4 Rare Krishna Stories

Story #1 - Duryodhana’s Wife Becomes a Krishna Devotee

Sadhguru: Bhanumati was Duryodhana’s wife. She was an extremely beautiful girl and was only seventeen when Krishna was Duryodhana’s guest in the palace.

Duryodhana hatched a plot to get Krishna a little drunk and get some kind of commitment from him. He made all kinds of arrangements and made sure a sufficient amount of wine was at the party. Duryodhana’s friends came and everyone drank too much, and they all went out of control. But Krishna maintained his cool and went about charming everyone.

In this whole enthusiasm, Bhanumati also consumed more than she should. She was a young girl and was not used to these things, and she became very tipsy. After some time, everyone got really tipsy and things went out of control.

Bhanumati lost control over herself. She just fell on Krishna and started expressing her desire for him. Krishna just held her like he would hold a baby. He saw where the whole situation was going and knew that if she did something in this condition, she would not be able to handle it later. As a queen of Hastinapur, she would be finished.

So he physically carried her and took her inside the palace, went to Gandhari’s chambers – her mother-in-law – and handed over the girl to her. The next day morning, Bhanumati was absolutely grateful to him for having done this. From then on, she became a devotee of Krishna.

Story #2 - Krishna’s Proud Wife

Sadhguru: Krishna’s second wife was Satyabama, a very proud woman. She believed that she was the most beautiful and the richest woman, because her father was an extremely rich man and she had all the wealth and jewels she wanted. Vanity was one of her problems.

Once, on Krishna’s birthday, she decided to display to everyone how much she loved Krishna. She wanted to distribute whatever was Krishna’s weight in gold to the people of the town. This is called tulabara. This is something that happens in temples. People weigh themselves on a weighing balance against butter, ghee or rice, and distribute that to people. You can give rice, salt, pulses, gold or whatever you can afford. That is part of the tradition.

Satyabama set up the tulabara. People were impressed, but Krishna is not impressed by these things. He went and sat in the balance. She knew approximately what his weight was and had that much gold ready. But when she put the gold in the balance, it did not move even a little bit.

Something similar happened when Krishna was a child. A certain demon came and tried to carry him away. Then Krishna became extremely heavy and the demon just collapsed with Krishna on top of him and was crushed. In Kriya Yoga, there is a way where a Yogi can increase or decrease his weight. There are many stories about Yogis who became as heavy as a mountain.

Krishna increased his weight and sat in the tulabara. She put all the gold that she thought would balance his weight but to no avail. By now, everyone in town had turned up to watch. Then she asked her servants to bring all the jewelry she had. One by one, she put her jewelry on the tulabara hoping that it would work. She put everything she had on the scale but it did not move.

She started weeping because this was so shameful for her. The whole town had gathered there for this ritual but she did not have enough gold. Someone who was always so proud of her fortune and wealth did not have enough gold or know what to do.

Then she looked at Rukmini – a person that she was always a little jealous of and had trouble with. She asked Rukmini, “What shall I do? Because this shame is not just for me, this is for you, me and everyone. What to do?” Rukmini just went and took three leaves from a tulsi plant that was outside, and put it on the tulabara. Krishna just went up!

Story #3 - Krishna’s Half-Devotee

Sadhguru: Krishna was having his lunch one day. Satyabama took great pride and pleasure in serving him because this is not a man who comes home every day. She rarely gets an opportunity to serve him a meal. So she was doing it with great pleasure and joy.

But in the middle of his meal, Krishna suddenly got up and without even washing his hands, started running towards the door. Satyabama was aghast. She said, “What is it? Please finish the meal and go.” He said, “No, I need to go,” and ran to the gate.

But then he turned back and came and sat down to continue his meal. Then she asked, “Why did you run like this and then turn back? What is it?” He said, “A devotee of mine was sitting in the forest and his very life breath had become “Krishna, Krishna, Krishna.” I saw a hungry tiger approaching him, so I had to go. I went till the gate, but then the fool picked up a stone so I turned back. Let him handle it himself.”

Story #4 - The Cure for Krishna’s Headache

Sadhguru: Once, on Krishna’s birthday, there was a big preparation for a great celebration with dance, music and the works. A huge number of people had gathered. But Krishna just sat in the house, not willing to participate. Krishna is always game for any kind of celebration but that day, somehow he was unwilling.

Rukmini came and asked him, “What has happened to you my Lord? What is it? You are not participating in the celebration?” Krishna said, “I have a headache.” We do not know whether he really had one or not! Maybe he had one but he is capable of feigning one too.

Rukmini said, “Let’s call the physician.” So the doctors came. They tried to give him this medicine, that medicine. Krishna said, “No, all these things won’t work for me.” Then people asked, “What should we do?” By then a lot of people had gathered. Satyabama came, Narada came, “What’s happened, what’s happened?” Everyone was anxious. “Krishna has a headache, what should we do?”

Krishna said, “Someone who really loves me, you must take a little dust off your feet and wipe it on my head. It will become okay.” Satyabama said, “What nonsense! I love you but there is no way I am going to take the dust off my feet and put it on your head. We cannot do such things.” Rukmini wept, “How can we do this? It is sacrilege. We cannot do this.” Narada backed off, “I do not want to do such things. You are the Lord himself. I do not know what is involved in this. We do not know what the trap is. I put the dust from my feet on your head and maybe burn in hell forever. I do not want to do such things.”

Word spread. Everyone was horrified. “We are not going to do such things. We love him alright but we do not want to go to hell by doing such a thing.” The celebration was waiting for Krishna to come but Krishna was just sitting there with a headache.

Then the news went to Vrindavan and the Gopis came to know that Krishna had a headache. Radhe just took her pallu off, put it on the ground and all the Gopis danced on it wildly. They gave it to Narada and said, “Take this and tie it around his head.” Narada brought this and tied it around Krishna’s head and Krishna became alright!

He always made it clear what he valued most. Though he moved among kings, though kingdoms were offered to him, he did not take it. But this was most precious for him.