From novel "Gift of the Siddhas" chapter 7

And so Sri Satram told the story of the Syamantaka jewel and it went as follows:

Krishna was living in his city of Dwarka, his great fort within the sea. This fort was constructed by Visvakarma, who was the engineer amongst the demigods. This fort had an exceedingly strong wall covering 96 square miles and was nestled within the core of the sea.

This city of Dwarka had planned roads and lanes and parks and gardens filled with Kalpa-vrksas, or desire fulfilling trees, imported from the spiritual world. It was full of very opulent palaces bedecked with costly jewels. The floors were mosaic pavements of marakata jewels, and the Deity of Visnu was installed in every house.

The demigods gave a gift of the heavenly parijata flower to Krishna's city of Dwarka. They also gave a parliamentary house by the name Sudharma. The special attribute of this house is that all present within it's walls would overcome the miseries of old age. The demigod Varuna gave a gift of a white horse with black ears, and could run at the speed of the mind. The demigod Kuvera gave the art of attaining the eight mystic perfections of material opulences. In this way, all demigods presented a gift to Lord Krishna.

One day, a King of the name of Satrajit, came to the city of Dwarka. He entered the city with a dazzling effulgence all about his body, so much so, that everyone thought that he was the sun god himself. Actually, he was only wearing a gift of the sun god, the famous jewel known as Syamantaka. With the jewel set within a locket about his neck, King Satrajit shown like the mid-day sun. He appeared as a demigod coming to see Lord Krishna.

Some citizens went to inform Lord Krishna about this important visitor from the sun. However, Sri Krishna was in the middle of a good chess game, and was diffident to the significance of the so-called sun god. Krishna simply smiled at the story, and he informed them that actually this pseudo sun god was a King of the name of Satrajit, and that he was simply showing off his opulence of possessing the Syamantaka jewel.

Satrajit was totally enamored by the material opulence of this jewel. Like most materialists of this temporal world, who have no information of the eternal spiritual world, he was only concerned with the gratification of his temporary senses. Thus he was only interested in worshipping a material object for flickering happiness.

King Satrajit was supposed to deliver the jewel to Sri Krishna, who asked for it on behalf of King Ugrasena, but he would not comply, because he wanted it for himself. It wasn't hard to see why he loved the jewel so much, for simply by the worship of the jewel in his temple, Satrajit amassed 170 lbs of gold per day.

One day, the younger brother of Satrajit, whose name was Prasena, rode on horseback out into the forest with the jewel around his neck. He was very proud of the opulence of the jewel and wanted to show it off. Unfortunately, he met up with a large lion who killed him and his horse and took the jewel to his cave. Nearby, there was a gorilla king named Jambavan, who learned of the jewel, and so went to that cave and slew the lion and took the Syamantaka jewel. Jambavan had been a great devotee of Lord Rama, and had lived since that distant time of Rama. And so being a devotee, he did not take the jewel as being very valuable and he gave it to his young boy as a toy.

Meanwhile, back in Dvaraka city, gossip had spread like wildfire all about the town. There were infamous hints that Krishna was the reason as to why the jewel was gone. King Satrajit was unaware of the whereabouts of his jewel, and his envious mind told him that Krishna had followed his brother Prasena and had killed him and stolen the jewel. Satrajit spread this rumor to every nook and cranny in the city of Dvaraka.

Krishna did not like to be defamed in this way and he decided to go to the forest and look for the gem. He went accompanied by several citizens of Dvaraka. Krishna found the dead Prasena and also the dead lion. He could see that the lion had been killed without the use of any weapons by a very powerful person.

Krishna then tracked the trail of the gem to a great tunnel in the forest. Seeing his companions afraid, Krishna went into the dark tunnel alone while they waited outside. He soon found the valuable jewel known as Syamantaka. It was being used as a toy in the hands of a child, the son of Jambavan. Krishna stood before the boy and the nursemaid cried out in fear.

Hearing the cry, Jambavan came at once in a very angry mood. Jambavan was a great devotee, but because of his anger, he could not recognize his master and he challenged him to a fight. And so there ensued a tremendous battle between Krishna and Jambavan, and they fought like two opposing vultures. Whenever an animal dies in the forest, always some vultures will come and fight heartily for the carcass. In this way, Krishna and Jabavan fought each other with great animation.

Sometimes they used weapons, sometimes they threw stones, and sometimes they wielded trees as weapons. And sometimes they pounded each other with their fists, which sounded like the crashing of thunderbolts. They fought continuously, day and night, for 28 days.

Jambavan was the strongest being alive on earth at that time, and he knew it. But when all his limbs became slackened with fatigue, and soreness numbed his muscles and his strength ebbed away, and perspiration ran like rivers on his body, he became amazed and humble, and he asked himself, "Who is this great person who has bested me, I the most powerful?"

It finally dawned upon him that his combatant was none other than his most worshipful lord, Sri Krishna. He realized that he failed to recognize his lord because of his attachments to his son and the jewel. His anger blocked his mind and blurred his vision from seeing his lord appearing in his own cave.

Krishna was nonetheless pleased with Jambavan, for Krishna had desired to have a mock fight with his devotee, and Jambavan had given pleasure to Lord Krishna by the use of his great bodily strength.

Jambavan then offered beautiful prayers to Sri Krishna, and just to satisfy Lord Krishna, he brought his daughter Jambavati, who was of marriageable age, and gave her and the jewel to the Lord.

Meanwhile, outside the cave, the inhabitants of Dvaraka had waited for 12 days and had given up hope. Being tired and sorry, they left and returned to Dvaraka with great trepidation.

Everybody in Dvaraka was extremely depressed, because they loved Krishna endlessly and could not bear his absence. They began to call Satrajit ill names. They blamed him for Krishna's absence. They worshipped Goddess Candraghaga for Krishna's safe return, and she was pleased, because just at that exact moment, Krishna returned with his new wife Jambavati, and everyone became joyful to see him again. Just like seeing the return of one's loved one from the region of death, so did they revel in the blissful sight of Sri Krishna's face.

King Ugrasena called for a large meeting of all Kings and chiefs, and he also invited King Satrajit to attend. There Sri Krishna told the whole story to the assembly, of how he retrieved the jewel from the cave. All were pleased and Satrajit became ashamed of spreading false rumors and offending Lord Krishna. He felt so bad that he gave to Krishna the jewel and his beautiful daughter Satyabhama.

Krishna was pleased with the charity of his daughter, but declined the jewel and told Satrajit to keep it in his temple, so that the jewel would bring good fortune to the city of Dvaraka, because wherever the jewel resided, there could be no famine, pestilence or excessive cold or heat.

Thereafter, a conspiracy to steal the jewel from Satrajit evolved within Dwarka. Krishna and Balarama had to leave town to go see their friends, the Pandavas. In their absence, there emerged three personalities with a design to steal the jewel. One such man, by the name of Satadhanva, slithered into the house of Satrajit and executed him exactly as a butcher mercilessly kills an animal in the slaughter house. Satyabhama cried out in loud lamentation at the murder of her father. They preserved his body in oil as Satyabhama went to Hastinapura to find Krishna and tell him of the murder. Upon hearing this news, Krishna lamented along with his wife and shed tears like an ordinary human being although he is above the actions and reactions of this material world.

Krishna and Balarama at once returned to Dvaraka so to catch the criminal Satadhanva. Meanwhile, Satadhanva heard that Krishna was coming, and out of fear he went to Krtavarma for refuge, but Krtavarma turned him away saying, "Who can be saved from death, once he has offended Krishna or Balarama?"

Satadhanva then went to Akrura, but Akrura reminded him of how powerful Krishna and Balarama is, by saying, "Krishna and Balarama are so powerful that simply by willing they create, maintain and dissolve the whole cosmic manifestation. Why, didn't you know?, that at the age of seven, Lord Krishna lifted the mountain of Govardhan hill for seven days, with his little pinky finger, just as a child holds an umbrella!" With this thought terrorizing his mind, Satadhanva then fled the town in extreme fear, riding upon a horse of great speed.

When Krishna and Balarama heard of the flight of Satadhanva, they mounted upon their chariot, and with the ensign of Garuda flapping in the wind, they pursued their quarry with great speed. After awhile, Satadhanva's horse became exhausted and dropped dead near a garden house in Mithila. Satadhanva proceeded on foot as fast as he could run. Just to be fair, Krishna and Balarama also parked their chariot and ran on foot, following the tail of their target. Sri Krishna then took up his Sudarsana Cakra discus, which was brilliantly luminous and had a razor sharp edge and revolved with great speed, and he employed the discus to sever the head of Satadhanva. Krishna searched the body, but the jewel was not to be found. Krishna expressed his feeling of mystery as to the whereabouts of the gem. Of course, the sages tell us that he knew everything about the gem, because he is always omniscient. He was just playing the part of a human being who was seemingly perplexed at the moment, but he actually knew everything. Sri Balarama then suggested that they go back to Dvaraka city and search the other men involved.

Krishna returned to Dvaraka and consoled Satyabhama with news of the death of the killer. They both then performed religious rites to honor the death of her father, and all friends and relatives joined the ceremony.

Akrura and Krtavarma were also members of the conspiracy to kill Satrajit, and after hearing of the death of Satadhanva and the return of Sri Krishna, they withdrew from Dvaraka in great trepidation. But due to the absence of Akrura, the people of Dvaraka foolishly began to fear the threat of pestilence and natural disturbances. Somehow they forgot that the presence of Sri Krishna was sufficient to protect the city from pestilence and the such, and unwisely they indulged in the superstitious talks of Akrura's absence and ignored the source of all powers, Sri Krishna. There was a history that Akrura's father, Svaphalka, had a supernatural power and he had induced rainfall where a severe drought had been. Akrura was thought to be equally powerful, and the people feared that the absence of both him and the jewel would surely cause a disturbance in Dvaraka. Some were noticing some inauspicious signs in town.

Sri Krishna perceived the problem and so he summoned Akrura, who was his uncle, and Akrura graciously returned back to Dvaraka and came into the presence of Krishna. Sri Krishna is the supersoul in everyone's heart, and therefore knew all about Akrura's questionable activities with the other two men. Yet, due to his natural affection for his uncle, Krishna gave him amnesty.

Krishna then told Akrura to please show the jewel to everyone, because Sri Balarama was hesitant to believe the claim of Sri Krishna. Krishna alleged that his uncle Akrura was in possession of the jewel. Akrura understood that nothing could be hidden from the knowledge of Sri Krishna and so he brought forth the jewel, shining like the sun and covered by a cloth, and gave it to Krishna. Lord Krishna then took the jewel in his hands and exhibited it to everyone present and then returned it to the hands of Akrura. This was all done by Sri Krishna in order to show everyone that the jewel Syamantaka was being kept by Akrura within the city of Dvaraka.