TANK OF OIL

Krishna Book Volume Two chapter Two..

Boy is there a lot of palace intrigue going on in this chapter. Not so much amazing feats that defy the laws of material nature like jumping from the peak of a burning mountain eighty-eight miles to the ground or a baby found inside a fish that grows to maturity in a matter of weeks and marries the woman who had been taking care of him like a mother. But here there is intrigue, plots and.... conspiracies.

Krishna and Balarama receive news that the Pandavas and Kunti devi have been killed in a fire. That is part of a conspiracy by Duryodhana to kill the Pandavas. The fire was arranged by Duryodhana. They were not actually killed in the fire but everyone thinks they were and everyone is mourning the tragedy. Krishna and Balarama leave Dvarka and go to Hastinapura to join in the bereavement.

While they are in Hastinapura there is a plot to kill Satrajit and take the Syamantaka jewel. Satadhanva, obviously a very foolish person who was well known as a criminal in Dvarka due to his sinful behavior seeks revenge. Satadhanva wanted a chance to win Satyabhama. Satrajit had promise Satyabhama to the various princes to win but changed his mind and handed her over to Krishna along with the Syamantaka jewel. With just a little prodding from Akrura and Krtavarma and others Satadhanva is incited and emboldened to kill Satrajit.

Satrajit is Krishna's father-in-law. The father of His Queen Satyabhama. Who in their right mind would think to try to do something like that and think they could somehow get away with it? Even if Krishna wasn't the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He was still the King of Dvarka and Satyabhama was His Queen. Satrajit was the father of the Queen. But it is said that Satadhanva knew he didn't have much longer to live and went ahead and killed Satrajit while he was sleeping.

Satadhanva realizes he is in big trouble and that Krishna and Balarama are returning from Hastinapura with Satyabhama and will be hunting him down. It is amusing how his "friends" Akrura and Krtavarma react to Satadhanva's pleas for help. These are the friends who instigated him to commit the crime, enlivening him to do it, and then when he does it and now he is in trouble they say, "Oh we cannot help help you. Krishna is the supreme Personality of Godhead. What can we do?" So in effect they set Satadhanva up for Krishna's mercy. They wanted the jewel for Krishna and understood that Satrajit had not surrendered it properly.

Satrajit was so ill-fated. Because of his attachment to a material thing he met such an unfortunate end. It seems very harsh. After all he did give his daughter to Krishna and he even handed the jewel over to Krishna also. But Krishna knew that Satrajit within his heart had not surrendered the jewel. So Krishna refused to accept it. Satrajit made a show of surrendering the jewel but was still very attached to it.

Lesson here for us... Making a show will not really help in the long run. The real surrender has to come from the heart.
"If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit a water, I will accept it." BG 9.26
Evidently that goes for offering a jewel too.

Satadhanva on the other hand was killed directly by Krishna who after a high speed chase cut his head off with His disk. Anyone who is killed directly by Krishna gets liberation. So we know Satadhanva was better off for being killed by Krishna. But what happened to poor Satrajit killed in his sleep by a dacoit?

There is a gruesome scene just after Satrajit is butchered. That is the description... butchered like an animal in a slaughter house... The women are all crying and Satyabhama wants to leave immediately for Hastinapura to find Krishna and Balarama. Evidently Satybhama was staying in her father's house while Krishna was away. She had the dead, butchered, bloody mess that is left of her father's body put in a tank of oil to preserve it so that Krishna can "see" it and become angry and chase down Satadhanva. That's a pretty gruesome scene. The dead body in a tank of oil.

"The dead body of Satrajit was not immediately removed for cremation because Satyabhama wanted to go to Krishna in Hastinapura. Therefore the body was preserved in a tank of oil so that Krishna could come back and see the dead body of Satrajit and take real action against Satadhanva." KB 2.2

There is funny exchange between Krishna and Balarama just after Killing Satadhanva. It wasn't completely due to Satadhanva's stealing the jewel that Krishna chased him and killed him. He was angry about the killing of his Queen's father. But just after cutting his head off with the disk Krishna rummages through Satadhanva's clothing and doesn't find the jewel.

"He then returned to Balarama and said, 'We have killed this
person uselessly because the jewel is not to be found on his body.' " KB 2.2

As if it was due to stealing the jewel that Satadhanva was killed.
Previously it is explained, "Because Satadhanva had killed His father-in-law, Krishna was determined to kill him by any means." KB 2.2

Not just because Satrajit was Krishna's father-in-law but because Satadhanva had rebelled against a superior. In Vedic culture this is punishable according to severity of the act. So Krishna saying like that to Balarama seems funny. Almost humorous... He doesn't have the jewel, oops... But he was killed for another reason.

Akrura is to keep the Syamantaka jewel for safe keeping until Satyabhama's son is born. According to the law of inheritance her son would inherit the property of his grandfather since Satyabhama did not want the jewel herself. She had Krishna as her husband what would she want with a material thing like that? Satyabhamas's first son is Bhanu. 

Bhanu left the planet in the fratricidal war of the Yadus. So one wonders what happened to the jewel. It produces 170 pounds of gold every day for whoever owns it. That should be easy enough to spot. Maybe it left the planet when Bhanu left. Such a powerful thing would not be an advantage for an ordinary person. We see the problems it caused for Satrajit and Satadhanva.

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