Srimad Bhagavatam : 10.52.37 by HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj on Dec 8, 2024 @ ISKCON Japan

SB – 10.52.37

śrī-rukmiṇy uvāca
śrutvā guṇān bhuvana-sundara śṛṇvatāṁ te
nirviśya karṇa-vivarair harato ’ṅga-tāpam
rūpaṁ dṛśāṁ dṛśimatām akhilārtha-lābhaṁ
tvayy acyutāviśati cittam apatrapaṁ me

Translation

Śrī Rukmiṇī said [in her letter, as read by the brāhmaṇa]: O beauty of the worlds, having heard of Your qualities, which enter the ears of those who hear and remove their bodily distress, and having also heard of Your beauty, which fulfills all the visual desires of those who see, I have fixed my shameless mind upon You, O Kṛṣṇa.

Purport

Rukmiṇī was a king’s daughter, courageous and bold, and furthermore she would rather die than lose Kṛṣṇa. Considering all this, she wrote a frank, explicit letter, begging Kṛṣṇa to come and take her away.

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj :

Actually, Rukmini, compared to Satyabhama, is considered to be very meek and gentle. Just as Chandravali is considered to be very meek compared to Radha. However, we see in this case that she’s acting a little boldly. Later on, there’s a description how Krishna jokes with Rukmini. And Rukmini faints. Because she doesn’t understand that He’s joking. So she has a very gentle, compliant nature. So, according to the circumstance then, even though she is gentle, she may also act boldly at times. So this is a circumstance where she has to act boldly. And the circumstance is that she is about to be married off to someone she doesn’t like. And as well, she is the eternal consort of Krishna.

So she is put into a very difficult position. The nature of prema, as a general for all, not just madhurya rasa, but prema in general is, it overcomes all obstacles in order to meet Krishna. So, in Vrindavan, the gopis had all sorts of obstacles. They had parents, they had husbands, they had children, etc. So these were great obstacles to meeting Krishna. But those obstacles could not stop them. And Krishna was actually very pleased with them because of this.

During the rasalila, Krishna disappeared. Then He saw the condition of the Gopis and He appeared again. And then everyone was joyful. But then they thought, why did He do this? Why did He disappear? So, they were a little bit angry. And finally, Krishna explained, actually, I’m very pleased with you. And that’s because you sacrifice everything for me. You give up your husbands and families. You risk being criticized by everybody. Why? Simply to please Krishna.

And Krishna says, I cannot do that. I don’t give up my mother and father. I don’t risk anything. So because you give up everything just to please me, I’m very pleased with you. So, it’s for this reason that the Gopis are glorified, because their prema sees no obstruction. So, in order to fulfill their desire, they have to act a little bit boldly. So, that is the case here with Rukmini also. In this case, she hasn’t even met Krishna yet, she hasn’t even seen Him. So, here she said, bhuvana-sundara, you are the most beautiful in the whole world.

But, how does she know? She never saw Him. But only by hearing. So, the first words here, “having heard about Your qualities”, she heard about the qualities and she became attracted. But for a devotee, hearing about the qualities of Krishna is most enlivening. So, the devotee does not want to hear anything else except about Krishna. So, she has heard about His qualities, she has heard about His beauty. And based on that, she makes her decision, I must marry Krishna.

So, through just about hearing Krishna, she can appreciate his beauty. Of course, there is nothing surprising about this. Topics of the Lord, name of the Lord are absolute. So, just by hearing the name of the Lord, you can realize the Lord’s beautiful form and all of His wonderful qualities. So, that is the case with Rukmini, without even seeing Him, she has had a realization of Krishna and became very attracted to Him.

So, this is a type of prema in separation. But the separation without even having seen Krishna. After meeting Krishna, okay, there may be separation. But after that, of course, one has met Krishna, seen Krishna, appreciated His qualities, now, she hasn’t even met Krishna, still she has this great prema for Krishna. So, the nature of prema in separation is that it must lead to meeting Krishna. But the separation cannot be eternal.

So, eventually, after the separation, there will be meeting with Krishna. But, how will that meeting take place? So that will vary according to the circumstance. In the case of Krishna, Gopis hadn’t met Krishna also, then Krishna played His flute in the autumn season, and finally they met Krishna.

Here, Rukmini is going to get married off to somebody else, and then she is writing this letter, then Krishna will eventually meet her, but circumstances differ, that Krishna has to steal her away, kidnap her. So, here, everything is done publicly, everybody can see this. And actually, there is no criticism, because this is one method of marriage, to grab the bride and take her away.

In the case of the Gopis of Vrindavan, everything is secret. Nobody knows about it. It’s not public at all.

But in any case, the meeting takes place. So, all of these differences produce a variety of different pastimes.

Okay. Hare Krishna!

Q& A

1) Comparing this with Vrindavan Gopis, on how Rukmini meets Krishna, because it is public, everyone is there, very dramatic, exciting [Laughing]

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: [Laughing] Yes heroic, violent..[Laughing] It also ends in the marriage, svakiya and in Vrindavan, it’s all parakya, not marriage.

Translator devotee: But, this is another formula to create rasa, because virya, like more kshatriya, violent, kidnapped, very kshatriya, heroic rasa, with madhurya. This is a combination of these. It looks / sounds like a contradiction. It sounds like rasa-abhash. Heroic, violent, and the first meeting of the Madhurya.

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, there is two types of Madhurya. More than that, More than two types [Laughing] Broadly, there is parakya, and there is svakya, married and unmarried. So besides married and unmarried, then there is Madhurya, which is not covered by Aishwarya in Vrindavan, and Madhurya, which is covered by Aishwarya in Dwaraka.

Translator Devotee: So Svakiya is Marriage?

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes.

So in Dwaraka usually Krishna’s relationships are marriage. We have an example of unmarried with Kubja in Mathura. But in all these cases, the brides or the wives understand that Krishna is Supreme Lord. And Krishna also acts as Supreme Lord. So He very, very publicly, openly, He kills the demons and does all these heroic activities.

So these heroic activities are very suitable for Madhurya Rasa where there is lot of Aishwarya. In Vrindavan on the other hand, everything is very, very sweet and nobody sees Krishna as Supreme Lord. So Krishna does not display His power so openly.

Translator devotee: Because it disturbs the Madhurya ?

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes, it disturbs the sweetness.

2) Did Rukmini try to convince her father that this marriage with Sisupala was not good? And so then she resorted to this drastic situation of asking Krishna to come home? Or she didn’t even try?

So actually the father was a great devotee and he was in favour of Krishna also. But the son, Rukmi, he was pushing like anything. [Laughing] He wouldn’t listen to anybody. So that was the problem.

3) Maharaj, this message by Rukmini is actually secret from Rukmini to Krishna. But this Brahmin is speaking in front of everyone.

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : Is he? In front of everyone? I don’t think so.

Devotee: Because there is no point like.

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: I think it’s private

Devotee: Is this meeting alone?

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Seems to be. He met him in the throne. Then later on he sent him to get rest and eat and whatever. Then he spoke to him. So it is not necessary that it is public.

4) Maharaj, to please Krishna and to serve Krishna, this is very tricky like. How can we understand that my desire is only to please Krishna and only follow to please Him. Sometimes in the name of service or in the name of pleasing Krishna, maybe we satisfy our desires. Maybe we satisfy our goals. So it’s very tricky.

So in the material world, when we are doing sadhana, we have different stages. And we have to recognize our qualification and accordingly serve. So, some people serve by giving up everything and just concentrating on Krishna. But that is quite rare. Most people are not qualified for that. So, instead of doing that, they stay in their / whatever they are doing in society and family and whatever, and they practice Bhakti.

That of course they can use the excuse, that we all are going to be spiritual, we reject everything, therefore reject everything They may use that excuse because they did not like the situation and try to escape from the situation. So they try to be renounce, but that’s artificial.

So, in Bhagavatam, it’s said to act according to qualification. It’s a good quality. Of course, in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna also says that you do your duties. You don’t do other people’s duties.

5) We also have to try Maharaj. It’s tapasya, it’s tolerance. We want to improve, so we want to try to give up and make pure intention in our services. So, we are doing trial also. We are trying that.

Yes, we try. It is a gradual process. It’s like walking up the stairs. So, we don’t jump off the stairs. So, we put one step on the higher step, and when it’s firm, then we would draw the lower foot and put it up on the same thing. And then we do that. Then we take the other foot and put it on the next one. When it’s firm, then we can take the other foot and stick it on the next step.

6) Just hearing about Krishna’s qualities, she gets attracted. So it looks like based on the qualities she is attracted to, it looks like a conditional like, oh this person has very good qualities, so I am attracted to him.

Well, otherwise, how else we get attracted? Because we are attracted to qualities If there are no qualities or activities, how do we get attracted? Then it’s like impersonal Brahman.

And it is not limited. His qualities are unlimited, his beauty is unlimited, his activities are all unlimited. And they are eternal and ever-increasing. And they are also thus very different from attractions for material qualities, beauty, etc.

7) Maharaj, in the case of Rukmi or Duryodhana, they don’t listen to their parents. But they do what they want. But at the same time they were learned, right? scholars in Vedas and everything. Then, why they don’t listen to their parents? How can we say they are Rukmi or Duryodhana (are learned)? They should listen to their parents.

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: They are daemons. [Laughing]

Devotee: So we cannot say that they are learned in Vedas and all, right ? They are learned, they have scholars, right?

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, their learning is useless. Just like Ravana has learned it. But learning is useless. There is no Krishna, there is no Supreme Lord in learning.

Devotee: So knowledge also is useful, if that person is of proper character, right?

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes, knowledge is a dangerous thing, if it is improperly applied. That’s why knowledge is not given to the daemons. Romaharshana was very learned. He was reciting the Puranas and then he didn’t respect Balarama, so Balarama killed him.

Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai ! Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai !! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki.. Jai !!