Subhadra Devi is the sister of SriKrishna and Lord Balarama, and is the daughter of Devaki and Vasudeva, but was raised by Rohini as her own daughter. Here, some people consider Subhadra Devi to be the incarnation of Yogamaya Durgadevi. But here, for Her to be Yogamaya Durgadevi, She must be Lakshmidevi. But one must note that Subhadra Devi was married to Arjuna. But Arjuna is Indra’s avatar. Plus, He is Nara. Out of Nara and Narayana, Narayana is Lord Vishnu Himself, whereas Nara is not Lord Vishnu, but is Lord Shesha, with the presence of Lord Vishnu within Him. So, Arjuna is Nara also, with the presence of Shesha within him. He even had the presence of Bhagavan Vishnu within him. Plus, he was an incarnation of Indra, but he wasn’t Saakshaat Narayana.
Now, if you consider Subhadra as Lakshmidevi’s Durga roopa, then for marrying Lakshmidevi, it must be Saakshaat Narayana only, and not a person embodied with the presence of Lord Narayana. But for Narayana, it may be Lakshmidevi Herself, or a person with the presence of Lakshmidevi within Her. Why is it so? Because Lakshmidevi is a pativrataa, and She doesn’t marry anyone except Lord Narayana Himself. Not even the one with Narayana’s presence is eligible to marry Her. Only Saakshaat Narayana can marry Her. So, Subhadra cannot be Lakshmidevi’s Durga roopa’s avatara. Plus, already Lakshmidevi has incarnated as Rukmini and Satyabhama and married Krishna. So, She is kind of a sister-in-law to Arjuna.
Plus, if you consider Subhadra as Umadevi’s Durga roopa, then you also cannot say She is an incarnation of Umadevi, because again, Arjuna is Indra’s avatara, and Umadevi is Lord Shiva’s wife. She is gurumaata to Indra and does Shaastra paatha to him. So, it doesn’t make sense here if you say She is Umadevi’s incarnation. Because Subhadra married Arjuna, and if She were Umadevi, She could not marry Arjuna. Plus, Umadevi is also a Pativrataa stree, so She would marry only Lord Shiva and no one else. But yeah, Subhadra Devi had the presence of Umadevi within Her, due to which She looked exceptionally beautiful and was Trilokasundari.
So, the overall idea is, if you consider Her as Yogamaya Durgadevi or Vishnumaya Durgadevi, who is again Lakshmi’s Durga roopa, then let me tell you one thing. After warning Kamsa, Yogamaya Durgadevi disappeared and lived in the Vindhya mountains and came to be known as Vindhyavaasini Durgadevi. Now, in one amsha, Lord Parashurama had installed this Durgadevi in Kunjaarugiri, and even today, this Durgadevi is being worshipped as Krishna’s sister. But what about Durga Sahasranama, where She is known as “Subhadra, Kalpalatika, Krida, Koutuhala Priyaa”? This also has a simple answer. Subhadra means ‘the highly auspicious one’. Since Durgadevi is highly auspicious and is full of auspicious traits, She is known as Subhadra. So, it is the name of Durgadevi and not Subhadra Devi, the sister of Krishna. This Durgadevi is also the sister of Krishna only. And if you consider Durgadevi, then She is Kanyaka, and is not married to anyone.
Then who exactly is Subhadra Devi? SriMadhvacharya, one of the greatest Vaishnava Acharyas, in the Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya, says that Subhadra Devi is the reincarnation of Trijata in the Ramayana. During the Ramayana, Ravana had kidnapped Chhaya Sitadevi. The real Sitadevi was with Lord Shiva and Umadevi, being worshipped by both. Here, with Chhaya Sitadevi, Indra was present for Chhaya Sita's movement and speech. Plus, within Chhaya Sita, there was a small amount of presence of Sitadevi too. So, when this Chhaya Sitadevi was in the captivity of Ravana, this Trijata was the one who served and cared for Her.
So, it was as if Trijata served the Indra present within Chhaya Sita; therefore, She married Indra, who came as Arjuna in the Dwapara Yuga. Plus, She even served Sitadevi in a way, because the figure She was serving was of Sitadevi, and it had a very mild presence of Sitadevi; therefore, She even served Sitadevi, and hence became the favorite of Bhagavan and hence was born as the sister of Krishna, as Subhadra Devi. But then also, Subhadra Devi is a great personality to become Krishna’s sister. She was completely devoted to Krishna and is the mother of Veera Abhimanyu.
37) In her previous life, Subhadra was known as Trijata. Bearing very auspicious beauty, she was born as Vasudeva’s daughter through Devaki. Rohini had raised her as her own daughter.
Note: In the Ramayana, Trijata was the assistant who was beside Sita in the Ashoka vana.
38) Since she had served Sita very well in her previous life, she was born as SriKrishna’s dear sister. Due to the presence of Parvati’s Avesha, she was full of beauty and auspicious traits. She had lotus-like eyes and a reddish complexion like the Champaka flower.
[Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya, Chapter 20, Khandava Vana Daha]
Initially, Duryodhana approached Balarama when He was in Mithila after the killing of Shatadhanva and learnt Gadaa Vidya from Balarama. Then, he even requested Balarama to marry Subhadra to him (Duryodhana), and Balarama, satisfied with Duryodhana, even promised him to marry Subhadra to him. But he had a political reason behind it. Duryodhana didn’t want Subhadra. His main aim was to take Krishna and Balarama to his side, making the Yadavas come to his side, thus leaving the Pandavas lonely and helpless. But destiny had some other plans…When Arjuna came from his tirtha yatra near Dwaraka.
There, Arjuna took the form of a Sanyasi and did the dhyaana of Krishna, asking Him to give Subhadra to him. Krishna appeared there and took Arjuna to Dwaraka. Since Arjuna was in the form of a Sanyasi, and only Krishna knew that he was Arjuna, Krishna spoke with him as if he spoke with the Sanyasi in front of everyone. Balarama heard this news and welcomed the Sanyasi. Balarama appointed Subhadra to serve the Sanyasi.
But then Krishna told Balarama, “See, this Sanyasi is very handsome in appearance. What if Subhadra gets attracted to him?” Balarama said, “Hey Krishna! Don’t say like that. It won’t happen, because the Sanyasis have control over their senses. Nothing would happen like that. Subhadra! You go and serve the Sanyasi.” But Krishna at last said, “But, if anything happens, don’t come to me!” and went away. Now, one day, Krishna and Arjuna were in Raivata Parvata, where the Yadavas used to play. Subhadra was also there. Arjuna, on seeing her, was seeing her only. Krishna tauntingly said, “Aeyy…Sanyasis shouldn’t look at girls like this!” Arjuna was now in control.
Now, one day Subhadra was serving the Sanyasi Arjuna. And everyone else, including Balarama and Krishna, had gone to see a funfair. There, Rukmini came and gave the food to the Sanyasi, thus ensuring Arjuna was acting as a Sanyasi and not as Arjuna, as per the instructions of Krishna, which He gave before going to the funfair. There, after Rukmini left, Subhadra said to Sanyasi Arjuna, “O Sanyasi! O revered Sage! You must have done the whole yatra of the Bhaaratavarsha. So, in that case you must also have done the yaatra to Indraprastha…There…there did you see Arjuna? Did you meet him? His long and strong arms, his handsome face, and all attract me towards him. I want to marry him.” On hearing this, Arjuna was internally like, “Oh, Subhadra! I am Arjuna, and you are praising me in front of myself? I also want to marry you!”
Arjuna then revealed his true identity that he was Arjuna and not a sanyasi. Subhadra was overjoyed, and with devotion, she remembered Krishna. Immediately Krishna appeared. Even Rukmini came there. Vasudeva and Devaki also came there. And in a fully ritualistic way, Arjuna and Subhadra were married. After that, Arjuna went back to Indraprastha with Subhadra Devi. Here, when Balarama and all got to know that Arjuna married Subhadra, they were angry and had planned to go to Indraprastha and attack the Pandavas.
But then, all of them noticed that Krishna was sitting quietly. He didn’t speak a word. Balarama said, “Krishna! Why are you so quiet? Don’t you have anything to say about this act of Arjuna? How can he take away our sister like that?” Krishna smiled and said, “But what’s the problem with it, Dau Bhaiya? Anyways, the Pandavas are our cousins and are from a prestigious dynasty. Their mother Kunti is our aunt. Moreover, they even possess great qualities like Dharmanishtha, strength, valor, beauty, and expertise in various things. So, it’s an honor for all of us that our Yadava kanya has gone to their dynasty as the daughter-in-law. We should be proud instead and should not attack them.”
On hearing Krishna’s words, Balarama too felt that ‘Yes, Krishna is right. We must feel honored and proud that our sister became the wife of a great warrior like Arjuna.’ Even the Yadavas felt like that. Thus, Subhadra was married to Arjuna. Subhadra and Arjuna had a son named Abhimanyu. This Abhimanyu is the incarnation of Budha, one of the Navagraha. He also had the Amshas of Yamadharma, SriMukhyaprana Vayudeva, Indra, and the Ashwini Devatas. In addition, he also had the presence of SriKrishna.
GLOSSARY
Avesha: Presence of an entity within a person. For example, Gopikas had the presence of Lakshmidevi within them. So, this means Gopikas had the avesha of Lakshmidevi within them.
Avatara: Direct descent of the same Paramatma from Vaikuntha to the earth. In the case of Vishnu, Lakshmi, Vayu, and Sarasvati/Bharati, there is no difference between their original form and incarnate form. Whereas for other devatas, there might be a slight difference between the original form and the avatara, according to their hierarchy.
Durga roopas: Both Lakshmidevi and Umadevi have their own Durgaroopa, known as Vishnumaaya Durgadevi/Yogamaya Durgadevi for Lakshmidevi, and Mahasarasvati/Kaushiki/Bhadrakali/Sharvaani for Umadevi’s Durgaroopa.
Why do I need to discuss avesha and avatara in this answer? Because it is important for this answer; we cannot just say that X is an incarnation of this deity; we need to see who the deity is.
Hope this helps!
Jay SriRam!
Jay SubhadraBalabhadra Sameta SriBhagavan Jagannatha!
ShriKrishnarpanmastu!