Krishna – Tulabhara – {Ep.225.5} – Stories From India – Podcast

This is a bonus episode – an anniversary special for this podcast. It’s a story of the Krishna Tulabhara – the time that I(Narada Muni) tried to steal Krishna away from his wives – Satyabhama and Rukmini. And we’ll see what is more valuable than all the gold and silver in a Kingdom’s treasury.

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

First of all thank you dear listener for all your support as Stories From India reaches two huge milestones: First, today marks 4 years since the start of this podcast. And second, it’s also episode number 250. That is, if you include bonus episodes in the count.

Despite having covered all the stories that we did, there are millions more stories to be told from Indian mythology, folklore and history. And I couldn’t be more excited to keep bringing them to you.

Now we’re still going to pick up on the Kathasaritasagara story that I promised – that is still coming at the regularly scheduled time. Today I’ll do a bonus episode featuring me! Some of you asked for a story about myself, and others also asked for a story about Krishna. So here we are in this bonus episode.

The story begins one fine day when I was visiting Dwarika. In these modern days, people may know this simply as a city in Gujarat. But the version of Dwarika from a few millennia ago was much more spectacular than the touristy souvenir stalls, hotels and restaurants that you may find there. Besides, these two Dwarikas aren’t the same. The present day version is just the remnants of what sunk beneath the sea, after Krishna passed away at the end of the Mahabharata. But unfortunately there’s no easy way to experience the beauty of that amazing city unless you’re a time traveler like me.

But it was not the majestic buildings in this city, its clever architecture, or the richness of its infrastructure that attracted me to the place. There was a bigger draw. And that was Krishna.

If you’ve been listening to this show, you probably know what a big fan of Vishnu I am. But if you haven’t and if you don’t even know about Vishnu, let me quickly explain that he’s the preserver of the Universe. Together with Brahma the creator, and Shiva the destroyer, the three of them are the holy trinity in Indian mythology. It’s true that Brahma is my dad, but Vishnu is the one I’m a huge fan of. Vishnu has appeared on Earth several times, but one of his more famous avatars is that of Krishna. 

Krishna had a massive palace in Dwarka. It needed to be massive because he had a pretty big family. He had 16,108 wives. Which might be some kind of an all-time record. Pretty sure Genghis Khan and Zeus are far, far behind, but I’d have to travel quite far into the future to double check that Krishna’s record holds.

Still, amongst his 16,108 wives, there is a kind of a hierarchy. There are 8 primary wives that include Satyabhama and Rukmini, and a bunch of others. It would take hours to name them all, so I’ll only name the two that feature in today’s story – Satyabhama and Rukmini.

There was a friendly rivalry between the two of them. Who loved Krishna more? And whom did Krishna love more? That question was always up for debate. And today’s story was no exception.

I knocked on the door, and when it opened I saw several of Krishna’s wives at the door, with smiles on their faces. The smiles quickly dropped as they realized who it was.

“It’s not the Amazon delivery guy” one of the disappointed wives called out, no doubt to her friends off screen in another room. “It’s only Narada!”

“Narada again! What does he want this time?” came a voice from the other room.

Blimey. I was right there! I can’t say that I was thrilled to hear that.

But that’s when Satyabhama stepped in. “Why, Narada, you’re here! Come in, come in, have some tea and samosas.” She can be a very charming host. She knows and respects how much I’m devoted to Krishna

So I sat in her garden, admiring the flowers, sipping the tea, and eating samosas, and chatting with Satyabhama. Truth be told, delicious as the samosas were, I’d have much rather preferred to be chatting with Krishna. But Krishna was busy just then. So Satyabhama said. He’d be free in a few minutes. And did I want more Samosas in the meantime?

Of course I wanted more samosas. I can never get enough of them.

While we were waiting the topic came about what Satyabhama could offer me on this visit. Now you might think tea and the snacks would be enough. But there was an important part of hospitality in Ancient India that I must highlight. And it was an exclusive perk of being a sage.

There was a tradition, a rule almost, that a visiting sage would be given something by their host. And usually, the sage got whatever they asked for. However, there is an equally strong tradition that the sage doesn’t ask for anything unreasonable. Usually.

On this occasion, I decided to be rather unreasonable. I asked for Krishna. Yup, which meant that when I walked out of the palace and out of Dwarka, Krishna would have to go with me. 

Satyabhama was skeptical. “Be serious Narada. I can’t really give you Krishna.”

But I was serious. It seems a bit of a wild idea. But not so much when you consider that Krishna could be in multiple places at once. We’ve seen that before in multiple stories about Krishna. So why couldn’t I have my own personal version of Krishna to go with me everywhere I went?

To be honest though I did not expect it to work, but I figured it was still worth a shot.

Satyabhama was now worried. The royalty code required her to do everything in her power to give me what I asked for. But how could she give up her husband?

Satyabhama was between a rock and a hard place. She asked me to wait, and called an emergency conference of a few of her key right hand women. Those included a number of Krishna’s wives, but not Rukmini – remember what I told you about their rivalry?

While the wives were conferring, Krishna came in. 

“Hullo Narada,” he greeted me politely and then asked why Satyabhama was worried. When I explained, he only chuckled. No wonder he knew exactly how this was going to turn out. If I’d traveled forward in time, I would have to. But sometimes it’s good to live in the moment and experience the twists and turns of an evolving crisis – even though I completely understood that I was the one who had caused this present crisis in the first place.

Satyabhama came back and said “Narada – we’ve made a decision. We can’t offer you Krishna, but we can offer you the equivalent in value.”

I was going to protest, but Krishna jumped in “I’m sure Narada will gladly agree to that. Won’t you, Narada?”

Call me spineless, call me a sycophant, but I’m not ashamed to admit that I readily nodded my head. It’s not that I blindly accepted Krishna’s word. I had reasoned this out. Krishna had definitely seen the future here, as evidenced by his chuckle. He wouldn’t intervene by suggesting something unless not doing so was going to put either myself or his wives in an awkward position. So I played along.

Satyabhama had some scales brought in. With a casual wave of his hand Krishna magically changed the scales to balance the value of the objects rather than just their weight. He sat on one of the pans while Satyabhama had her maids bring in gold. 

It took a while for the maids to carry in the gold but it was worth the weight. Pun intended.

They had enough to easily be heavier than the heaviest person on Earth. So they probably wouldn’t need it all. But it was there to avoid having to make multiple trips back if it proved insufficient.

They were about to find out how wrong they were.

Satyabhama helped them and some other junior wives joined in as well – in placing gold on the other scale. But to their surprise, no matter how much gold they placed, Krishna was much heavier. The maids made multiple trips after all but still, Krishna was heavier.

One of the junior wives, probably the same one who had looked askance at me when I arrived, now turned her disapproving eye towards Krishna. “Have you thought about hitting the gym?” she asked him quite rudely.

“Wait a minute,” Satyabhama suddenly interrupted.

Another junior wife asked what that even meant – how they could weigh a minute. Time has no weight.

Satyabhama said to cut out all these poor jokes based on the homonymous words weight and wait. She knew what was wrong. It was the scales.

But they tried with two gold coins and the scales balanced them perfectly. Then Krishna sat in the other pan, but the same thing happened. He was still clearly a lot heavier than all the gold.

The disapproving junior wife from earlier made a remark about how Narada was going to be stinking rich.

Satyabhama looked at me with an appeal in her eye. Honestly I have no need for any gold. And I didn’t really want any of it. But Krishna encouraged me to demand my share. So I did.

Satyabhama wouldn’t give up either. She pulled out the emergency broadcast system and made an announcement to all 16108 wives. She needed their help. If they all wanted to keep Krishna here, she needed every bit of Gold and silver that they could find. So every one of the wives went and tried to get their gold and silver.

Rukmini came in shortly thereafter. “What’s this that I hear?”. She was understandably upset. She was one of Krishna’s chief wives. Why wasn’t she told earlier that Narada was trying to steal Krishna?

So then, Satyabhama told her the whole story.

Rukmini heard it and was silent for a couple of minutes. Then she asked me, “Why do you want Krishna?”

And I honestly answered that it was because I admired him and was devoted to him.

That seemed to be the answer Rukmini expected. She said “Satyabhama – I like your idea of offering an equivalent value instead of Krishna himself. We can’t give him away. And certainly not to Narada. No offense Narada.”

“None taken” I said. And I meant it. Rukmini is a straight shooter. She doesn’t sugarcoat her words and that is fine with me because she means well and she can solve problems.

Rukmini continued “Satyabhama you can ask your maids to take all the gold back. I’ll be back with Narada’s gift in a minute”

She took less than a minute. It took much longer for the gold to be removed off of the scale. 

I couldn’t see what Rukmini brought back with her. It was in the palm of her hand. 

When the scales were ready again, Rukmini placed a single Tulsi leaf on the pan. And immediately the scales balanced.

She explained. “The scales weren’t balancing Krishna’s weight against the weight of material wealth. They were balancing symbols of love and devotion. That Tulsi leaf comes from a plant that I worship all the while when I’m thinking about Krishna. The single leaf has my love and devotion in it. The same love and devotion that motivated Narada to ask for Krishna in the first place” 

So there you have it. Rukmini had resolved this quite gracefully. Krishna got to stay back. I was happy. I didn’t actually want gold anyway. I didn’t get Krishna to go with me everywhere, but I wasn’t exactly expecting to. Satyabhama wasn’t totally embarrassed, because Rukmini actually praised her for talking me into accepting an equivalent in value.

Krishna was happy as well, because what was needed at that moment was for Rukmini to get a slight edge over Satyabhama.

And the junior wife, the one with the disapproving gaze? She was happy too, because I said my goodbyes and left. Maybe call it a little bit of spite or whatever – I may have further delayed the Amazon delivery guy she was so eagerly waiting for. It would have been injudicious for me not to have done that.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

It’s interesting that what spurred me on in my mad quest was the same love and devotion, devotion that also stopped said mad quest.

There’s an interesting story about Satyabhama’s marriage with Krishna. It features a magical ruby called the Syamantak and the quest to find it is a thrilling tale of adventure and suspense. I’ve already gotten a request for it, so I will cover it at some point in a future episode. 

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll do the Kathasaritasagara story as I had previously promised.

Feedback

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!