Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Each of Lord Krishna’s wives gave birth to ten sons, who were not less than their father, having all His personal opulence.
Lord Krishna had 16,108 wives, and thus this verse indicates that the Lord begot 161,080 sons.
Because each of these princesses saw that Lord Acyuta never left her palace, each thought herself the Lord’s favorite. These women did not understand the full truth about Him.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura notes that Lord Krishna would leave the palaces only with the permission of His wives, and thus each one considered herself His favorite.
The Supreme Lord’s wives were fully enchanted by His lovely, lotuslike face, His long arms and large eyes, His loving glances imbued with laughter, and His charming talks with them. But with all their charms these ladies could not conquer the mind of the all-powerful Lord.
The previous verse stated that Lord Krishna’s queens could not understand the truth of the Lord. This truth is explained in the present verse. The Lord is all-powerful, full in Himself, with infinite opulence.
The arched eyebrows of these sixteen thousand queens enchantingly expressed those ladies’ secret intentions through coyly smiling sidelong glances. Thus their eyebrows boldly sent forth conjugal messages. Yet even with these arrows of Cupid, and with other means as well, they could not agitate Lord Krishna’s senses.
Thus these women obtained as their husband the master of the goddess of fortune, although even great demigods like Brahmā do not know how to approach Him. With ever-increasing pleasure, they felt loving attraction for Him, exchanged smiling glances with Him, eagerly anticipated associating with Him in ever-fresh intimacy and enjoyed in many other ways.
This text describes the intense conjugal attraction the queens felt for Lord Krishna.
Although the Supreme Lord’s queens each had hundreds of maidservants, they chose to personally serve the Lord by approaching Him humbly, offering Him a seat, worshiping Him with excellent paraphernalia, bathing and massaging His feet, giving Him pān to chew, fanning Him, anointing Him with fragrant sandalwood paste, adorning Him with flower garlands, dressing His hair, arranging His bed, bathing Him and presenting Him with various gifts.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that Śukadeva Gosvāmī is so eager to describe these glorious pastimes of the Lord with His queens that he has repeated these verses. That is, text 5 of this chapter is almost identical with text 44 of the Fifty-ninth Chapter in this canto, and text 6 is identical with text 45 of that chapter. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī explains that the term varārhana (“excellent offerings”) indicates that the queens offered the Lord palmfuls of flowers (pushpāñjali) and palmfuls of jewels (ratnāñjali).
Among Lord Krishna’s wives, each of whom had ten sons, I previously mentioned eight principal queens. I shall now recite for you the names of those eight queens’ sons, headed by Pradyumna.
The first son of Queen Rukminī was Pradyumna, and also born of her were Cārudeshna, Sudeshna and the powerful Cārudeha, along with Sucāru, Cārugupta, Bhadracāru, Cārucandra, Vicāru and Cāru, the tenth. None of these sons of Lord Hari was less than his father.
The ten sons of Satyabhāmā were Bhānu, Subhānu, Svarbhānu, Prabhānu, Bhānumān, Candrabhānu, Brihadbhānu, Atibhānu (the eighth), Śrībhānu and Pratibhānu. Sāmba, Sumitra, Purujit, Śatajit, Sahasrajit, Vijaya, Citraketu, Vasumān, Dravida and Kratu were the sons of Jāmbavatī. These ten, headed by Sāmba, were their father’s favorites.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī translates the compound pitri-sammatāh in this verse as “highly regarded by their father.” The word also indicates that these sons, like the others already mentioned, were regarded as being just like their glorious father, Lord Krishna.
The sons of Nāgnajitī were Vīra, Candra, Aśvasena, Citragu, Vegavān, Vrisha, Āma, Śanku, Vasu and the opulent Kunti.
Śruta, Kavi, Vrisha, Vīra, Subāhu, Bhadra, Śānti, Darśa and Pūrnamāsa were sons of Kālindī. Her youngest son was Somaka.
Mādrā’s sons were Praghosha, Gātravān, Simha, Bala, Prabala, Ūrdhaga, Mahāśakti, Saha, Oja and Aparājita.
Mādrā is also known as Lakshmanā.
Mitravindā’s sons were Vrika, Harsha, Anila, Gridhra, Vardhana, Unnāda, Mahāmsa, Pāvana, Vahni and Kshudhi.
Sangrāmajit, Brihatsena, Śūra, Praharana, Arijit, Jaya and Subhadra were the sons of Bhadrā, together with Vāma, Āyur and Satyaka.
Dīptimān, Tāmratapta and others were the sons of Lord Krishna and Rohinī. Lord Krishna’s son Pradyumna fathered the greatly powerful Aniruddha in the womb of Rukmavatī, the daughter of Rukmī. O King, this took place while they were living in the city of Bhojakata.
Lord Krishna’s eight principal queens are Rukminī, Satyabhāmā, Jāmbavatī, Nāgnajitī, Kālindī, Lakshmanā, Mitravindā and Bhadrā. Having mentioned all their sons, Śukadeva Gosvāmī now refers to the sons of the other 16,100 queens by mentioning the two principal sons of Queen Rohinī, the foremost of the remaining queens.
My dear King, the sons and grandsons of Lord Krishna’s children numbered in the tens of millions. Sixteen thousand mothers gave rise to this dynasty.
King Parīkshit said: How could Rukmī give his daughter to his enemy’s son? After all, Rukmī had been defeated by Lord Krishna in battle and was waiting for an opportunity to kill Him. Please explain this to me, O learned one — how these two inimical parties became united through marriage.
Mystic yogīs can perfectly see that which has not yet happened, as well as things in the past or present, beyond the senses, remote or blocked by physical obstacles.
Here King Parīkshit encourages Śukadeva Gosvāmī to explain why Rukmī gave his daughter to Lord Krishna’s son Pradyumna. The King stresses that since great yogīs like Śukadeva Gosvāmī know everything, the sage must also know this and should explain it to the anxious King.
Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: At her svayamvara ceremony, Rukmavatī herself chose Pradyumna, who was the re-embodiment of Cupid. Then, although He fought alone on a single chariot, Pradyumna defeated the assembled kings in battle and took her away.
Though Rukmī always remembered his enmity toward Lord Krishna, who had insulted him, in order to please his sister he sanctioned his daughter’s marriage to his nephew.
The answer to King Parīkshit’s question is given here. Ultimately Rukmī approved his daughter’s marriage to Pradyumna in order to please his sister, Rukminī.
O King, Balī, the son of Kritavarmā, married Rukminī’s young daughter, large-eyed Cārumatī.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that each of the Lord’s queens had one daughter, and that this mention of Cārumatī’s marriage is an indirect reference to the marriages of all these princesses.
Rukmī gave his granddaughter Rocanā to his daughter’s son, Aniruddha, despite Rukmī’s relentless feud with Lord Hari. Although Rukmī considered this marriage irreligious, he wanted to please his sister, bound as he was by the ropes of affection.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that according to worldly standards one should not give one’s beloved granddaughter to the grandson of one’s bitter enemy. Thus we find the following injunction: dvishad-annam na bhoktavyam dvishantam naiva bhojayet. “One should not eat an enemy’s food or feed an enemy.” There is also the following prohibition: asvargyam loka-vidvishtam dharmam apy ācaren na tu. “One should not execute religious injunctions if they will obstruct one’s journey to heaven, or if they are odious to human society.”
It should be pointed out here that Lord Krishna is not really the enemy of anyone. As the Lord states in the Bhagavad-gītā (5.29), suhridam sarva-bhūtānām jñātvā mām śāntim ricchati: “One achieves peace by understanding that I am the well-wishing friend of every living being.” Although Lord Krishna is everyone’s friend, Rukmī could not appreciate this fact and considered Lord Krishna his enemy. Still, out of affection for his sister, he gave his granddaughter to Aniruddha.
Finally, we should note that, contrary to the prohibition quoted above, one may not give up the basic principles of spiritual life merely because such principles are unpopular with people in general. As Lord Krishna states in the Gītā (18.66), sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam śaranam vraja. The last word in spiritual duties is to surrender to the Supreme Lord, and that duty takes precedence over all secondary injunctions. Moreover, in this age Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has kindly presented a sublime process that will attract all sincere people to come to the point of surrendering to the Lord. By following Lord Caitanya’s blissful process of chanting, dancing, feasting and discussing spiritual philosophy, anyone can easily go back home, back to Godhead, for an eternal life of bliss and knowledge.
Still, someone may argue that the members of the Krishna consciousness movement should not practice in the Western countries those ceremonies or activities that displease people in general. We respond that even in the Western countries, when people are properly informed of the activities of the Krishna consciousness movement, they generally appreciate this great spiritual institution. Those who are especially envious of God will not appreciate any type of religious movement, and since such persons are themselves little better than animals, they cannot impede the great Krishna consciousness movement, just as the envious Rukmī could not impede the performance of Lord Krishna’s pure pastimes.
On the joyous occasion of that marriage, O King, Queen Rukminī, Lord Balarāma, Lord Krishna and several of the Lord’s sons, headed by Sāmba and Pradyumna, went to the city of Bhojakata.
After the wedding, a group of arrogant kings headed by the King of Kalinga told Rukmī, “You should defeat Balarāma at dice. He’s not expert at dice, O King, but still He’s quite addicted to it.” Thus advised, Rukmī challenged Balarāma and began a gambling match with Him.
In that match Lord Balarāma first accepted a wager of one hundred coins, then one thousand, then ten thousand. Rukmī won this first round, and the King of Kalinga laughed loudly at Lord Balarāma, showing all his teeth. Lord Balarāma could not tolerate this.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī explains that the wagers consisted of gold coins. Lord Balarāma inwardly became quite angry when He saw the gross offense of the King of Kalinga.
Next Rukmī accepted a bet of one hundred thousand coins, which Lord Balarāma won. But Rukmī tried to cheat, declaring “I’m the winner!”
Shaking with anger like the ocean on the full-moon day, handsome Lord Balarāma, His naturally reddish eyes even redder in His fury, accepted a wager of one hundred million gold coins.
Lord Balarāma fairly won this wager also, but Rukmī again resorted to cheating and declared, “I have won! Let these witnesses here say what they saw.”
Rukmī undoubtedly had his friends in mind when he called for the witnesses to speak. But even as his witnesses prepared to aid their cheating friend, a wonderful event took place, as described in the next verse.
Just then a voice from the sky declared, “Balarāma has fairly won this wager. Rukmī is surely lying.”
Urged on by the wicked kings, Rukmī ignored the divine voice. In fact destiny itself was urging Rukmī on, and thus he ridiculed Lord Balarāma as follows.
[Rukmī said:] You cowherds who wander about the forests know nothing about dice. Playing with dice and sporting with arrows are only for kings, not for the likes of You.
Thus insulted by Rukmī and ridiculed by the kings, Lord Balarāma was provoked to anger. In the midst of the auspicious wedding assembly, He raised His club and struck Rukmī dead.
The King of Kalinga, who had laughed at Lord Balarāma and shown his teeth, tried to run away, but the furious Lord quickly seized him on his tenth step and knocked out all his teeth.
Tormented by Lord Balarāma’s club, the other kings fled in fear, their arms, thighs and heads broken and their bodies drenched in blood.
When His brother-in-law Rukmī was slain, Lord Krishna neither applauded nor protested, O King, for He feared jeopardizing His affectionate ties with either Rukminī or Balarāma.
Then the descendants of Daśārha, headed by Lord Balarāma, seated Aniruddha and His bride on a fine chariot and set off from Bhojakata for Dvārakā. Having taken shelter of Lord Madhusūdana, they had fulfilled all their purposes.
Even though Rukminī was very dear to all the Dāśārhas, her brother Rukmī had constantly opposed and insulted Krishna since Rukminī’s wedding. Thus, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī explains, the associates of Lord Krishna could hardly lament Rukmī’s sudden demise.