Pārijāta Haraṇa (Vishṇu Purāṇa)

The Pārijāta Haraṇa is the account of how Bhagavān Kṛshṇa took the Pārijāta tree from Svarga (heaven) to Dvārakā. It is told in the Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, in the Pañcamāṃśa, Chapters 30 and 31. It follows the slaying of Narakāsura, and it ends with the teaching that Kṛshṇa was fully present in all 16,100 homes of Dvārakā at the same time.

Return of Aditi’s earrings

Narakāsura had been slain and the sixteen thousand maidens set free. Kṛshṇa and Satyabhāmā then flew on Garuḍa to Svarga. They went to return the celestial earrings of Aditi, the mother of the devas. Narakāsura had stolen them, and this was one of his great wrongs against the cosmic order.

Aditi and Kaśyapa received the earrings with thanks. Aditi saw that Satyabhāmā shone with spiritual light and with a mother’s love. She gave Satyabhāmā a vara (boon): her sons would live long, and her beauty and her husband’s love would never fade.

Indra names Kṛshṇa Govinda

Indra had once been corrected by Kṛshṇa in the Govardhana episode. Now he faced Kṛshṇa as the slayer of the asura who had troubled all the devas. In Svarga he held a formal ceremony. He bathed Kṛshṇa with the Pāñcajanya, the divine conch’s water drawn from the celestial Gaṅgā. He then named him Govinda, the supreme protector of the cows, the earth and the Vedas. This was Indra’s open acknowledgement, in Svarga itself, that all rule flows from Bhagavān Kṛshṇa.

Satyabhāmā asks for the Pārijāta

Satyabhāmā stood beside Kṛshṇa during the ceremony. Then she walked through the Nandana garden, Indra’s celestial park, where every divine tree was full of sweet-smelling flowers. The Pārijāta stood above them all. Its flowers never fade. Its fragrance fills all the fourteen worlds. It had been churned out of the Kshīrasāgara (the ocean of milk) at the samudra-manthana. Satyabhāmā set her heart on it at once, and she asked Kṛshṇa for the Pārijāta tree.

The battle with Indra

Kṛshṇa was moved by his queen’s wish. He pulled up the Pārijāta and placed it on Garuḍa. The guardians of the Nandana garden raised the alarm at once. Indra’s forces gathered: the Trāyastriṃśat devas, the Marut-gaṇas and all the armed forces of Svarga came forward to defend the garden.

The battle was fierce. Garuḍa fought the devas with his wings, his beak and his claws. Kṛshṇa’s arrows flew in every direction and cut down the Maruts and the weapons of the army. Indra himself came on Airāvata and entered the fight with the vajra and the other weapons of the king of Svarga. Kṛshṇa met every weapon with a weapon of his own. Satyabhāmā rode beside Kṛshṇa on Garuḍa. She watched with flashing eyes and spoke fiery words to cheer him on.

Indra’s forces could not overcome Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. He did not use any of his supreme weapons, just as one may stop a child without drawing a sword. He defeated the whole army of Svarga, and Indra himself was brought to give way.

Indra’s surrender

Indra came down from Airāvata and folded his palms before Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. He spoke a stotra (hymn of praise) that was a full confession about the nature of divine authority:

“O Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, you are the Paramātmā who fills and holds up all the worlds. We devas rule our realms only because you have given us these offices. The very powers by which I hold the vajra, guide the rains and keep the three worlds, I hold in trust from you. They are not mine. The pride of ruling is the pride of a landlord’s servant who forgets whose land he looks after.

I opposed your taking of the Pārijāta out of that very pride, the pride of ‘mine’, which does not belong to one whose everything is yours. The Pārijāta was churned from the ocean that you hold up. It stands in a garden that your grace keeps. It blooms by the power that comes from your own nature (svarūpa). There is nothing here for me to give or to keep back. You take only what is already yours.

Whatever rule I hold, whatever blessings I give as the lord of the rains, all of it is your own power working through the instrument called Indra. May I never again mistake the instrument for the source.”

Kṛshṇa received Indra’s surrender with full kindness. He spoke gently and freed him from his shame. The Pārijāta was loaded on Garuḍa and carried to Dvārakā.

The Pārijāta in Dvārakā

The Pārijāta was planted beside Satyabhāmā’s palace in Dvārakā. At once its fragrance began to fill the whole city. Bees from Svarga flew down, drawn by the scent. The Yādavas of Dvārakā were kings, warriors, scholars and ordinary people. When they breathed the fragrance of the Pārijāta, each had a flash of recognition, a memory that came from before this life.

The Vishṇu Purāṇa records that all the Yādavas who met the divine fragrance of the Pārijāta saw visions of their own earlier divine births. They saw the roles they had played in earlier yugas and the divine identities they carried under their present human forms. They saw the long journey of their ātmā (soul) through the many parts of the creation of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, and how they gathered at last in Dvārakā in this supreme yuga as companions of the avatāra. The Pārijāta had stood in Svarga, where time runs differently, and its fragrance carried a trace of this memory.

Satyabhāmā’s reflection

After the Pārijāta was planted, Satyabhāmā thought over all that she had seen in Svarga: Aditi’s blessing, the naming of Govinda, the battle and Indra’s surrender. The Vishṇu Purāṇa keeps her long reflection. She saw that her wish for the Pārijāta had been only the outer reason for a deeper event. Indra’s pride had been shown openly for what it was. It had been declared in Svarga that Bhagavān Kṛshṇa is not one deva among many, but the Paramātmā from whom all divine authority flows. Her own wish had been the means by which this truth was shown to all.

Kṛshṇa in all 16,100 homes at once

After the Pārijāta episode, the Pañcamāṃśa takes up a question. Kṛshṇa had 16,100 wives. Each had her own palace in Dvārakā, and each palace was a full household with children, servants and daily life. How could he be a whole and undivided husband to every one of them?

The Vishṇu Purāṇa answers plainly. By the power of Yogamāyā, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa was present, whole and complete, in all 16,100 households at the same time. His presence in each home was not divided or made smaller. Each queen knew Kṛshṇa as present with her alone. He ate with her, spoke with her, slept and woke, and took part in the rites of family life. This was not a case of multiplying himself. It showed the nature of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa as the Paramātmā, who is fully present in every jīva (living being) at the same time. Taking the form of a householder, he showed that he who is the ātmā of all beings is fully available to each one.

The Pārijāta goes back to Svarga

The Vishṇu Purāṇa records that after Kṛshṇa left the world, the Pārijāta was returned to Svarga, to its first home in the Nandana garden. It had stayed in Dvārakā as a guest of the avatāra, and it had filled the divine city with sweet scent for as long as Bhagavān Kṛshṇa walked the earth. When the avatāra ended, all the divine gifts went back to their source: the Sudharmā Sabhā, the Pārijāta and the divine weapons. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa himself returned to his own supreme dhāma (abode).

Sources

• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Pañcamāṃśa, Chapters 30 and 31