ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
KRISHNA VAASUDEVA
THE GREATEST SANNYAASIN
THE FORM OF DISPASSION
THE FOUNTAIN OF COMPASSION
THE STHITAPRAJNA
THE STABLE MINDED
THE REALIZED YOGI
THE MASTER
THE LOVER
THE KING
THE SELF
1
Sri Krishna was the disciple of SAGE KAPILA.
He had mastered ‘Saamkhya Philosophy’ under his guidance.
He had attained many ‘Siddhis’ at the feet of SAGE VYAASA.
He had mastered sixty four ‘LEARNING’ [VIDYAA], and was awarded the title of ‘Bhagavaan’ by the ‘community of Sages’!
BHAGAVAAN – means one who possesses BHAGA –‘Great Learning which adds luster to oneself’! Krishna had earned the title by years of hard work and practice.
His life from his childhood was a ‘fight’ against ‘fate’!
Yes! Fate!
A higher being who descends down to the Earth in a human garb has to struggle a lot every moment of his life to reach his goal like a mega serial hero character! He cannot have an ordinary life! Every event of his life is an important episode. He has to be a winner always. He is fated to have only bad cards, yet triumph over others.
All the magical powers of a God are left behind in the God world back at his cozy home and he enters the world-arena enveloped by the worst possible circumstances. Though he might be a PHD at home, he has to start from the Kindergarten ABC here!
He has to practice contemplation and realize the Self!
He has to train himself in austere practices under the strict surveillance of a Guru, if he has to attain the Siddhis!
He has to work harder than others, he has to struggle more than others and prove that any human can reach the greatest heights in life, if they only ‘will’ it!
Nothing is impossible if one just puts his efforts sincerely to its achievement.
It was a long and hard climb from the ‘Cowherd-Gopala state to the acclaimed position of Vaasudeva Krishna, the King of Dwaaraka’!
King of Dwaaraka had eight wives! But no happiness! All his marriages were politically oriented. He had to protect the little community of his Yaadava clan from many strong enemies. The only way to get help from other neutral kings was alimony with their daughters! He had also become a close friend and advisor for Paandavas, his cousins of Kuru dynasty!
His life was a constant struggle! But, he never lost his balance of mind at any stage of his life! He was a ‘SthitaPrajna’- ‘the man of stabilized intellect’! But, not even his closest friend or wife knew of his ‘greatness’!
He was a ‘Sage’ hidden in royal robes!
Krishna was not a ‘Sage’ by birth!
Life’s tragedies had carved him to become a stone idol!
2
Krishna? His life, a tragedy? A ‘God’ lost in the ‘stormy waves’ of the world?
Yes!
Before his birth itself, he was marked for death by his uncle! After birth, though of royal blood, he had to grow with the cowherd children of Gokul. Instead of getting educated in weaponries and higher sciences, he learnt to tend cows, and milk them.
His childhood was of course joyous and adventurous - playing in fields, grazing cows in the forests etc; but his precious childhood years just wasted away in these routine works. While he was getting attached to the villagers and their way of life, he was suddenly taken away to Mathura and introduced as the prince to all the citizens.
Though he had not taken much effort to kill his uncle, Kamsa had collapsed in the mind the moment he set his eyes on Krishna! An astrology freak, he had been expecting death from his little nephew from the moment Krishna was born. Fear had made him half insane. He had imprisoned his own sister and brother-in -law out of fear. He had tried his best to kill Krishna. But the villagers had spread the rumor that this little dark boy was a God in person. The killers sent by Kamsa had succumbed to these rumors and had fled at the sight of the little boy. They were also attacked by Krishna and his gang of boys in the forest and had been caught in the traps set by them. Anyhow the story spread that God had killed these soldiers! And God cannot kill ordinary soldiers; so they were weird shaped demons as Krishna himself boasted!
Krishna was an intelligent child. He was hailed as the chieftain’s son. Whatever he did nobody questioned him. Whatever he said, every one believed him. That is how his mother Yashodaa had seen the world in his mouth!
He had been having a competition with his friends as to who will hold the breath for long. He had turned purple in the effort. His mother saw him in that state.
She thought he was about to die. Other friends tried to put her off saying that Krishna had eaten mud. But she had fainted away. The playful scene became very serious. When Yashodaa woke up, she saw Krishna hale and hearty. She called him a miracle child and lost no time in exaggerating his greatness. She told everyone that he was her world and life.
The rumor spread to Mathura that Krishna had the whole world in his mouth! What world can an uneducated woman see in the mouth of a child? What does her brain know of the three worlds, Vishva Roopa (Cosmic form) etc.? An Avatar’s mother need not necessarily be a divine being with all Knowledge and understanding. She was just a cowherd woman, that too not of royal genes like Krishna. Why should a playful scene in a child’s life be picturized as some great magical event?
Thanks to the devotional poetries; whatever happens in an avatar’s life is ‘MADHURAM’ sweet and ‘Divya’ miraculous!
Krishna had understood the intelligence level of those innocent villagers. He lost no time in building up the stories of demons and his acts of magical valor! These stories kept the villagers away from forest regions and he and his friends including his dear Raadhaa spent their time there playing games undisturbed by anyone!
But his ‘godhood’ ended when he entered Mathura. Does anybody wonder why the demon clan ended at Gokula and never appeared after he left Gokul? Because they were never there! Kamsa was not a demon; he was an ordinary Yaadava Prince; how can he be a Lord of demons? These demons existed only in the imaginary world of the illiterate cowherds! The citizens of Mathura were not as gullible as the cowherd families of Gokul! Krishna had to train himself as a prince now. His playful lazy life had to be left back. He was sent to Saandeepani’s hermitage school by his parents. He was eight year old, yet had not learnt even the basic lessons till then. He was too backward. Other boys outwardly showed respect to him due to a prince. But he knew that all of them talked low of him in their own chambers. He did not know how to dress up like city-boys; he did not know proper manners; and he did not know even the language used by royalties! And he knew that they even called him in their circles as the cowherd boy or the cow dung cleaner.
That name stuck to him all through his life; Gopala – the cowherd! Anywhere he went, when people wanted to curb him, they could only insult him in those words. He had got used to it so much; he never bothered to even react to such ridicules.
Here now in Saandeepani’s ashram, he was very new to such a cruel selfish world. He missed his cowherd friends, his adopted parents, and his dearest friend Raadhaa. So many times he wished she would come and punish all those boys who were harassing him like this. Many a night he woke up crying out her name and calling for her help!
She never came!
He was never allowed to go to Gokul again as his parents (Devaki and Vasudeva) felt anxious that he may fall back into playful truants. He complained to his brother about his loneliness! But BalaRaama was too strong and mighty to be bothered about these small things. He was a hero in the school, with his muscular body and strong personality. He had gathered his own admirers now. Krishna cried many a times alone in some obscure corner of the hermitage unseen by anybody. That is how he became friends with Sudaama, the poor Brahmin boy! Sudaama was able to understand the plight of this dark boy and was glad to have him as his friend in the midst of royal kids. He taught Krishna all that had to be learnt to equal his co-students. Being highly intelligent, Krishna soon was ahead of all the students of his class with the tutorship of Sudaama. He overthrew everyone and kept ahead of everyone in studies and games through sheer hard work. He was soon the admired student of the Sage. He became the pet assistant of his teacher; and his good heart soon won him the company of many Sages. He studied anything and everything worth learning under many a knower.
Krishna was a personification of Knowledge.
3
Self-Realization is the ordained goal for each and every being born in the world.
Krishna Vaasudeva was not an exception. He practiced contemplation of the Self like everyone; and under the guidance of Sage Sandeepani easily attained the ‘Self state’!
He sought Sages here and there and mastered all yogic powers.
He studied Vedas and understood their meaning.
He sat with Vyaasa and helped him to sort out the Vedas.
He mastered sixty two types of learning and was awarded the title- ‘Bhagavaan’ by the community of sages.
He learnt to dress so beautifully, that soon he became the fashion-model of the youngsters.
He fought all enemies by careful strategies and conquered them.
He rescued the sixty thousand princesses imprisoned by Jaraasandha.
His friendship with Paandavas strengthened his position as a minority king. That is why he had to marry eight princesses to get the co-operation of many a king.
However, he was a ‘Sannyasin’ inside. He used the power of illusion and hypnotic powers - to keep his wives satisfied. He actually never enjoyed any carnal pleasure with his wives. Nobody except Sage Vyaasa knew about his secret. Sage Vyaasa also helped him to beget children without actual closeness with his wives.
4
Forget all the vivid colorful myths associated with his life.
Look at the whole thing rationally.
Let us reconstruct his story according to his personality.
Krishna’s life occupies only a small section of Bhaagavata. It is just one of the avatars of
Lord Vishnu and there is just a brief account of his life mentioned there. Bhaagavata is a gigantic discourse of Shuka Muni covering all the descents of Lord Naaraayana. It abounds with many philosophical discussions and Creation theories.
What we now beleive as the life events of Sri Krishna are mostly imagined versions extracted from the poetries of the devotees of Sri Krishna. Though for a spiritual practioner on the path of Bhakti (Devotion), these works may help in the contemplation of the deity, they do not present the true facts of Krishna’s life.
Presenting Krishna as a romantic personality attracted one and all and the trend continued in that direction so much so that even many dance forms borrowed the idea of Krishna as a lover and enhanced their own popularity. Girls started acting the role of Krishna adorned with colorful dresses and peacock feathers. The dances became highly colorful with many blue hued Krishnas dancing with colorfully attired young girls.
(By the way, he was not blue colored like a monster; he was dark hued like any other Yaadava-clan child).
Krishna looked like a ‘feminine-male’ born only to dance with girls! The flute which he never played after he left Gokula, became a constant decoration in the hands of ‘Dancing lady-Krishnas’ and ‘filmy Krishnas’ making it a symbol of Krishna!
The picture of blue hued ‘feminine looking Krishna’ adorned with green peacock feathers on a golden crown and a gold flute in a blue hand pressing against red lips; pretty teen age girls dressed in colorful attires dancing around him; is a colorful picture good for calendars and stage presentations; but can this be true?
Was he such a feminine looking personality, that every female dancer dresses up nowadays as a Krishna and degrades his true personality?
5
Let us start from MAHABHARATA.
Some war took place at some place called Kuru Kshetra according to the sacred text. Though the measure of the war field mentioned in MahaaBhaarata does not match the present Kuru Kshetra field, we can ignore it as one of the changes caused by the ever changing ‘Nature’!
Here we are concerned with finding the truths of Krishna’ life; not the geographical proof of the battle.
We have to start somewhere.
In Mahabharata, we find the description of Krishna acting as the chariot driver to Arjuna.
You are nowadays presented with pictures of a blue hued smiling Krishna with a peacock feather adorning his crown, as driving the golden chariot in the huge battle field. Sometimes he is shown even as wearing only a yellow top garment and a dhoti.
Does this dress befit the chariot-driver who has to face the onslaught of many weapons in a terrifying war battled by countless soldiers and kings?
When he was a truant child of Gokula, Raadhaa had adorned the child with all forest flowers and feathers available at Brindaaban forest, not just a single peacock feather.
Later when Krishna entered Mathura to take the role of a Yaadava prince, he had to leave all these childhood decorations behind. Already he was disregarded by other kings and emperors for his cowherd-habits of Gokula. If he had worn a peacock feather on his crown and played flute as a Mathura prince, he would have been showered with insults and humiliations for sure.
Coming to the scene of the battle-field, we see that Krishna held all the reins of five horses in one hand, a whip in the other hand and drove the heavy chariot of Arjuna.
Think for yourself, what physical strength will be needed for such a task.
The horses were trained for warfare.
Krishna personally took care of all his horses. He was a talented horse-trainer.
To control all the five horses and hold the reins in one hand requires excellent physical capability. It was not accomplished by playing a magical flute.
Krishna must have been physically very strong and highly muscular in physique.
His thick fat hands must have been tightly gripping the reins and the muscles in the hands would be protruding out by the effort.
And why would he wear peacock feathers to adorn his crown, in that war-field?
He must have worn heavy armor, and a war helmet.
What would his appearance have been like?
Bred on butter all his childhood and pampered by Mother Devaki later on, he would be slightly heavier in build, a little on the plump side.
Regular in exercise, he might have kept his body in perfect shape.
He was equal to Arjuna in age. He might have even held wrestling matches with his close friend Arjuna. After all wasn’t he the brother of the mighty BalaRaama?
A broad chest, muscular arms, deep eyes of a Yogi, majestic gait – a perfect man he was!
How could he look feminine even in imagination?
How could he have danced with pretty girls in Gokul?
He was just about eight years of age when he left Gokul.
Gopis all must have been elderly married women.
Their children must have been his friends.
How could that child be romantically connected to these older women?
Would he know of sex so soon? Was he deranged? A psycho?
No! He was just a child.
But, a clever child; an intelligent child!
6
YAADAVAAS –COWHERDS.
They lived by selling milk and milk products.
They were not educated.
Their life was centered on cows; tending cows, cutting grass, milking, making butter etc.
And their children - if girls must help in butter making and the boys would take the cows out to far away fields for grazing.
Girls, if we believe Indian history, would be married even before they crossed their eighth year! They would be busy acting as daughter-in-laws in their husband’s family.
And how would the boys spend time?
Grazing cows in the far-away jungles; may be playing, climbing trees, collecting all feathers and flowers of the jungle!
Maybe they all decorated themselves with any feather or flower available.
Maybe Krishna and his gang got into this habit by the company of the one and only girl member of the gang Raadhaa.
She must have taught them to make garlands, decorated her darling Krishna with many colorful feathers. Discarded by her husband she must be the only one girl who had time to play around with boys. She surely must have been thrice the age of the boys. She must have been the unanimously chosen leader of the gang!
Krishna was just a child who admired Raadhaa being different from the rest of the girls.
NANDA AND YASHODA!
Though glorified as God’s parents, you can’t ignore the fact that Nanda and Yashodaa belonged to the cowherd clan; gullible- trusting every astrologer and saffron robed vagabond who visited their village.
Krishna was not actually a cowherd by birth. His genes were different. He belonged to the royal family. He might have looked quite handsome in the midst of the cowherd boys.
He also was the adopted son of Nanda, the chieftain- PRADHAAN. He might have used his position as a chieftain’s son for his own advantage.
His pranks and wild games were tolerated by the villagers because he was Nanda’s son; not because he was a God!
What is a ‘God’?
Philosophers are still breaking their heads even now about this so called ‘God’ who invisibly controls the tiny world of ours.
According to a common man, even a tree which oozes a white gel is a ‘God’; anything beyond understanding is a ‘God’.
When the word ‘God’ gets attached to any human we adore even in this twenty first century, why wouldn’t those illiterate cowherds call a chieftain’s son God and believe in the demon-stories circulated by him? All the myths of him being a God might have been just rumors spread by the illiterate cowherd clan to keep away the tyrant king of Mathura.
However Krishna indeed evolved into a God by sheer hard work and sincere efforts later.
His wisdom and conduct brought acclaims to him from one and all!
Let us appreciate and admire him for what he really was – a perfect man; not because he carries a flute and wears a peacock feather on his crown in our imaginations.
Let us follow the footsteps of this Great Man and learn to act as Gods in the garb of humans.
Let us realize the true nature of our Self and become perfect like the Great Yogi!
Let us stop the mechanical chanting of the Gita and follow the instructions offered by the Great Master!
Salutations to the Perfect Man Krishna!
Salutations to Lord Naaraayana
who perfectly played the role of Krishna on Earth!
Salutations to the Realized Yogi Krishna!
Salutations to Krishna, the SthitaPrajna!
Salutations to my own Self who is Krishna!
OM TAT SAT
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