Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum !

               
Vedanuddharate jagannivahate bhoogolamudbhibrate                 daityam darayate balim chalayate kshatrakshyam kurvate  poulastyam jayate halam kalayate karunyamatanvate    
mlecchaan moorchayate dasakruti krute Krishnaya tubhyam namaha                                          
Today on the auspicious occasion of bhanu saptami , as the mind reveled in the glory of the savitri mahamantra , it occurred to me to write about the boundless love and magnamity of lord Krishna of which I've heard a lot from elders and experienced myself. With the lord as my charioteer to mask me from the adversities I may face in this mischievous adventure, I dare to start my article.
  
I would like to discuss our subject in the question and answer pattern. Firstly , did Lord Krishna really exist ? Is he a historical figure or a mythological character ? This we will leave to course of future discussions.
 In this article I shall attempt to solve the mysteries around Krishna's life. Of late , many 'learned' people are giving a judgement : Don't live like Lord Krishna, live the essence of what he spoke i.e, the Gita. This implies Krishna is a thief , a womaniser , a mastermind in deceit and hence one shouldn't live like him. However the entire world speaks the glories of Gita and it has been accepted as the guideline of all Hindus and hence one should live up to it. While it is true that Gita is the guideline unanimously accepted by all sections of Hindus , is it also true that unlike that of Sri Rama , the life of Krishna is not an example to emulate ?

No ! Never! This is a statement issued by people who have never grasped the glory of Krishna's character. They are like blind people who can never appreciate the beauty of the sunrise. In the past, our scriptures , itihasas and poems were taught by men of both learning and wisdom to disciples in the way they ought to be taught. What is the way ? See, a word may have two meanings. For example Hari implies both Lord Vishnu and a monkey. The meaning we need to infer depends on the context of usage. There is a specialised field of learning called  Nirukta  authorised by the Vedas  which guides the person in correctly interpreting the usage of words in the scriptures to derive the meaning intended by the seers who gave us our scriptures. The learned men of the past guided by the spirit of nirukta, guided by the teachings of their own masters who themselves were realised souls , and when needed guided by the power of their austerity interpreted our sacred lore in the correct way and taught the same to their disciples. As long as this lasted , such mindless statements never found way into the minds of people. Crisis started when westerners and their indian disciples whether with good or bad intentions started interpreting the scriptures according  a to their whims and fancies. OK All this stands for the interpretation of scriptures. But how can we support the mischief of the lord as described in bhagavata and other puranas?

On this aspect , some scholars opine that God is beyond human mind and hence one cannot comment on his leelas. Is this the only answer ? Such answers may be given in an abrahamic religion, but in our religions, even the lord is bound by scriptural injunctions and there are several instances in our sacred lore where the Lord's hands were tied down by dharma nirnaya. Moreover in today's world where even the basic moral tenets of all religions are being challenged , can Krishna's life stand the test of ethical values ?
Yes ! His life not only stands this litmus test but also like the viswarupa darsana ( grand vision ) given by him to Arjuna , enraptures us with it's splendour and magnanimity. For this we need to revel in the aesthetics of the yuga dharma ( law of the aeons) and avatara krama ( the sequence of incarnations). Firstly we need to remember that Lord Rama's incarnation took in treta yuga and Lord Krishna's, later in the dwapara yuga. We are in the next yuga : Kali, the age of darkness, the age of moral collapse , the age of spiritual decline. Not only Hindus , but also fellow Muslims and Christians are seeing this as clearly as daylight. The saints of unwavering austerity and compassion , whatever religion they might belong to are no longer seen as numerously as in the yester years. Does this mean that we all are damned to hell ? Are we cursed to be born in this dark era ? Such unfortunate people we are ? Again a big no ! See sin and merit are not exclusive. So are good and bad. So are ignorance and knowledge. Unless laymen exist, how can we call someone a scholar ? So is Kali Yuga! It is the smallest of all aeons and will pass of very quickly compared to others and it is the great souls who evolve spiritually even in this dark age of Kali , who will later incarnate again in the next good ages and fill them with their aura. 

But yet in this age , an aspirant faces great adversities. On reading the scriptures, it becomes clear that unless one leaves all his worldly vocations and retires completely to a spiritual life , one cannot adhere to dharma completely. And how many people , though interested in dharma can leave their studies, jobs and families if necessary to pursue dharma? And can they bear the grunt of the families by doing so. And secondly, even sanyasins who have renounced the world completely are in a situation where several times they have to forgo dharma , either because of their personal misgivings or because of the strength of the circumstances. 

It is in these dire situations does the life and words of the lord fill us with courage and wisdom. His words in the Gita : "Swalpamapyasa dharmasya trayate mahato bhayat " ring in our ears and offer us solace. This is the reason for which he chose to incarnate in between the age of piety and the age of darkness. His life would become an example to emulate for millions in the age of doubt. His mischievous leelas would dispel all the fears that fill the lives of aspirants.

Let us consider the very first samhara ( annihilation of evil) he resorted to. Pootana , the demoness sent by Kamsa tries to kill the infant Krishna by feeding her breastmilk which is full of poison. Krishna suckles her breasts and forcefully bites her in the process and kills her. A clear contrast can be seen here between the lives of Rama and Krishna. Our puranas clearly speak that is the same lord who descended in both forms. But while as Rama who is already a prince well versed in all the dharma shastras, he hesitates to kill Tataka and only does so after being convinced by rishi Viswamitra that an evil force whether man or woman when not controlled by other means needs to be extinguished; as Krishna he resolves on his own even as a infant being brought up by cow herders , to mercilessly kill pootana. Why ? Isn't it true that the dharma shastras ordain that a woman shouldn't be slain under any circumstances ? 
Yes! But when Krishna was faced with the problem of choosing between dharma and greater good, he fearlessly chose good even at the point of being damned to hell for doing so ! This is the great message his very first leela conveys us. 

Similarly as we go through his life , where at several instances he appears to discard dharma for saving the day. This he intentionally enacted in his life because he knew that in the age of Kali , we have to face several situations, where we have to lie , give bribes , praise others , momentarily compromise our righteousness to keep our lives moving on smoothly. In such situations,one shouldn't get disappointed at the fate of our lives, but only resign ourselves to the will of the lord and should remember his golden words : " Swalpamapyasya dharmasya trayate mahato bhayat". "Arjuna", says Krishna, "even the slightest effort to adhere to dharma will go to great lengths in protecting the aspirant". One should try to emulate the life of the lord who lived a mentally detached life even as he appeared to be attached to innumerable wives, countless friends and relatives, and millions of people.
However one shouldn't use this as a loophole to forgo dharma whenever possible. I do not think any person genuinely interested in spirituality would dare to think so. Instead , this is a great boon granted to the people in this dark age , a rare blessing which didn't happen to even the greatest of the devouts in the bygone ages. So blessed we are ! Isn't it ? Yeah ! Because a mother loves her handicapped child more than any other of her progeny. So is the grace of bhagavan on the people of Kali.

One should learn from the life of Bhisma pitamaha here. He is undoubtedly one of the most venerated father like figures in our lore. He is a warrior par excellence. He was a bhakta for whom the the supreme lord of the worlds broke his vow. Being the most eligible bachelor of his times, at the prime of his youth, at a time when innumerable damsels clamoured just for a sight of him, even without being asked by his father, when he comes to know about the desire in the his father's heart and to fulfil the old Man's wish vows not to touch any woman in his entire life. Rest is history! This one instance is enough to call Bhishma the very epitome of dharma! But why did he have to die at the hands of his own loved ones he so warmly reared with his own hands ? Why did he have to bear disgraceful remarks from duryodhana in his last days ? Why did fate resign him to see the the most horrible destruction of his own family he so caringly brought up? Why did have to die on a bed of arrows ? 

The reason: He indeed vowed to protect the the throne of hastinapura. And he was so unwavering in his vow that even when the kauravas were disgracing a pious woman, he stood a mere spectator. When the kauravas denied the pandavas their rightful lot, he stood a mere spectator. For having so fiercely adhered to his word,so much that he didn't forgo it in favour of greater good, he had to suffer a little. Yet, his adherence to dharma is splendid in it's own right. We aren't even specks of dust on his feet. It is for this reason that the lord chose him to reveal several great dharmas and the unparalleled Vishnu sahasra.

Yet an important comparison needs to be made here. While Krishna is the lord who incarnated to show the people the way they ought to live, Bhishma didn't have any such obligations. Thus while the lord chose to chose greater good vis-à-vis dharma, Bhisma chose the opposite. And whom we need to emulate? Definitely the Lord! This is illustrated in the Mahabharata where Bhishma , such a pious character had to die while fighting on the side of kauravas, Krishna even while on the battlefield gave us the Gita, the guiding light of our troubled times and emerged as the real hero at the end of the battle. But for him, good wouldn't have triumphed over evil !

Inspite of being taught this lesson by none less than the lord himself , Indians have time and again forgotten this valuable lesson and forsaken the essence of the Lord's life. And indisputably, this is the reason for India's fall from one of the most sought after lands to a third world country. When threatened by our invaders, our rulers instead to temporarily using rajaneeti and preserving their kingdoms and thus the eternal dharma, always resigned to aggression which they knew would ultimately only lead to all-round destruction. If it was the annihilation of their lineages only ,it would be their whim and fancy. But our rulers were also protectors of dharma , and their annihilation meant annihilation of the very recluse of dharma.
One example is the story of Rani Padmini, the legendary queen of Chittor , the city which is cherished by all patriots of India for it's historical valour ! The Rani, a married woman was sought by the Sultan of Delhi. For any Hindu, there can be no desire more immoral, no demand more denigrating, no wish more infuriating. The Sultan, Allaudin khilji attacked Chittor with massive hordes of soldiers known for their tyranny. This undeterred Chittor where men knew only wither victory or death but no retreat and where women would effortlessly sacrifice their lives at the point of losing their honour. A fierce battle ensued and the sultan soon realised that war with the valourous rajputs is not a child's play. Now he resorted to diplomacy. Just show the face of the queen and we'll pack up. The message was duely carried to the rajputs. Even this was unimaginable to the Rani, for then women of royal households were seem only by their husbands and children. Yet she was convinced by the elders to give her consent. At last she consented to show her face only in a series of mirrors from her inner apartments. The deal was struck. But the desire of the tyrant only got propelled by the sight of the Rani. At the end of the day, while leaving the fort, the sultan abducted the king of Chittor and demanded the Rani to be given or the king would be executed.
 This most dreaded thing to an Indian woman would be to lose her husband. And if she herself was the reason ? No end to the misery. We have denigrated our woman to the levels we see today. But then, those were the days when women were as learned as their consorts. The most horrible of circumstances didn't deter the Rani's courage nor did it cloud her intelligence. She chalked out a beautiful plan and dramatically rescued the Rana. The valour of rajputs forced the sultan to flee the battlefield only to come an year later to unleash one of the most gruesome war India has ever seen. And he was successful in entering Chittor. Only to see a city engulfed by flames where not a single woman refrained from sacrificing her life to save her honour. This story is one that inspired countless heroes, gave work to innumerable poets and is sung in a thousand ballads. 
Yet I would dare to say, the rajputs must have done something else. Something much better than the destruction they willingly resigned themselves to ! What ? They must have poisoned the sultan! They must have back stabbed him ! What ? How can the great rajputs conceive of something so heinous ? Can a true Hindu ever kill his athiti? Don't the Vedas command : Atithi Devi bhava ? Yeah! It is heinous to do so ! But isn't it heinous to clamour for another's wife ? Isn't it heinous to show your wife , one whom you would not show even to your own brother to an uncivilized barbarian who would screen her with his evil eyes ? Having vowed to protect her ,you might have died on the battlefield instead of subjecting your wife to the looks of a lustful tyrant. You who have gone to such lengths to make peace didn't think of the consequences of trying to make peace with one of not your standards. What did this lead to ? You got immortalised! But your kingdom? Your soldiers? Their wives? Their children? Countless subjects ? O king ? If you would have poisoned your guest and would have dared to  go to hell for doing so , following the footsteps of the the lord whom you believed to be an incarnation of god, how many lives you would have saved? How many households you would have filled with joy ? How many righteous people would have been saved? But you thought dharma is more important. True. You adhered to your personal dharma. But what about your raja dharma? You confused both of them. The result? Your glories should be sung for ages to come. Your stories should be heard by generations to come.  What has all this resulted in? The India we see today ! This mistake we should never repeat again ! No ! Not even in dreams again should we ignore the message of Lord Krishna!

 Coming back to the Lord's life, he chose to be called a thief, a womanizer and so many things only for the reason that he wished to be loved even by thieves and womanizers. Already as Rama , his life became the very soul of vedic injunctions. It is not anymore necessary to show the nuances of dharma or the fierceness with which dharma needs to be adhered to. As Krishna, his life carried the message of love, love that will enrapture even thieves and criminals. No one can dare to limit his love. Nay, not even Scriptures. So much like the Jesus of Nazareth! Isn't it ? A study of the lives of Sri Ramakrishna paramahamsa, the Paramacharya of Kanchi, Bhagavan Ramana maharshi all of who lived in recent times and shone as undisputable epitomes of divinity would beautifully illustrate this truth. There were instances when the paramacharya would leave his entourage, venture out singly in the dead of nights only to speak to the most horrible of criminals and offer them solace. A study of their lives would help us understand the depth of Krishna's character. It is for this reason that while Rama is said to contain 15 of the 16 kalas of lord Vishnu, Krishna is indisputably revealed by the Bhagavata mahapurana as Shodasa kala paripoorna , the complete embodiment of all the 16 divine kalas, verily the lord himself who walked on this earth.

A mention needs to be made about the rasa leela(amorous advances) of the lord here. This has been misunderstood even in India to such an extent that even learned men in the British times chose to call it fiction which was later on added to our puranas. Unable to understand the metaphysics behind the rasa leela , they were afraid that it may tarnish the image of Hinduism. But then, learning is not sufficient to realise Krishna. One needs bhakti, sraddha, janmajanmantara samskara and above all his grace to know him. A great voice roared that rasa leela is indeed a part of Krishna's life, not a part to be concealed but one to be eulogised. It was that of Sri Vivekananda who didn't learn the scriptures by rote but experienced them under the tutelage of a man of wisdom. The otherworldly happiness that envelops us when we revel in the beauty of nature, or when we appreciate the aesthetics of a soulful art, or when we worship the lord or immerse ourselves in meditation is because our jivatma dissolves in the paramatma in all these situations. Here the gopis are none but the innumerable aspirants who like men driven by carnal desire are always in a rush to taste the bliss of divine. Just like a handsome youth who is the heart throb of the village girls, the lord is the much desired destination of aspirants from all paths of spirituality. And the bliss of divine mood has been compared to the pleasure that results from the consummation of a rapturous love. I would advise all the readers to listen to the immortal rendition of the jayadeva ashtapadi " Chandana charchita neela kalebara" by Smt. P. Suseela. Another soulstirring ashtapadi is " Natha hare " by Padmavibhushan Sri Balamurali Krishna. Surely a seeker would understand the rasa leela much better by this than by any other means. With this advice I conclude my article.

 If Krishna's character can be compared to the sun, what all I've tried to communicate is not even a ray of sunlight. With this realisation, I conclude the article and pray to the great Lord to enable us to receive his overflowing love and for ever dwell in the supreme Brahman !