Tales of Krishna: Why Rukmini’s Tulsi weighed more than Satyabama’s wealth?

This Tulabharam tale of Krishna has a profound meaning.

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Rukmini and Satyabama were wives of Krishna but the two were poles apart. Rukmini was humble and her love for Krishna was genuine. And Satyabama, who took pride in her wealth, gave more importance to external beauty and love that was just skin deep.

The Tulabharam story will tell you why Rukmini’s Tulsi weighed more than Satyabama’s wealth:

One day, Narada Muni, tells Satyabama that Krishna loves Rukmini more than her. This angers Satyabama, who takes pride in her beauty and believes she has control over Krishna’s heart more than anyone else.

To prove her wrong, Narada uses a trick to lure Satyabama by asking to accept a challenge.

Narada tells Satyabama to accept the Tulabharam challenge failing which she would have to give Krishna as charity to him. This would make Krishna Narada’s slave.

He tempts her by saying that if Satyamaba succeeds in completing the challenge, then Krishna would love her the most.

Satyabama, who gets instigated by Narada’s words, accepts the challenge. She believes her wealth will outweigh Krishna and thus prove her love for him.

She puts her wealth on one of the scales of balance (tula) and asks Krishna to occupy the other one. After making several attempts and putting her entire wealth on the Tula, she fails in outweighing Krishna.

On seeing her husband on the Tula, Rukmini steps in. On learning about the challenge, Rukmini plucks a leaf of Tulsi and places it on wealth piled on the tula. And finally, Krishna gets outweighed by Tulsi.

Moral of the story:

God needs true devotion of his devotee and not wealth.

Devotion is what one needs to attain enlightenment. Ego will destroy morality and peace of mind.

Being humble nurtures love; taking pride and nursing ego leads to destruction.