Talks Between Krṣṇa and Rukmiṇī
37
foster father possessed many hundreds of thousands of cows, I was not proprietor of even one of them. I was simply entrusted to take care of them and tender them, but I was not the proprietor. Here also, I am not proprietor of anything, but am always penniless. There is no cause to lament for such a penniless condition; I possessed nothing in the past, so why should I lament that I do not possess anything at present? You may note also that My devotees are not very opulent persons; they also are very poor in worldly goods. Those who are very rich, possessing worldly wealth, are not interested in devotion to Me or Krṣṇa consciousness. On the contrary, when a person becomes penniless, whether by force or by circumstances, he may become interested in Me if he gets the proper opportunity. Persons who are proud of their riches, even if they are offered association with My devotees, do not take advantage of consciousness of Me. In other words, the poorer class of men may have some interest in Me, but the richer class of men have no interest. I think, therefore, that your selection of Me was not very intelligent. You appear to be very intelligent, trained by your father and brother, but ultimately you have made a great mistake in selecting your life's companion.
“But there is no harm; it is better late than never. You are at liberty to select a suitable husband who is actually an equal to you in opulence, family tradition, wealth, beauty, education—in all respects. Whatever mistakes you may have made may be forgotten. Now you may chalk out your own lucrative path of life. Usually a person does not establish a marital relationship with a person who is either higher or lower than his position. My dear daughter of the King of Vidarbha, I think you did not consider very sagaciously before your marriage. Thus you made a wrong selection by choosing Me as your husband. You mistakenly heard about My having very exalted character, although factually I was nothing more than a beggar. Without seeing Me and My actual position, simply by hearing about Me, you selected Me as your husband. That was not very rightly done. Therefore I advise you that it is better late than never; you can now select one of the great  kṣatriya  princes and accept him as your life's companion, and you can reject Me.”
Krṣṇa was proposing that Rukmiṇī divorce Him at a time when Rukmiṇī already had many grown-up children. Therefore Krṣṇa's whole proposition to Rukmiṇī appeared to be something unexpected, because according to Vedic culture there was no such thing as separation of husband and wife by divorce. Nor was it possible for Rukmiṇī to do so in advanced age, when she had many married sons. Each and every one of Krṣṇa's proposals appeared to Rukmiṇī to be crazy, and she was surprised that Krṣṇa could