explained that when Satrajit came into Dwarka his body was effulgent and people thought he was the Sun god himself and they went and reported to Krishna that Vivasvan, the Sun god has come to meet you. Krishna said that he is Satrajit who has received the valuable Shamantaka jewel. Whoever owns the Shamantaka jewel, is able to receive one seventy pounds of pure solid gold every day from it.

So when Satrajit came before Krishna, Krishna knowing that this material opulence was actually a great burden. Attachment to material opulence, although in the beginning, is like pleasure but in the end it is like bitter poison. So for Satrajit’s own sake, Krishna said that he should give this jewel to Ugrasen, the king,as the best things are to be offered to the King. But Satrajit was too much attached to it and  said that he would keep it for himself.

Anyways one day Prasena,the brother of Satrajit took the jewel and wore around his neck and went in to the forest. There a lion killed his horses, him and took the jewel. As the lion was walking away with the jewel he came across Jambavan, that ancient associate of Lord Ramchandra, Riksharaj, who killed the lion and took the jewel into his cave. In the cave he gave the jewel to his little son. When Prasena did not come back, Satrajit began to spread rumors that because Krishna wanted this jewel he has done something to my brother and stole the jewel. Even though the people of Dwarka were such great celebrated personalities, they were victim to rumours. We can see how terrible gossip and rumours are !!! especially when they are done against great personalities. Even the inhabitants of Dwarka fell victim to it  and started suspecting Krishna. So, Krishna knowing that peoples love and appreciation for Him was the means of perfection for them, so he wanted to clear the defamy. So he took an entourage of His associates to the forest to search for the Shamantaka jewel and he found Prasena dead and he walked on further and saw the lion dead and he walked on further following the footprints in the cave and there he saw a little child playing with the Shamantaka jewel. As Krishna was about to take it away, nurse of the child began to cry “Jambavan!! Please come! Someone is going to steal the jewel from your baby. Jambavan came out charging and he challenged this thief to a fight and they began to beat each other. It was such a fight! Fighting continued day and night for twenty eight days without sleep.

Meanwhile after twelve days, the associates of Lord Sri Krishna considered that Krishna must be dead. They were waiting outside of the cave according to Krishna instructions and they went back to Dwarka and to explain to everyone that Krishna never came back. He went into a cave and never came out. So, you can imagine how much the inhabitants of Dwarka were lamenting the loss of their beloved Sri Krishna who was their life and their soul. After twenty eight days of the great fight, Jambavan realized that no one but the Supreme Personality of Godhead could stand up against me in battle. So You must be my beloved Ram Himself, You must be the Supreme Lord Narayana and then he surrendered at the feet of Sri Krishna. Krishna with His loving hand put it around the body of Jambavan and relived him of all the pain and anxiety. Jambavan was so grateful in ecstatic love to be in the darshan of Lord Sri Krishna that he offered Him the Shamantaka jewel as a gift. But he also offered his own beloved daughter who was a jewel amongst the women. This Shamantaka jewel was nothing compared to the jewel of this beautiful child that he raised. She was none other than the Goddess of fortune herself and her name was Jambavati. So Jambavan offered Krishna accept her hand in marriage. So Krishna brought her back to Dwarka and there was a beautiful wonderful wedding ceremony of the second wife of Sri Krishna.

When he returned, Satrajit felt very embarrassed that he was spreading all these rumours about Krishna which were untrue and he felt that he had committed a great offence. So in order to atone for his offence he offered his own daughter, Satyabhama, to Lord Sri Krishna and She became His third queen. ”

Marriage with Mitravinda , Kalindi, Nagnajiti, Bhadra and  Laxmana –

It is explained that there was a beautiful princess of the name Mitravinda and her brothers were dear friends of Duryodhana and she decided that she wanted Krishna and only Krishna to be her husband, upon hearing His glories. And Krishna knew this. She was praying form the core of her heart that Krishna takes her hand in marriage, but the brothers would not accept. Due to his association with Duryodhana they were against Krishna. They considered Him an enemy. So during her Swayamvara ceremony where great princes from all around the world they would come to win the hand of the daughter, Krishna just stole her away and brought her to Dwarka to become His queen.On another occasion, Krishna was visiting Hastinapur. He along with Arjuna went into the forest and came to the beautiful river Yamuna and they went to drink water to refresh themselves. Then from behind in the forest they saw a beautiful princess walking all alone. Krishna told Arjuna “Please ask this beautiful damsel who she is and why she is unescorted in the middle of this jungle.” So Arjuna went back to enquiry and she said, “My name is Kalindi and I am the daughter of Surya, the Sun God, my brother is Yamaraj, and I have been performing tapasya for many long years in my abode, Jamuna river, to get Krishna as my husband. He is the Supreme Lord, the master of the Universe and the object of all my affection and love. I will go on doing tapasya until Krishna accepts my hand in marriage. So Arjuna went back and explained this to Lord Krishna and Krishna took Kalindi and placed her on His chariot and brought her back to Dwarka and she became another wonderful Queen of Dwarkadish.

There was a swayamwara ceremony held by a king, Nagnajit and his daughter ,Satya, sometimes also called Naganajiti, she also fixed her heart for having Krishna as her husband. And Nagnajit also was very anxious that only Krishna be her husband. But as it was a custom in their tradition there had to be a swayamwara ceremony and the person who could defeat all the others only could have her hand in marriage. So he arranged this swayamwara in such a way that only Krishna could win. He found seven terrible, terrible violent bulls. They were so strong so much ferocious that no one could even approach them. And he challenged that to have his daughter Satya as your queen you must defeat all the seven bulls simultaneously. So many great princes, warriors and heroes came but their head and their limbs and their bones were broken to pieces when they approached the formidable bulls. Then Krishna came and spoke to king Nagnajit that “You know! amongst the Yadus, either you give us the Queen or we take them generally. We do not take part in all these challenges. Nagnajit said, “If You do this, You will easily defeat all these seven bulls then Your name will be glorified forever. So please” Krishna said “All right”. He approached the bulls and expanded Himself into seven forms simultaneously and when he expanded into seven forms, each form easily defeated the bull, tied it with ropes and then Krishna became one form again and began to pull all the bulls like child would pull a toy and they were just completely under his control. It is explained by the acharyas that why Krishna expanded into seven forms. He could have done it one form. But He wanted to prove to Satya that if you become My queen, although I already have many other queens you should know that you would never be lonely and I can expand Myself to be with all of you simultaneously. Then She became very satisfied and then there was a very wonderful, wonderful wedding ceremony. Krishna married Nagnijiti. King Nagnajit gave a beautiful dowry and They returned to Dwarka. There was also a beautiful princess of the name Bhadra. Bhadra was the daughter of some of Krishna’s cousins and they very much wanted Krishna to take her hand in marriage. And so with great devotion they requested and Krishna accepted Bhadra and the eighth queen was Laxmana. Krishna also stole her from the swayamwara ceremony and took her away to Dwarka. So these principal eight queens lived here in Byet Dwarka with Krishna in beautiful places which put to shame even the palace of Indra, the king of heavens.

Krishna Marries 16,100 princesses

There was a great asura of the name Bhaumasura, also named Narakasura and he had stolen the Umbrella of Varuna, he stole the earrings of the mother of the demigods, Aditi, and he had put devatas to shame. So they were requesting Sri Krishna to defeat this terrible demon and retrieve their royal property. So Krishna took his queen Satyabhama and asked her to join Him on His Garuda carrier, and from Dwarka they flew to the city of Bhaumasura which was a formidable city. It was surrounded round on all sides with huge big walls and loads of deep water and electric wires and there was also terrible demon of the name Mura with his sons and his armies who were protecting that city. So Krishna on Gaurda with His Sudarshan Chakra and His arrows he destroyed all the protected walls, he destroyed all the electric wirings, he crossed over the modes, at that time and defeated most of Bhaumasura’s armies. Mura approached angrily and he began to scream. He had five heads and as he screamed, that shrill filed all directions and he attacked Krishna and there was a wonderful fight. But ultimately Krishna severed all of his five heads with His chakra and Mura fell into the water. Then after battling and defeating all of Bhamasura’s armies, Bhaumasura came himself to fight.He was a great and powerful mystic. But ultimately by the great power of the Lord he severed his head with His chakra and killed Bhaumasura. The mother of Bhaumusura, the earth personified, approached Krishna and she gave Krishna the earrings to Krishna and the umbrella of Varuna and all other property of the demigods. There is an interesting story to Bhaumasura.

Bhaumasura was actually the son of Krishna. When Lord Varaha Dev appeared and lifted earth from water, he impregnated mother earth and Bhauma was the child. And he was a great devotee of the Lord and he was a very pious and perfect human being. But somehow or the other he fell into bad association and it is explained in all the scriptures that even great personalities, the power of association is so much that they can lose their intelligence. Therefore the most important principle for spiritual advancement “Mahatsevam dwaram………..sangi sangam” – SB 5.5.2 To associate with devotees and to avoid the association, intimate association of those who are too much materialistic. Ajamil was also a great devotee of the Lord, but by associating with low class people, he became a terrible sinner. In the same way, Bhaumasura due to bad association became a terrible, powerful demon. And Krishna personally wanted to kill His own family member just to show that His devotees are not people who simply take birth according to their blood relations with Him. Everything is based on our devotion. We find even today that there are many class goswamis who claim their position because of their birth. This is a Nityanand Vamsa, there is Advaita Vamsa who claim to be the descendants of these great personalities. And also many of the temples of Vrindavan and other places there are goswami class who are of same blood line of the original pujaris of these temples. But Krishna wants us to show that he cares nothing for your birth or relationship. He is concerned with your devotion, with the quality of your consciousness and even if he were His own son He would kill you if you are demonic. So Bhaumasura was killed and when Krishna was searching through his kingdom, He found that   there were 16100 queens, princesses that he had been captured during his battles, and they had been there as his kidnapped property for many years and they were helpless. And in their complete helplessness, from the core of their hearts they were meditating on Krishna, on the Supreme Personality of Godhead that only You can save us. And when Krishna released them they were all thinking within their heart that “Krishna! You are our life and soul. You are our only object of love and affection, You are our everything”.So even though they were silently praying this way, Krishna, the Lord within everyone’s heart could understand their thought and told them that I would take all of you to Dwarka and make you all my queens.  So Krishna arranged 16100 beautiful chariots, with a royal entourage for each and every one of them, marched into Dwarka together and there was a wonderful, wonderful wedding ceremony for all of them with Krishna. Krishna built 16100 palaces here in Dwarka and lived with all his queens and each one of His queen was thinking that Krishna was only with me.

About halfway to Bet Dvaraka and five kilometers off the main road is Gopi Talav, the pond where Krishna met with the gopis, His cowherd girlfriends from Vrindavana. This sacred spot is the source of gopi-candana, a clay that Krishna’s devotees use to decorate their foreheads.

“When Krishna came to Dwarka, the gopis of Vrindavan were very confused because in Vrindavan they were always getting some message from Mathura of what Krishna was doing and how he was doing and that was a solace of their life.Not only Him, but the whole dynasty of the Yadavas and the Vrishnis without saying anything to anyone they left Mathura and came to Dwarka.

So Krishna as supersoul in everyone’s heart could understand the feeling of the gopis and the place where you are sitting today is a very auspicious and holy place. It is described in the Garg Samhita and the Skanda Purana by Prahlad Maharaj as well as in the Padma purana the glories of this particular holy place. Krishna was feeling that the gopis were so much disorientated since he left Mathura and he was also feeling such a longing in his heart to be reunited with gopis. So he sent Udhava along with Yogamaya to Vrindavana. While the gopis were sleeping at night, he had them transferred to a beautiful palace which was just close to  here and when they woke up in the palace it was dark and the gopis they had never lived in a palace before. They were simple cowherd  girls  they did not know where they were and they were looking everywhere for a door to get out. But they could not find the dwar so they started caling “Dwar Kaha, Dwar Kaha”.where is the door? kaha means where? so that is how this place attained the name Dwarka. It was named by the gopis  and Alas!!! Krishna appeared to them and brought them to this area where there was a beautiful kund that was made by Maya danav. The gopis were so happy at seeing the beauty of this kund and Krishna came to be with them and the gopis said that we want a special kund better than this just for you. By Krishna’s divine arrangement, this kund was made and then Krishna and the gopis entered in this kund. They began bathing together and they had many wonderful water sports, splashing on one another and playing so many pleasurable and wonderful  leelas in the water together and it is described that the gopis decided that they wanted to bath Krishna personally while he was in the waters and previously  Brahma had put a Chanda –Gopichanda on Krishna which was permanent and when the gopis  bathed Him, that gopichandan  came out into the waters and sunk to the bottom, and since then it said that  the chandan of lake this in its raw natural form is decorated with a chakra- the disc , the gada- the club, the kamla -the lotus and the shanka- the counshell and when we go inside, the pandit will show us the raw  gopi chandana when we split it open and it is directly for here and unmixed these signs  of Vishnu are in each piece.

So for many days Krishna and the gopis they had wonderful pastimes here and in the evenings they would have the rasaleela on the banks of this Gopi Talao. Some people say that after Krishna left the planet that the gopis came here to drown themselves but there is no shastra, but we have seen that they have confirmed this. This is a common story that people tell. But according to the shastra, after Krishna killed Dantavakra in Mathura, he came into Vrindavan, (this is after the battle of Kurukshetra) and at that time he brought all of the residents of Vrindavana directly back to Goloka Vrindavan .But this is a very special holy place because this is the place where the gopis and Krnsa met to bath in this beautiful lake and this is place throughout the entire world from where gopi chandan comes from. Srila Prabhupada explains, all bonafide gopi chandan must come from this lake alone and people from Mathura and Varanasi come and collect in large number of buckets They dry it and mix it with other mud and then they sell it as gopi chandan

Glories of gopi chandan is explained in the Skanda Purana that by placing the mud of this lake, where Krishna and the gopis had their wonderful water leelas, upon one’s body is as good as bathing in the Ganges. It is as good as going to all holy places of pigrimage. You are all fortunate to be in this in very very extraordinary and mystical holy place. There is a beautiful Deity of Gopinath in the temple.

At the time of Krishna leela in Dwarka, Devaki approached Krishna one day and said although I gave you birth as mother I never had the wonderful fortune of seeing your bal-leela because you came when you were about 12 yrs old and mother Yashoda had the good fortune to see. I want to see that beautiful form of Yours as a little child stealing butter. So Krishna became a little child and he had a stick which is used for churning the butter and he was holding a rope which is used to frill that sick and Devaki was so much happy to see that form and Rukmini happened to see that form of bal- gopal of Vrindavan. So she approached Krishna and said “Please I want to worship you in that form. I have not seen such a beautiful all attractive form as that”. So Krishna manifested Himself as a Bal-gopala Murthi and Rukmini worshiped that deity in the most private confidential temple of her palace and after Sri Krishna left this world which we will describe tomorrow at Prabhasakshetra that Murti of Krishna came into his kund and for many many long, thousand of years was under this want and it went into the mud.

Now there was a great ship merchant who was bringing goods from Dwarka  to southern parts of India and in order to make his ship balanced he took large large blocks of gopi chandan from this kund and when he was going by Udupi, Madavacharya (this is seven hundred years ago) was sitting on the banks of the ocean doing meditation on Krishna.A storm came and the boat was about to sink and the captain of the boat saw Madvachrya there,  saw a sadhu, begged him for some blessings to save him and Madhava took his chadar and waved it, the storm stopped and then he directed it to come to the beach. The captain said “You have saved my entire fortune and you have saved my life. I will give you anything you want anything …or all of it”. He asked “where are you coming from?” and captain said “Dwarka”.  He continued, “Dwakra is the only place from where gopi chandan comes, do you have any gopi chandan?” The captain said,” Yes I have 2 big blocks of it. So give me that. So he brought out the 2 big block of chandan and the blocks cracked open. And in one block, there was deity of Udupi Krishna and one was the deity of Balaram .The deity of Balaram is installed just near the ocean and the deity of Udupi Krishna which is one of the most famous deities in the entire world was brought by Madvacharya. Nobody could lift it. So many men were trying to lift it but they couldnot lift it and Madva easily put it on his shoulders and walked in the town what is now called as Udupi.

The gopis having nice water sports every day bathing together and dancing together and singing together here and then sent back to Vrindavan. We know that the gopis were 24 hours a day united with Krishna and in this way the vraj gopis taught us that we are never separated  from Krishna as long as we remember Him. Lord Chaitanya who was Srimati Radharani, the queen of all gopis, who came to this world to teach us the sublime process of always remembering Krishna and chanting his Holy names- Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Gopi Talao 

Rukmini Temple

About three kilometers outside Dvaraka, on the road to Bet Dvaraka, is the temple of Rukmini, Krishna’s chief queen. The architecture of the temple is beautiful, and the walls are decorated with paintings of the pastimes of Rukmini and Krishna. The temple is said to have been built in the twelfth century.