Krishna has many wives. Rukmini and Satyabhama are the most prominent amongst them. Rukmini, princess of Vidarbha, asked Krishna to rescue her from being forced to marry another man; he helped her escape and brought her to Dwarka. Satyabhama was given in marriage to Krishna by her father, the Yadava nobleman Surajit, in apology and admiration: in apology because he accused Krishna of killing his brother Prasenajit and stealing the Syamantaka jewel and in admiration because Krishna identified the true killer (a lion) and thief (a bear).
Since Rukmini had eloped, she had no wealth while Satyabhama came from a very rich family. Thus, Rukmini was Krishna’s poor wife and Satyabhama was his rich wife. Rukmini gave Krishna her love. Satyabhama gave Krishna his legitimacy as she was a Yadava princess, and his Yadava origins — because he was raised by cowherds — was always under suspicion.
One day, Narada came to Krishna’s house and said, “Either give me Krishna or something of equal or greater value.” The wives were not willing to give away Krishna and so they decided to give something of equal or greater value. Krishna was made to sit on one tray of a balance. On the other tray, Satyabhama placed all her jewellery. No matter how much she piled, Krishna weighed more. Finally, Satyabhama gave up. She realised that her wealth was of lesser value than Krishna. Rukmini then placed a sprig of the tulsi plant on the other tray. She declared it was the symbolic representation of her affection for Krishna. Immediately, the tray went lower and the tray in which Krishna sat went higher. The value of the sprig of tulsi was greater than Krishna.
Satyabhama valued her possessions more than Krishna. Rukmini valued her love for Krishna more than Krishna himself. For, that affection transformed her, enabled her to discover who she was. Satyabhama was obsessed with what she had, and so, never really was able to see who she was or who Krishna was.
The word Bhakti appears in the Bhagwad Gita and marks a shift from the old pre-Buddhist, vedic ways to the new post-Buddhist, puranic ways. In the vedic way, mechanical performance of ritual or karma mattered. In the puranic way, the emotion underlying the ritual, or bhav, mattered. Amongst all emotions, bhakti or affection was seen as the most important.
Bhakti uses emotion as the highway to outgrow dependence on what we have and truly appreciate who we are. Bhakti is commonly translated as ‘devotion’, but a more appropriate word is ‘affection’. Devotion presupposes a power hierarchy and reeks of feudalism as the bhakta completely surrenders. But bhakti can be seen in various ways, where the relationship is rather complex, with the bhakta sometimes occupying an equal or even a superior position:
l Affection of a mother for a son, as Yashoda’s for Krishna
l Affection of a son for a mother, as Dyaneshwara’s (the 13th-century Marathi poet-saint) for Vitha-ai (Mother Vithal, the local form of Krishna)
l Affection of a fun-loving friend, as Arjuna’s for Krishna
l Affection for a protective friend, as Draupadi’s for Krishna
l Affection for a brother, as Subhadra’s for Krishna
l Affection for a master, as Hanuman’s for Ram, hence Krishna
l Affection for an enemy, as Kansa’s for Krishna
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