishna Married

(1) S'rî S'uka said: 'They all thus [realizing their being robbed] most angry in armor mounted their means of transport and came, each surrounded by his own troops, after them, holding their bows. (2) When the Yâdava army spotted them in their pursuit, held the officers to face them, o King, and twanged they their bows. (3) From horseback, elephant shoulders and from the chariot seats released those [enemy] masters of arms clouds of arrows that rained like water does over the mountains. (4) When the slender-waisted girl saw the army of her Lord covered by heavy rains of arrows looked she embarrassed at His face with eyes full of fear. (5) The Supreme Lord laughed and said: 'Don't be afraid, o beautiful eyes, right now will this enemy force be destroyed by your troops'. (6) The heroes Gada [Krishna's younger half-brother], Sankarshana and the others could not tolerate the display of power of the enemy forces and thus struck they with arrows of iron down the horses, elephants and chariots. (7) Of those riding the chariots, the horses and the elephants fell by the thousands the heads to the ground complete with earrings, helmets and turbans. (8) There were the heads of humans, horses, donkeys, mules, elephants and camels as well as [loose] hands with swords, clubs and bows, hands without fingers, thighs and legs. (9) The kings headed by Jarâsandha who eager for the victory saw their armies annihilated by the Vrishnis, then left discouraged. (10) They approached and addressed S'is'upâla who with the wife he had in mind being stolen away, dispirited was perturbed with a dried up face with all its color gone. (11) [Jarâsandha said:] 'O Sir, tiger among men, please give up this dark state of mind, for the embodied ones is there to the wanted and unwanted no permanence to be found. (12) As a woman made of wood dances to the desire of a puppeteer is the same way this world, concerned with joy and sorrow, controlled by its Controller. (13) I myself with twenty-three armies lost seventeen times over in battles with S'auri [Krishna] and only one I won. (14) Nonetheless do I never lament or rejoice, knowing that the world is driven by time and fate combined. (15) Even now are we all, leaders of the leaders of heroes, defeated by the meager entourage of Yadus under the protection of Krishna. (16) Now, with our enemies having conquered, works the time in their favor but then again shall we conquer when the times have changed to our favor.'

(17) S'rî S'uka said: 'Thus persuaded by his friends went S'is'upâla back to his city and so did also each of the surviving kings who followed him return to his own place. (18) The mighty Rukmî however, who hating Krishna couldn't bear the fact that his sister got married in the râkshasa style, pursued Krishna surrounded by an entire akshauhinî. (19-20) Rukmî, mighty armed with his bow and armor, most angrily full of resentment swore to all the kings listening: 'Let me tell you this in truth: I will not return to Kundina without having killed Krishna in battle and having retreived Rukminî'. (21) Thus speaking climbed he his chariot and told he his charioteer: 'Quickly, drive the horses to where Krishna is, there must be a fight between Him and me. (22) Today will I, with my sharp arrows, baffle the madness of that most wicked Cowherd who had the temerity to violently abduct my sister!'

(23) Thus foolishly vaunting not realizing what Krishna was all capable of, shouted he next with a single chariot coming forward at Krishna: 'Stand and fight!' (24) Drawing his bow he most firmly struck Krishna [His chariot] with three arrows and said: 'Wait a minute, You corrupter of the Yadu-dynasty! (25) Wherever You might go having stolen my sister like being a crow who steals the sacrificial butter, I'll put an end today to Your false pride, You foolish cheater, You devious fighter!! (26) If You want my arrows not to kill You, lay off and release the girl', but Krishna with a smile struck Rukmî with six arrows that broke his bow. (27) With Krishna firing eight arrows at his four horses, with two at his charioteer and with three at his flagpole, took he up another bow and struck he Krishna with five. (28) Even though He was struck by all of these arrows broke Krishna, the Infallible One, his bow again just as another one that he picked up. (29) The spiked bludgeon, the trident, the lance, the shield and sword, the pike, the javelin or whatever weapon he took up were all by Him, the Lord, broken. (30) Then leaping from his chariot sword in hand ran he, with the intent to kill Krishna, forward as furious as a bird in the wind. (31) With His arrows breaking to pieces the sword and shield of His attacker, took He, prepared to kill Rukmî, up His own sharp sword. (32) Seeing that He wanted to kill her brother fell the saintly Rukminî beset in fear at the feet of her husband and pleaded she piteously.

(33) S'rî Rukminî said: 'O Controller of Yoga, o Inscrutable Soul, o God of Gods, o Master of the Universe, o Auspicious One, please don't kill my brother, o Mighty-armed One.'

(34) S'rî S'uka said: 'With His feet held by her whose limbs were trembling in total fear, with her mouth dry of sorrow, her throat choked and her golden necklace disheveled in her agitation, desisted He in compassion. (35) With a strip of cloth tying him up, shaved He the evildoer, making a mess of him leaving him but some of his hair and mustache. Meanwhile crushed the extraordinary army of the Yadu heroes their opponents the way elephants crush a lotus flower [compare 1.7]. (36) Getting close to where Krishna was found they there Rukmî in a sorry condition as good as dead. The almighty Supreme Lord Sankarshana, feeling pity, thereupon released the one bound up and said to Krishna: (37) 'How improper of You, o Krishna; this clipping of Yours, of his mustache and hair so badly, is as terrible as the death of a family member!'

(38) [To Rukminî:] 'O saintly lady, please don't be angry with Us making such a mess of your brother; there is to the matter of who brings happiness and grief no one else responsible but the person in question, since everyone has to face the consequences of his own actions.'

(39) [And to Krishna again:] 'Even though a relative because of his wrongdoing deserves to be killed, should he by a relative not be killed, but instead be banned [from the family]; why should he who because of his evil deeds ended his own [honorable] life, be killed a second time?'

(40) [To Rukminî:] 'The sacred code of warriors as established by the founding father [Brahmâ] is that a brother even mustn't hesitate to kill his own brother. And that indeed is something most dreadful.'

(41) [Back to Krishna again:] 'Those being proud of a kingdom, land, riches, women, honor and power or something else [other than the soul] do, blinded as they are in their infatuation about the opulence, for that reason indeed commit offenses.'

(42) [And to Rukminî again:] 'In this attitude of yours toward all living beings, of wishing evil to the ones inimical and good to well-wishers, are you as partial as any ignoramus. (43) By the illusory power of God is effected that people in their ways are bewildered about the Real Self so that they, who thus take the body for the soul, speak in terms of having a friend, an enemy or someone neutral. (44) Those who are bewildered perceive the One and Only Supreme Soul of each and all embodied being as being many, just like one does with the stars [not recognized as a cohering galaxy] or the air [seen as different for an enclosed space, see also B.G. 18: 20-21 and 1.2: 32]. (45) The physical body having a beginning and an end is composed of the physical elements, the senses and the modes of nature. Because of material ignorance is it something imposed upon the self and is it thus the cause of experiencing the cycle of birth and death. (46) For the soul in contact with anything else, o chaste one, is there no separation because of the originating from it [as with the individual soul] or untruth because of being revealed by it [as a physical form]; like it is also with the sun in relation to the seeing and the form seen. (47) Birth and such are but transformations of the body, never of the soul, just as the lunar phases do not imply that the moon has died on the day of a new moon. (48) Like a sleeping person experiences himself, sense-objects and results of action even though they're not real, undergoes the same way an unintelligent person his material existence [see also 6.16: 55-56]. (49) Therefore, o you with the pristine smile, please be yourself again [as the goddess of fortune] and dispell with the knowledge of the essence the sadness born of ignorance of which you dried up and were confounded.'