The theft of the Syamantak diamond⁷

Krishna had many wives. One of his wives was named Satyabhama. Satyabhama’s father had a special diamond named Syamantak. Whenever anyone touched the diamond, immediately it produced hundreds of gold coins. Because of that diamond. Satyabhama’s family was quite well-to-do, and her father was very fond of the Syamantak diamond.

There was a very greedy man named Shatdhanwa who became envious of Satyabhama’s father, so he killed him and stole the diamond. When Satyabhama heard of this, she cried bitterly and said to Krishna, “You have to get this diamond back and kill Shatdhanwa.”

“Definitely I shall do so,” said Krishna. “How could Shatdhanwa do this kind of thing!”

So Krishna began searching for Shatdhanwa, but Shatdhanwa kept running away from him. Then, quite unexpectedly, Krishna suddenly found the diamond. His uncle, Akrura, had been meditating when all of a sudden somebody had dropped this diamond on his lap. When Krishna came, he found the diamond on Akrura’s lap while Akrura was still in deep meditation.

“How did you get this?” Krishna asked.

“I don’t know. My eyes were closed,” answered Akrura. “You know I have not stolen it. Somebody put it in my lap and ran away very fast.”

“Are you going to keep it?” Krishna asked.

“Never, never!” said Akrura. “I don’t want this. Since you have been looking for it, you take it. It belongs to Satyabhama’s father and Satyabhama and you are one, so please take it.”

Krishna said to him, “Once you came to me and warned me of a plot against my life. You came and told me that Kangsa was going to kill me. At that time you proved to be my best friend. And here again you have done something most significant. When you got the diamond, you could have easily hidden it. But you conquered your greed and for that I am most proud of you. You have been on God’s side from the very beginning. So for these two reasons I am giving you a boon.”

“Please,” said Akrura, “I do not want a boon. It is enough that I have been able to serve you twice in this incarnation of mine. For that I am so grateful to you. It is you who are working inside me. Otherwise, I would not have happened to overhear King Kangsa’s plan to kill you. And now, because of you I have this diamond. You have been searching for it, and because it was put in my lap I am again in a position to serve you.”

Akrura bowed down to Krishna. “You give me the inspiration to conquer greed. It is all your inner doing. Outwardly I am doing things and the world is giving me credit. But I know that you don’t need me to save you and you don’t need this diamond as your property. I know that you have been inspiring me to help you. I am so grateful that you have utilised me on these two occasions. They will remain immortal in my life.”

Krishna said, “Friends I have, admirers I have, dear ones I have. But how I wish to have people like you. You have proven yourself to be one of my dearest ones. My outer blessing is my inner gratitude, and my inner gratitude is my soul’s only satisfaction.”

Akrura said, “You are right, you are absolutely right, Krishna, my Krishna.”