Krishna and Satrajit - Part 2 of 2

Krishna was feeling numb when he heard the young child's accusations. He did not even notice the child run away. He walked back to his palace slowly...People were thinking he was thief and a murderer....his own people...He loved these people and they were doubting him...Krishna clutched his head and sat down unhappily.

How could this happen...Krishna realized that all this was started by Satrajit...Krishna surmised the facts from what the child has said...Satrajit's brother had been killed in the forest presumably when he had gone hunting...Satrajit suspecting foul play had told everyone that he thought Krishna had killed Prasenan.

Krishna took a deep breath and realized what had to be done. He had to go and make people understand that he had nothing to do with the death of Prasenan. The only way he could do that was to bring back the Syamantaka gem and hand it over to Satrajit.

That very day, very morosely Krishna picked out a few of his trusted guards and without telling anybody he left straight for the forests. His guards asked around and found out where Prasenan usually went hunting. Krishna followed the guards to the place where the hunting party and Prasenan separated. Following the tracks of Prasenan's horses, he followed it deeper and deeper inside the forest.

There he found the remains of a body, the body had been attacked and killed by a lion...Krishna shook his head sadly. His guards had found out what clothes Prasenan wore on the day of the hunt...The body was wearing the same dress...So this was how Prasenan was killed...

Krishna saw the tracks of the lion which attacked Prasenan. The tracks led on and on to another side of the forest. Krishna followed the tracks with single minded devotion. His guards were tired...but Krishna would not give up...It was becoming dark, but he still did not give up...The accusations of the young child rang in his ears....

Krishna shook himself up and focused on the job at hand. As Krishna moved with a fire torch in his hand, he saw the tracks of the lion abruptly end....Krishna was surprised. He checked again and saw before him the dead body of the lion...

Krishna took a deep breath and saw the remains of the lion...The marks on the lion were deep...What sort of animal would make marks like this... He wondered...Krishna found some bear hair on the ground...The lion was attacked and killed by a bear?....Which bear would be so powerful?... Krishna picked out his weapon and kept it in readiness. Any animal which could kill a lion was no ordinary animal...Krishna followed the tracks of the huge bear....

He walked on and on and until he came to a cave. The tracks of the bear led him inside the cave...Krishna walked inside the dark cave...When Krishna studied the walls of the caves, he had the surprise of his life...Painted on the wall of the cave were scenes from the Ramayana!

Krishna suddenly realized which bear would be so powerful enough to defeat the lion. He smiled and boldly walked up inside the cave.

On reaching the inside of the cave, the first thing that Krishna saw was the bright Syamanntaka gem which was shining through the dark cave. Infact the gem was so bright that it actually paled the light coming from his own fire torch. Krishna was about to look around, when he heard a wail...a loud wail...Judging from the wail, it looked like from a young bear...But Krishna was not able to make out much in the cave.

Then suddenly from deeper inside the cave, Krishna heard a ferocious roar...Any other person who heard the roar would have been scared out of his wits..But Krishna smiled..He recognized the roar and his suspicions had been confirmed. He smiled and was about to come forward, when there was a loud 'THUMP!'

Krishna barely had time to react as he felt immense pain where a huge hairy hand had hit him on the chest...Krishna tried opening his mouth and telling the bear that he was a friend...But the bear did not relent...It kept attacking Krishna...

Krishna realizing that the bear would not listen to him, knew that he had to fight back...He and the bear fought...they fought for a long time...Both of them were tiring and Krishna knew it...Krishna knew that he had to stop the fight before it went out of hand.

Finally when the bear attacked him, Krishna focused his energy and plucked the bear with both his hands and threw the bear across the cave...

There was a very long silence as Krishna heard some loud and angry panting...Slowly the breathing relaxed...Krishna tensed for any further attacks, when an old voice came, 'Who are you?' The voice was gruff and filled with wonder.

Krishna smiled and looked at the bear, 'I am known by many names, Bear King Jambavan! I am also known as Rama...'

There was a gasp from the other side as the bear hurriedly came over to Krishna's side and looked him over.

Looking at the painting of the Ramayana, Krishna had realized that the bear had to be Jambavan, the great Bear King who had been one of the friends of Rama, when he had invaded Lanka...

Krishna and Rama were both avatars of Lord Vishnu. Krishna being an incarnation of the Lord Vishnu knew about his previous births.

Jambavan came forward and fell at the feet of Krishna, 'Rama! You are my Rama...I am so sorry...' The old voice was filled with remorse, 'I fought you...I did not know who you were...I am so sorry...'

Krishna held Jamabvan by the shoulders and hugged him, 'You have done nothing wrong..You only protected your family from invaders....'

Jambavan soon was talking to Krishna animatedly. He introduced Krishna to all his family members...It was Jambavan's son, whom Krishna had first seen playing with the Syamantaka gem....

Krishna told Jambavan, 'I am Rama...But now I have come here for a different reason...I am Krishna now!'

Jambavan accepted the statement with the smile, 'But my Lord! What brings your here..You have not told me that...'

Krishna sighed and told him, 'I have come here for the Syamantaka Gem...The Gem was stolen from one of my subjects...He thinks I have killed his brother to take the gem...'

Jambavan was stunned when he heard this, 'How could anyone even think that? He is a fool to think like that...'

Krishna shook his head, 'Don't be too harsh on him my friend...He was just blinded by circumstances....But that is not important...What is important is that I have to make him understand that I have not done anything wrong and the only way I can do that...' Krishna stopped as Jambavan continued.

'..is by handing him the Syamantaka gem...' Jambavan completed the sentence as he smiled at Krishna. Krishna nodded as Jambavan called his son. He took the Syamantaka gem from him and gave it to Krishna, 'Krishna, I saw a lion having this sparkling thing in its paw...The lion attacked me...I defeated the lion and took it and gave it to my son to play..I had not realized that...' Jambavan said sadly

Krishna shook his head, 'Please my friend...do not blame yourself...If you had not taken the gem, I would never have met you...This was all meant to happen...'

Krishna left for his kingdom with the Gem in his hand. There before the entire kingdom, Krishna handed over the Syamantaka Gem to Satrajit and told him the story of how the gem had been lost. Slowly the people realized what fools they had been to listen to Satrajit. All the people now looked at Satrajit contemptuously as they went back to their homes...

However Satrajit was now at home and he was tormented..He had blamed Krishna for no reason...His guilt was eating him...

His daughter Satyabama came and talked to him. 'Father! I know you have a made a mistake by insulting the Dark Lord...But I have a plan...' Satrajit listened desperately as Satyabama continued. 'Krishna refused to accept the Syamantaka Gem...But you can offer something to Krishna which is more precious...' Satrajit looked puzzled as Satyabama looked shyly.

Satrajit blinked. Satyabama was now a grown up girl and was extremely intelligent and beautiful...She had a feisty temper to match...She was skilled in warfare too...There were so many marriage proposals for her...Satyabama had refused all of them...But now...Satrajit happily nodded his head. The very next day he went to Krishna in the open court and told him.

'Krishna! I am sorry for what I have done...Nothing I can do can make up for it...But I offer something which is more precious to me than the Syamantaka Gem...I offer my daughter's hand in marriage to you...'

Krishna looked surprised and slowly nodded his head and agreed to marry her...Krishna knew who Satyabama actually was and knew her purpose...However that is another story!

-From the Bhagawat Purana