Lady Subhadra

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Pamho! AgtSP!

 

> I remebrer that some time ago Suhotra Maharaja answered such a question,

> maybe somebody will be so kind to supply his answer?...Yhs RVd

 

Here is the answer my Guru Maharaja wrote:

 

The Mahabharata Adi Parva has a section called Subhadra-karana Parva.

Therein we find that Subhadra devi is the favorite daughter of Vasudeva and

the sister of Lord Krsna. But note: here Krsna tells Arjuna that Subhadra

is the "uterine sister of Sarana" (in Sanskrit, *saranasya sahodara*). To

be more clear, Subhadra is born from the same womb as Sarana. I consulted

another book that gives a list of wives and children of Vasudeva (Krsna's

father) that is taken from the Padma Purana. According to this, Sarana was

born from the womb of Vasudeva's wife Rohini. Thus Subhadra would be the

maternal sister of Balarama, and the paternal sister of Lord Krsna, whose

own mother is Vasudeva's wife Devaki. This could be verifed by checking the

original Sanskrit of the Padma Purana. Unfortunately the book I consulted

does not give a chapter and verse reference for that Purana, and I don't

have the time to hunt for the original reference myself.

 

In a book about Jagannath Puri prepared by the "Jagannath Temple Managing

Committee," it is mentioned that some people say that the Subhadra deity is

originally a Durga murti that was added to the altar of Jagannatha and

Baladeva after the 7th century AD, when the Sakta religion (i.e. the worship

of Durga) became very popular in India. Then later, under the influence

of popular Vaisnavism, Durga was worshiped as Krsna's sister Subhadra. I

should hasten to add that the authors of this book do not attempt to argue

that this account is accurate. They disclaim it as only being a story. I

mention it here to suggest that the controversy about whether Subhadra is

really Krsna's sister or Durga-devi can be traced to the friction between

the Saktas and the Vaisnavas. There was a similar controversy during the

time of Ramanuja about the identity of the Balaji Deity in Tirupati. The

Saivites claimed Balaji is Kartikkeya; but Ramanuja established Balaji is

4-armed Vasudeva. No doubt there are still Saivites who go around grumbling

that Balaji is really the son of Lord Siva, but is worshiped as Visnu by

the clever Vaisnavas. No doubt there are impersonalists who say, "No

matter, Visnu, Siva and Kartikkeya are all one." So I suppose from that

side we may hear that Subhadra and Durga are one. By the way, Bhadra is a

name of Durga. "Su", as Srila Prabhupada explained when he gave me my name,

means "very nice." "Bhadra" means auspicious. So if Durga is auspicious,

Subhadra is very nicely auspicious. I would say that means she is

transcendentally auspicious.

 

Anyway, to me the claim that Subhadra is actually "just" Durga does not make

sense when you consider that there are other sakti-tattva deities worshiped

in the greater Jagannatha temple complex. Vimala devi (after whom Srila

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur was named Vimala Prasada) is accepted by

everyone, including Gaudiya acaryas, as Durga herself. She is worshiped by

the Jagannatha pujaris during Durga puja. Jagannatha prasada becomes

Mahaprasada after it is offered to her. There is likewise a Laxmi mandir in

the complex. She is worshiped as Lord Jagannatha's consort (Her yearly

pastime with Lord Jagannatha, in which she obliges Him to return to Puri

from the Gundica Mandira, is described in Cc). Besides Vimala and Laxmi

devis, there are temples to Sarasvati (Brahma's consort) and Bhubanesvari

(Siva's consort). So again, it seems senseless to identify Subhadra devi as

Durga (who is there as Vimala), or even as Lord Jagannatha's consort (who is

there as Laxmi), or as Sarasvati or some other demigoddess.

 

As usual, the only sensible conclusion is Srila Prabhupada's:

Subhadra is Krsna's sister.