Shri Krishna’s consort Rukmini was none other than the incarnation of Bhagawathi Lakshmi. But, what made her special was not the status as his consort queen amongst the eight wives of Shri Krishna, but her devotion and unconditional love towards Shri Krishna , which signified that devotion never asks or demands, but only offers and surrenders. However, Rukmini’s love for Shri Krishna was never loud and it was more of a silent worship. But, Shri Krishna who loved Rukmini as his dearest never gave up a chance to glorify the essence of her devotion to the world. One such incident was when Satyabhama, the third consort of Shri Krishna was proud of her beauty and riches, and Shri Krishna made her understand that it was devotion which was dear to him, but not the materialistic beauties.
Once, Rishi Narad approached Satyabhama and told her about a Vrat which would make her gain the undivided attention of Shri Krishna. But it required a great challenge of donating Shri Krishna to a virtuous Rishi or Brahmin and then take him back by donating wealth equal to his weight. Satyabhama, not understanding the greatness of Shri Krishna confidently mentions that she had the wealth needed and requests Rishi Narad himself to accept Shri Krishna as a donation. Shri Krishna understands the intention of Satyabhama, but keeps calm, as he knew that this incident would definitely be an eye opener to Satyabhama to understand the devotion of Rukmini.
On one auspicious day, after finishing the rituals of the Vrat and donating him to Rishi Narad, Satyabhama starts the process of the Tulabhaar so that she can retain her husband back. She places Shri Krishna on the balance and puts some jewels on the other side to match the weight of Shri Krishna, but the balance does not budge. She adds more gold, but to no avail. Her whole treasury gets emptied placing the riches in the balance, but none of the massive wealth equals the weight of Shri Krishna. A worried Satyabhama then puts the entire treasury of Dwaraka too into the balance, but nothing is of help and she fails to weight the balance in favour of Shri Krishna. Satyabhama repents for her foolishness, but does not understand the solution for the same.
Shri Krishna who was silent till that moment feels pity for Satyabhama’s plight. He then calls her gently and asks her to approach Rukmini for a solution. Satyabhama is surprised and wonders in whether Rukmini would help her as she had insulted Rukmini many a time in the past. But when Shri Krishna insists, she goes to Rukmini and asks her forgiveness and tells her the complex situation in which they were.
Rukmini listens to everything calmly and takes a Tulasi leaf with her and approaches the balance. She bows to Shri Krishna and places the single Tulasi Dal on the Tulabhaar. To everybody’s astonishment, the balance immediately gets equalled with Shri Krishna’s weight. All are appalled with this wonder and bow to the devotion of Rukmini. Satyabhama realises that it was the devotion of Rukmini which made Shri Krishna’s weight as light as the Tulasi Dal. She falls at her feet and accepts Rukmini’s devotion as the purest form of love for Shri Krishna. Once again, through this gesture, Shri Krishna supports the love of his devotees and proves that he is always there to glorify their love for him.