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The Observance of Sivaratri
The Observance of Sivaratri by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Sunday 18 August 2013 20:28
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(Spoken on Sivaratri on February 18th, 1968)
Sivaratri is an important festival, with deep religious and spiritual significance. It is the day on which Siva as the manifested form of the Absolute in its function of universal transformation is adored by all devotees. This worship is performed on the 14th day of the dark half of the lunar month of Phalguna (February-March).
The day is especially significant as an opportunity for austerity and spiritual contemplation. The principal items of the observance of the day are fast, vigil, havan, yajna, and continuous The worship during the night is done through various consecrated articles such as bael leaves and flowers. The bael leaf is regarded as especially sacred to Siva. To the chant of the Divine Name, one hundred thousand offerings of bael leaves are made to Siva on this night. Another part of the worship is called abhiskeka, or the offering of the divine bath to the Deity with such articles as milk, curd, ghee, sugarcane juice, honey, In the Hindu religion particularly, God is addressed and regarded as the Supreme Emperor or King, and invoked and worshipped with royal grandeur. The vigil aspect of this day is, again, a spiritual exercise, and is intended to overcome one’s usual tendency to go to sleep every day as a consequence of repressed desires lying latent within. For, the maintenance of spiritual consciousness is neither a sensory consciousness of objects nor an abolition of consciousness, which two aspects of life are obviated by the two abstinences in the form of fast and vigil.
The concluding worship is the grand culmination, wherein arati, or the sacred waving of light, is performed to the Lord with lighted camphor and wicks soaked in ghee or oil. The emanations of these consecrated flames are not only charged with the power of mantras chanted simultaneously, but they also spread an aroma of health-giving and rejuvenating forces in the atmosphere. [Extracted from Swami Krishnananda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita
The Meaning of Religion and the Spiritual Attitude in Life
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The Meaning of Religion and the Spiritual Attitude in Life by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Saturday 17 August 2013 21:36
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When we observe a religious occasion and rejoice in a celebration or perform a function, we are not merely playing a joke with the time at our disposal. It is not a diversion in which we engage ourselves, because the preciousness of time and the value of life is well known. The observances that are religious are not, therefore, diversions in any manner whatsoever. They are not just escape outlets from the boredom of day-to-day life. Also, it has to be mentioned that religion is not one of the activities of life so that we turn to religious moods and engage ourselves in religious performances just as we change our offices and get into the different kinds of jobs. There is a marked distinction between the As a matter of fact, religion has nothing to do with human society. It is something personal, leading to a larger impersonality of significance which is implanted in the personality of individuals. It is an inward turning of the mind towards its source, gradually by stages, rather than an outward meandering in the social field of work and entertainment, so that the intensity of a religious achievement cannot be observed by outward activity or conduct. You cannot look at the face of a person and judge the religious value, or the intensity to which that person has reached, because it is an inner adjustment of consciousness which is privately done by each individual – himself or herself – in relation to a reality which transcends relationships. Religion is a non-relational endeavour on the part of the human mind to attain the secret of existence, and therefore, while it may commence with the immediate realities of life such as social If religion today has perhaps not come up to the level expected of it, and if we have something lacking in the various religious fields of life, this shortcoming has to be attributed to an emphasis that has been laid overmuch on the formality of religion rather than the intention, the motive and the purpose or the spirit of religion. Religion is nothing but a spirit which you adopt in your life and attitude in general so that, if that is absent, religion becomes a corpse, a skeleton, without flesh and blood in it. It may have all the appearances of a living organism, but it has no life in it. So we can have lifeless religions, yet they may look like religions – just as a dead body may look like a human being, but it is not a human being because it is has lost its value, which is the spirit of existence.
It is difficult to enter into a real religious attitude in life because the mind of the human being is caught up in certain prejudices and subtle longings which hanker after satisfaction even when the initial enthusiasm is religious. We do not entirely become religious even when we enter a temple. We have still our secular First of all, there is a gross misconception about God himself, and every other misconception follows from it. What we call religion is nothing but our attitude to God, and if the concept of God is blunderous – there is something seriously wrong with the concept – the attitude, naturally, will have the impact of this error. And, many other corollaries follow from this basic error of wrong concept. Whether God exists or not may be a subtle question that the mind may raise within itself, and this question may be smothered over, stifled by the overwhelming impression produced upon the mind through contact with scriptures, saints and elders. But, our religious life is not something thrust upon us by others – not even by a saint or a scripture. It is a growth that takes place from inside, and it is a part of our being that becomes religious. As I mentioned already, it is not a relational conduct which we adopt in our life in respect of elders, saints or scriptures, etc., but a blossoming of our own personalities from within, in its inner contact with reality. So, unless the concept of reality is adequate to the purpose, the means adopted in achieving it, or attaining it, may fall short of the purpose.
The art of rousing in oneself a religious mood is essentially the crux of the whole matter. It is not merely thinking a God that is in the heavens, or an image that is in a temple, or an atmosphere in a church, etc. that is religion; it is something quite different. What is the difference? Again, I have to bring your mind back to what I told you a few minutes before: it is an inward attunement of our mind with a form of reality which stands there as a counterpart of our personal life. In a way we may say that religious consciousness is that attainment by which the mind within tunes itself in harmony with its counterpart by coming in contact with which it becomes a complete whole, so that religion is the technique of becoming whole or complete in one’s life; whereas every other performance is a side activity of our life which keeps us always half, or less than half, but never whole. What is the reason behind our dissatisfactions throughout the walks of life? We never feel that we are complete or whole at any time in our life. Even if we have a large family which loves us dearly, even if we have plenty of wealth, even if we are well placed in society, we never feel that we are full or complete. We are always inadequate; there is something which is lacking in us. We have an unhappiness and sorrow when we go to bed in the night, whatever be our social status or the power that we wield or the wealth that we possess. What is this peculiarity which keeps us always unhappy? Each person should put this question to himself: “Why am I unhappy? I have got plenty of money; I have got a lot of power; I have got a large group of friends. What is it that I lack? Everything I have that worthwhile having, but I am not a complete person. I have an insecurity which is secretly eating into my vitals. What is this insecurity?” That is something inscrutable, and it is a question which religion can answer, and nobody else can answer.
The unhappiness that is at the core of our life arises not because we do not have position of external wealth, power, or social relationships, but because we have a basic disconnection of ourselves with the reality that is outside. We are fundamentally outside the realm of reality. We live in a world of appearances, and whatever wealth we accumulate is nothing but a group of appearances. Many follies put together do not make one wisdom. And so, whatever be the accumulation of material values in life, that cannot be equal to even a jot of reality in life. We can have plenty of things, and yet they can be tinsels and worthless things. This is exactly what we are having in life. It is, therefore, important to remember that social values and material ways of calculating, etc., should not be introduced into the religious atmosphere. You are not a big person in religious atmosphere; there is no such thing as bigness in religion. And no social importance can be attached, so that when you go to a church, you don’t go like an emperor. You are a different symbol altogether there, representing a non-social unit.
Essentially, a human being is an indivisible unit which has a non-social character; it cannot be associated with something else. It has a uniqueness of its own, a status of its own, and that is why you assert yourself in many ways in life. Self-assertion is an indication that you have a status of your own, which cannot be made good, or complimented, by anything that is outside you. Whatever be the external association, whatever be the magnitude of this association externally, this uniqueness persists. That uniqueness is the indivisibility of your being. There is something peculiar in you which you yourself cannot understand, and it is this peculiarity that asks for satisfaction in religion. It cannot be satisfied by wealth or any other thing that is available in the world. It can be satisfied only by the uniqueness of what it asks for. It is a wonder, indeed – what we really are essentially is a wonder, a miracle, a marvel.
We live a kind of life internally which is quite different from the life we live outwardly, as we all know very well. This internal life is more important to us than the external one, and the internal one sometimes comes in conflict with the external atmosphere due to uniqueness, as I mentioned. And, the conflict arises on account of the inability on our part to fulfil the needs of this uniqueness in us and paying too much attention to the external relationships – which we mistake for realities in life – as the aims of existence itself. There is a correlative, or a counterpart, to every state of mind, which is the fulfilment of the mind. This alone can complement the mind and supplement the mind’s needs, and to discover that a particular counterpart of our need is the secret of life, or the secret of life’s success. We experiment in different things – whether this is our objective or that is our objective – so we go to different things, different persons and different walks of life to find out if that is the thing that will satisfy us. Nothing satisfies, because what the mind needs is not an external correlate but an inward correlate akin to its own make-up and character, which is essentially indivisible, unique and fundamental in its nature.
There is, at the bottom of things, a fundamentality akin to that which is in own nature, and this uniqueness can be seen in everyone and everything – even in an atom. There is some peculiar differentia that can be discovered even in the minutest of things in the world, which cannot be defined by relationship with others. It defies all kind of definition. With that it is that we wish to come in contact. That uniqueness is sometimes called the Selfhood of things – the atmatva, in Sanskrit literature particularly. You must have heard the word atman or Self, etc. These terms designate a particular uniqueness of indivisibility of being in everyone and everything which seeks for fulfilment in a committee of harmony. That is the inward secret of religious aspiration: a self asking for a Self, the jivatman asking for the paramatman – we may like to put it in that manner – and not a Mr. So-and-so or Mrs. So-and-so asking for something in the world. That is not religion.
Again, it is essential to remember that we come to brass tacks and take this question very seriously if our life is to be taken seriously at all. We are not merely to trifle with our life, because what we call life, as it is visible to our eyes, is a phantom – it passes quickly. We are unnecessarily clinging to a form of existence which we call life; a physical existence, a bodily life or a social life, etc. which is here today, and tomorrow is not. It is a thing which we know very well, and yet we cannot appreciate the significance of this occurrence in life. We cling to the forms in spite of the observation that forms do not persist. They always pass away, and can pass away at any moment; this includes our own bodily form. Yet, we seem to be interested only in pampering the needs of the physical form and physical relationships of life, which is a muddle in our social and mental life.
This is to be rectified by a proper resort to what we may call true religion, which is the contemplation of the values which are meaningful to what we are basically, essentially and privately. For instance, when you are thrown into the wilderness with nobody around you, no friends to look at your face, you are cast into the winds – just imagine for a moment that you have nothing with you, not even a rag of cloth on your body, which a situation in which anyone can find oneself any day – when you have nothing around you, not one human being around you, when everything is gone and you are disposed of all things, what would be your need at that time? Your learning is not going to come help you because it is nothing; your degrees of university will mean nothing at that time. A gross question can be posed: suppose you are faced by a lion or a tiger in a jungle – you are alone in the thick of a jungle in the night and a hoard of lions attacks you from all sides – what is it that can protect you? Your learning? Your education? Your degrees? Your money? Nothing! You are helpless to the core. So there can be things in life which can put you out of gear at once, in spite of the position of all things that you usually think as very valuable. I am only giving a very extreme example of lions attacking you, but there can be people attacking people. And, you should not be under the misconception that people are all friends in the world. It is not true. The people in society are not friends. They are friends only conditionally. Every relationship, every friendship, is conditional. That is, it exists as long as certain conditions are fulfilled. You know very well what I mean. Every relationship of ‘A’ with ‘B’, ‘B’ with ‘C’, etc. – what you may call social relationship – even the dearest and the nearest and the strongest relationship is conditional. If certain conditions necessary for the maintenance of this relationship are not fulfilled, the relationship will break at one stroke and what you call relationship will not be there. You will stand alone as you were born from the mother’s womb.
We are not to invite such situations by being too foolish in our attitudes to things. We must be on guard at all times and be conscious of the ultimate aim of our life, which is something which escapes our notice every day but yet beckons us secretly, on account of which we are restless at all times and yet hopeful at every moment. Restlessness and hope for the future are two characters of a peculiarity in human nature. Nothing can satisfy us; we are always restless. That is one fact of life. But, we always hope for a better thing tomorrow. This is another peculiarity in us. “It will not be so bad tomorrow as it is today – tomorrow will be better, things will be better.” Who told you that things will be better tomorrow? There is something in you which says that, after all, the end of things cannot be chaos; there should be perfection. That perfection within you is the element that seeks religious achievement and religious attainment. That is the symbol from which you can reach out to the ‘God of religion’ who is, as I mentioned to you, the counterpart of what you lack in your fundamental nature. The counterpart of what you lack does not mean the wealth of the world, or the social relationship of the world, but what you are essentially. The spiritual unit that you are seeks for a perfection and fulfillment which can be effected only by that which is akin in its nature to itself in the outer world.
Thus in religion the spirit within summons the spirit without, and it becomes an endevour which is wholly spiritual. We can’t ultimately distinguish between religion and spirituality. Spirituality is the basic character and religion is the outward mode of it, the form which it takes. A non-temporal asking by the spirit of man is the religious aspiration of man. It is not an asking for anything that is temporal. Thus it requires self-control, self-restraint, control of the senses and the mind, which are all clamorous about fulfillment of things, fulfillment of desires with respect of their own objects outside. The clamour of the senses of the mind has to be subdued so that the voice of the spirit can be heard from within. As it has sometimes been said, religion is what you do when you are absolutely alone – that is your religion. Religion is not what you do in the presence of other people. What you do when you are absolutely alone – that is your religion. Also it is said that religion is the adoption of an aloneness in one’s life, a recognition that you are absolutely alone here, without any kind of external relationship – a fact which will be known when things reveal their true natures. You are even now alone. You have no relationships. But that there is an external relationship pampering you is a misconception in the mind. They can open up their true, real nature at any time, and you will stand alone once again, in the wilderness of things.
So the aloneness of the spirit asks for the aloneness of perfection – ‘the flight of the alone to the alone’, as philosophers will tell you. Alone you stand in this world! Namutra hi sahayartham pita mata ca tisthatah. Na putradarah na jnatih dharmas tisthati kevalah (Manu Smriti 4.238), the great codifier of law, Manu, tells us in his smriti. Namutra hi sahayartham pita mata ca tisthatah: Your mother and father will not come to help you in the other world. Na putradarah: Your children, your family – they are not going to help you when the hour for departing comes. What comes with you? You will go in the same way as you came to this world. You did not bring even a piece of cloth when you came, you did not bring a broken needle when you came, and when you go you will not take anything – so how is it that you have accumulated so much in the middle? The property does not belong to you. Dharmas tisthati kevalah: Dharma will come with you. What you have thought, what you have felt, what you have done – the impact of that will come with you, not anything else.
It is this awakening that is necessary before we adopt a truly religious life and become God-conscious. A psychological cleansing of the cobwebs of life is necessary before we begin to become really spiritual in our life. Spirituality is a very advanced state of affairs, and before that attainment is aspired for, it is necessary that we should prepare ourselves for this attainment – that is, the purification of the personality by freedom from desires that are temporal, transient, binding, and not helpful in the life to come. The life to come is not that which will come after fifty years or hundred years; it is a thing that can come after one minute, or even few minutes.
Therefore, an eternal vigilance on the part of the human being is called for so that we are perpetually religious. This mood of watchfulness, inwardly in the spirit, divesting ourselves of all physical associations, bodily attachments and psychological pride – freeing ourselves from all these accretions that have grown upon our true nature – we stand independent and resplendent in our own spiritual character and endeavour to commune this true spark of spirit that we are with the conflagration of spirit that is in the cosmos, which is the Supreme Being, the God of the universe. That is the aim of religion ultimate.
As Swami Shankaranandaji Maharaj mentioned just now towards the conclusion of his speech, Lord Siva is, in the religion of the Hindus, represented as a great example of religious and spiritual perfection. Detachment and attainment are the two great characteristics represented in the emblem of Lord Siva. Total relinquishment of all transient values, which is the highest form of virakti or vairagya, and an attainment which is supreme – omniscience itself – is the possession of this Great Being who wants nothing and has everything. His personality is usually represented as clad in feeble raiment, not in gorgeous clothes, living in the icy peaks without any palatial abode, with no friends, with no relations, asking for nothing, wanting nothing, and having nothing to do with anyone. That sort of isolated existence, in the peak of the Himalayas, is coupled with that supreme attainment of samadhi in which He is supposed to be absorbed in at all times, eternally. You will find Lord Siva portrayed as absorbed in the Universal Being of Himself, with closed eyes and locked-up fingers, knees, etc., which represents the essence of religion. Tyaga, or renunciation of everything that is contrary to spiritual attainment, and a simultaneous effort to achieve the positive aspect of it, the positive side of it – namely, divinity and perfection – are the themes of the two great injunctions in the yoga sastra which are vairagya and abhyasa, renunciation and practice, the negative relinquishment of temporal values and the positive achievement of spiritual perfection by degrees. The rituals, the worships, the chantings, the recitations, the studies, and the austere observances such as fasting, vigil – all these are auxiliaries to the inducement of this consciousness in us.
To sum up, I may only say that this, in outline, is the psychology of religion and the meaning of the spiritual attitude in life.
God bless you all.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnananda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita
Sivaratri Message
Sivaratri Message by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Friday 16 August 2013 20:55
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[Swamiji Maharaj leads the audience in kirtan for the first three minutes.]
This is the eve of the holy celebration called Sivaratri, which is observed everywhere as a specially sanctified occasion for concentration and for japa sadhana, together with worship. The trinity of the Supreme Being is described as Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, and the great facet of Lord Siva in this trinity has a special function to perform.
The creative Brahma is assigned the work of producing newer and newer species of entities in the various categories of life that one can conceive of. Eighty-four lakhs of specialisations, known as yonis, are supposed to be the mould into which living beings are cast during this continuous process of what is known as creation.
There is also a necessity to see that what is created endures. Otherwise, it will be a lopsided manufacture of entities with no purpose whatsoever behind their coming into being. Birth is coming into being. The word ‘being’ implies endurance, but this endurance is of a very strange character. It is not a stable or a solid fixity of existence, as we may imagine what stability is, because this character of the endurance of created beings should cope with the simultaneous creation of beings. And, more than that, there is a necessity to see that nothing endures in a permanent manner. Brahma’s function is to create, to produce newer and newer types of living beings. A peculiar, unintelligible character of endurance that is granted to these created beings is associated with Vishnu—the stabilising force, the sattvika element among the trinity, which balances the two other sides of existence, which are creativity and transformation. Rudra, or Siva, is the transforming power in this created world.
The simultaneity that is involved in creativity, endurance and transformation gives the entire picture a strange tinge of endurance in the form of a continuity of process. There is no true endurance of anything in this world. The fixity of a moving body is perhaps a good example of the way in which anything and everything in the world survives. Survival is only in terms of a particular pattern introduced into a limited area of the process of transformation. It is not that this process of endurance, which is at the same time a movement, can be made an object of one’s consciousness right from the beginning till the end. Just as we can see the Ganga flowing here in front of the Ashram—it appears to start near Lakshmanjhula or so, and ends somewhere further on, near Purana Jhari, and we cannot see the prior or the posterior sides of the river’s movement on account of the limitation of the Life in this world is a small segment of the longer process of life in the universe, which is endless and beginningless, as it were. The endlessness and beginninglessness of the three processes of creation, preservation and destruction suggest the cyclic character of all things in space and in time. Only a The three divinities—Brahma, Vishnu and Siva—are actually not three different divinities. A single intention of the Universal Being is made to manifest in a threefold manner. As we see in our own bodily individuality, for instance, the three processes are seen to be going on every day. The constituents of our body are not eternally alive. They are destroyed in the process of the body’s growth. They are also renewed, and this renewal of a new life in this organism of the body calls for a transformation of the preceding conditions, which is practically the death of the preceding conditions. But the connection of the element of Vishnu between the creative and the transforming forces prevents our consciousness from being aware that there are three such activities going on in the body. We do not know what is happening at all. As if nothing is happening in the body, we feel very secure. There is a continuous upsurge of the movement of the cells of the body in all its organic parts for the purpose of creating and recreating themselves, in which process they also destroy themselves. There is, therefore, a transcendent element present in this transforming process, or what we call the dying process of one condition for the sake of giving birth to another condition.
When religions become too socially bound, ritual bound, tradition bound, they begin to focus on the supreme object of religion. The basic features of human thinking make us perceive our gods mostly as cosmically picturised counterparts of the inner psychological processes. We are unable to imagine that one single entity can behave as a threefold performer of action as creator, as redeemer, and as transformer.
Namo visvarije purvam visvam tadanubibhrate, atha vishvasya samhartre tubhyam tredhasthitatmane (Raghuvamsa X.16) is the famous prayer which the gods offered to the Supreme Being in the Ksheera Sagara, as recorded in the Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa: “Prostration to the Creator, and prostration to Him who sustains after having created beings; prostration to Him who withdraws everything into Himself after having created and sustained them, and prostration to That which appears in these three forms of creation, preservation and transformation.”
But the mind of the human being is a composite structure. It is constituted of tiny ingredients of function and, therefore, it cannot easily visualise the indivisibility that is behind the threefold functions of creation, preservation and destruction. We see as many gods as there are inner constituents in the mind; and as many are our needs, so also are the number of gods. The religions of the world are, therefore, a social and theological reaction set up in the outer world, or in the cosmos, in response to the needs felt by the inner constituents of the mind. Our mind is not an indivisible solidity. Therefore, indivisibility cannot be thought by the mind. Even if we stretch our imagination and begin to concentrate on an indivisible total, we will find that we create a distinction of some sort or the other—a distinction between that which is thought and the thinking process on the one hand, and it being very, very necessary to picture the god, even the highest god, as being spatially and temporally located.
From this point of view of the psychological background of the religious requirements of man, the concept of the trinity has been highlighted in our religion as an object of worship. When we are able to visualise these divinities as three phases of a single entity, the gods of religion become one God. But if we see something taking place as birth and coming into existence, surviving for a time, and then dying some time afterwards—if these three are visualised by us as three different occurrences, and not actually three streams of a single undercurrent of performance—then we have three gods: Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, and we attribute to these gods those characters which are associated with their functions.
In religion, Lord Siva is pictured in manifold ways. On the one hand, Lord Siva is adored as a most easily accessible god—one who is immediately pleased—on account of which, Lord Siva is called Ashutosh. The goodness of Lord Siva and the quickness of his benedictions oftentimes make religious propounders imagine that he grants things without thought, and so he is also called Bhole Baba—one who can be easily duped by devotees. But, Lord Siva is not so easily duped. The Bhole Baba attribute should not be taken as being childish in behaviour or ignorant of the pros and cons of action, as that is not the meaning of Bhole Baba. It means utter simplicity. Utter goodness goes with utter simplicity.
Stories in the Puranas that bring forward into highlight this particular character of Lord Siva as goodness, simplicity, and being quickly pleased are abundant. Most of these stories are in the Siva Purana, and some of them seem very humorous and make us laugh. But, at whom are we laughing? Are we laughing at Lord Siva himself? It looks that way. When certain behaviours which are incongruous in the ordinary sense are attributed to Lord Siva, we smile and laugh in a gentlemanly manner, imagining thereby that we would not behave in that way. We attribute a sense of wisdom to our own selves which cannot be granted to Lord Siva. These stories are analogies, and analogies and examples should not be stretched to the breaking point. Every example has a specific limitation, and should be taken as valid within that limitation only.
For instance, in Vedanta terminology this world is compared to a snake appearing in the rope which is Brahman. This is an analogy; it has a limited scope, and it should not be stretched beyond that limited scope of meaning. The idea is that as in twilight the illusion of a snake-like feature can be seen while it is actually a rope, this world looks like a diversified multifarious reservoir of objects of sense while it is actually eternal Consciousness scintillating in the form of these so-called objects. It does not mean that Brahman is long like a rope or has a tail like a snake. That is not a permissible way of using the analogy.
Immensely good is God. Sometimes this immense goodness of God may look like breaking the law that He Himself has created. Many times it is said that God made the law, and He cannot break the law which He Himself has made. Karma binds, and so on and so forth, is told to us. But there is some super-departmental executive power which God has that cannot be bound by departmental laws, which of course are created by His own sanction—under His signature, perhaps. Under special conditions, He can suddenly set at naught everything. Normally He does not interfere in things, and the law of the universe works. Karma operates as it ought to operate. But it does not operate in the case of certain specific aspirations emanating from exceptionally great devotees whose hearts have been united in such intimacy with God’s existence that the intimacy breaks the distinction between the devotee and the Supreme Being. When this distinction is no more to be seen, all legal enactments cease to operate. When intense love pours itself forth, legal mandates cease to operate. But, intense love is not seen in this world. Therefore, laws very strictly bind us.
Intense love is a love that seeks nothing in return for the expression of that love. A give-and-take policy in love—if you do this, I do this; if you do not do this, I do not do this—is called Gauna Bhakti, the secondary devotion that ritualistic devotees entertain in their hearts, and the long train of law operates in their case. But unconditional affection— which is not seen and cannot be seen in this world because of the very nature of the world, and therefore transcends the world in many ways—makes God run to the devotee without sending any attendants, messengers, clerks, etc., to ask what the devotee wants.
Narayana Himself ran without even taking weapons in his hand when Gajendra cried, “Narayana, akhila guro bhagavan namaste!” It appears that when Birbal told this story to Akbar, Akbar ridiculed this god who himself runs for the sake of saving a devotee when he has immense powers in the form of angels and lesser gods. He has an army of divine forces; one of them could have gone and taken care of this tragedy of Gajendra. Why should he himself run—that also, without weapon in hand? Narayana forgot to take even the Sudarshana Chakra; it had to follow him because it knew that he had forgotten to take it. When Akbar made this sarcastic remark, Birbal said, “No! It is not like that. God himself will run. I shall show you how it is possible, and how it is not otherwise.”
It appears that Akbar’s small child was under Birbal’s care and protection, and he would take the child for a walk on the lawns. One day Birbal connived with some friends to prepare an exact image of this child, and had it placed on the precipice of a deep well which was just near the lawn where they would walk and where Akbar also reclined in the evenings. It was twilight, and things could not be seen properly. That small image looked like Akbar’s child.
“Oh, my child is there!” cried Akbar.
“Yes, Your Highness. Your child is there,” replied Birbal
Birbal had also arranged for someone to suddenly push that image into the well; and it was done. The image of Akbar’s child was pushed into the well.
“Oh, my child is in the well!” cried Akbar, and he immediately ran towards it.
“No, Your Highness. You have attendants; you have police; you have an army; you have secretaries. Why are you running?” asked Birbal.
“Eh, fool! Don’t talk. It is my child,” said Akbar.
Then Birbal said, “Your child is very safe. I have only answered your interesting query that God need not Himself run when He has attendants. Now, why did you run for the sake of a small child when you have attendants? You could have told your assistant or the marshal near you to go instead. But the love that you have for your child is such that no attendant will do. Can you jump into the well, Your Highness? You know you cannot, but even then you ran as if you would jump into the well!”
That is the power of unconditioned love. It cannot be seen in this world because everything is conditioned by everything else. If there is something called ‘A’, it is there because there is another thing called ‘B’. If ‘B’ is not there, we cannot see a thing called ‘A’. And ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’—there are millions of things. Our consciousness is involved in all these ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’; and even if it appears that we are immensely fond of one particular ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’, it is false, because as long as ‘X’, ‘Y’ or ‘Z’ exist, they will condition the affection which the mind appears to pour forth on certain things—even if it appears that the affection is almost one hundred percent. There is no such thing as one-hundred-percent concentration or affection on anything in this world. We can only have this kind of affection in a total existence outside of which there is no ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘X’, ‘Y’.
This also explains why it is difficult to concentrate the mind on an Ishta Devata. The Ishta Devata is a beloved object of concentration to which we have resorted. But it is an Ishta only conditionally; it is not really an Ishta. The dear object of meditation which we have chosen under the instruction of a Guru is only tentatively so, because there are other things in the world which are certainly equally Ishta, or desirable, and the mind knows that. Sometimes these objects are perhaps more desirable than the spirit.
Solid, concrete objects are more attractive than abstract imaginations. To the beginner in meditation, the object of meditation appears like an abstraction. The mind knows that it is a thought and that God Himself is not physically or concretely contacted. When God’s thought actually solidifies itself into a concrete existence, the world will appear like a chimera—just the opposite of what happens in ordinary circumstances. The world is a very solid object. We can hit our head against the wall as it is so hard and solid, but this God whom we are contemplating is not so solid. It is a vision that is projected by the mind. This peculiarity of it not being possible for the mind to accept the concrete reality of the object of meditation, and a simultaneously acquiescing in the reality of the world outside as a solid object, prevents any successful meditation and drawing in the grace of God.
Thus, Lord Siva is Bhole Baba, Ashutosh, immediately granting boons, but only to those whose love is not hypocritical, whose love is not double-dealing, whose love is not make-believe, whose love is not to get something ulterior, because God is not an ulterior object or an ulterior motive. The simplicity of God is due to the immensity of God’s existence and the nearness of this immensity to the soul of the devotee. That is why it looks so simple. Otherwise, it is not so simple. No one can be as hard as God, if even a little distance is created between the lover and the beloved.
God is the beloved. In this world, the lover and the beloved are not identical things. They are two, and therefore they shall ever remain two, and remain subject to bereavement and destruction. The lover cannot merge into the beloved, and vice versa. And, until this is done, love is not complete; until this is done, devotion is not complete. It is when the devotion is really complete that the great Lord manifests himself as the child who can sweep our floor, bring the meal that we require, wash our clothes. We hear instances of this kind in the lives of saints of Maharashtra such as Eknath, Namdev, etc. Lord Sri Krishna came as a little boy called Kandiya Krishna; he washed their clothes, swept their floor, and did other menial work for Eknath and Namdev. When it was discovered that he had come in this form, he vanished.
Our hearts are hard like granite. Whatever be the religiosity and the traditional aspiration for religious life that many manifest, it is actually a dying to live for the sake of God. The destruction that is associated with Lord Siva—he is called the Lord of Death as he destroys everything, swallows everything in the end of time—is actually the destruction of that element in every one of us, whose presence prevents him from coming near us. What that element is, each one of us has to ransack within one’s own heart and see that it is taken out so that the flood from outside unites itself with the flood that is arising from inside. This is God-union.
Sivaratri Vrata is a disciplinary occasion that is instituted in religion for the purpose of an occasional gathering of our spirits for the sake of that which is great and glorious, and the ideal of our lives.
Om purnam adah, purnam idam, purnat purnam udacyate;
purnasya purnam adaya puram evavasisyate.
Om shantih shantih shantih.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnananda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita
Sivaratri – The Mystic Night
Sivaratri – The Mystic Night by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Saturday 10 August 2013 00:47
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We conceive God as glory, as creativity and as austerity. Vishnu is glory and magnificence, Brahma is creativity force, and Siva is austerity and renunciation. You might have heard it said that God is the embodiment of six attributes of which renunciation is one. You will be wondering how God can renounce things. He is not a Sannyasin. He is not an ascetic like a Vairagin or a Sadhu. What is He going to renounce? How do you conceive Siva as an austere Yogin or a renunciate? What does He renounce? The all-pervading Almighty, what has He to give or abandon? Here is the secret of what renunciation is! It is not renunciation of anything, because there is nothing outside Him; renunciation does not mean God does not renounce anything. Then, in that case what is renunciation in this context? It is the freedom from the In our religious tradition, Lord Siva is represented as an aspect of God, the Almighty. He presents before us the ideal of supreme renunciation born of Divine Realisation – not born of frustration, not born of an escapist attitude, not born of defeatism, but born of an insight into the nature of things, a clear understanding of the nature of life and the wisdom of existence in its completeness. This is the source of Vairagya, or renunciation. You do not want anything, not because you cannot get things, but because you have realised the interconnectedness of things and the unity of all purpose in consciousness. All desires get hushed, sublimated and boiled down to the divine Being only when this realisation comes. God does not possess things. Possession is a relationship of one thing with another thing. But, God is super-relative. That is why we call Him the Absolute – He is not relative. Anything that is related to something else comes under the category of relative. God is not related to anything else, because He is All-comprehensive. And, thus, in His all-comprehensive Absoluteness, which is height of wisdom conceivable, there is also the concomitant character of freedom from the consciousness of externality, and therefore, as a corollary, freedom from attachment to anything. Thus Lord Siva is the height of austerity, Master Yogin, portrayed as seated in a lotus pose, as the king of all ascetics; not that He has the desire for self-control, but He is what self-control is itself. He does not practise self-control. Self-control itself is symbolised in the personality of Lord Siva. Such a wondrous concept of a glorious majestic picture of the Almighty, as Lord Siva, is before us for adoration during Mahasivaratri.
We observe fast during the day and vigil during the night. The idea is that we control the senses, which represent the outgoing tendency of our mind, symbolised in fasting, and we also control the Tamasic inert condition of sleep to which we are subject every day. When these two tendencies in us are overcome, we transcend the conscious and the unconscious levels of our personality and reach the superconscious level. While the waking condition is the conscious level, sleep is the unconscious level. Both are obstacles to God-realisation. We are shifted from one condition to another. We are shunted, as it were, from waking to sleep and from sleep to waking, every day. But the super-conscious is not known to us. The symbology of fast and vigil on Sivaratri is significant of self-control; Rajas and Tamas are subdued, and God is glorified. The glorification of God and the control of the senses mean one and the same thing, because it is only in God-consciousness that all senses can be controlled. When you see God, the senses melt like butter melting before fire. They cannot exist any more. All the ornaments become the solid mass of gold when they are heated to the boiling point. Likewise, in the furnace of God-consciousness, the sense-energies melt into a continuum of universality.
In the famous Rudra-Adhyaya or the Satarudriya of the Yajur Veda, we have a majestic, universalised description of Lord Siva, a chant which we are accustomed to every day in the temple. Only those who know what Sanskrit is, what the Vedas are and what worship is, can appreciate what this Satarudriya chant also is. It is one of the most powerful prayers ever conceived by the human mind. It is filled with a threefold meaning. According to the culture of this country, everything is threefold – objective, subjective and universal. Everything in the world, from the smallest to the biggest, has an objective character, a subjective character and an universal character. Obj ectively you are something, subj ectively you are another thing and universally you are a third thing. It all depends upon the point of view from which you interpret a particular thing, person or obj ect. When you obj ectively interpret a thing, it looks like one thing; when you subjectively analyse it, it is another thing; and from the universal point of view, it is a third something altogether.
Likewise, this Mantra, the Satarudriya of the Yajurveda, a hymn to Lord Siva, has an objective meaning, a subjective meaning and a divine, supreme, supra-mental, universal meaning. Objectively, it is a prayer for the control of the forces of nature. Subjectively, it is a prayer for self-control and the rousing of the spiritual consciousness. Universally, it is a surge of the soul towards Godrealisation. It has an Adhiyajnika, Adhibhautika, Adhidaivika and Adhyatmika meaning, as we usually put it. It has a tremendous meaning. The Vedas, the Mantras of the Vedas, are filled with such threefold or fourfold meaning. Hence it is difficult to understand the full meaning of any Mantra of the Veda. “Ananta vai vedah”: Infinite is the meaning of the Vedas. The meaning of the Vedas is infinite. It has no end at all. It is mathematics; it is chemistry; it is physics; it is Ayurveda; it is psychology; it is metaphysics; it is philosophy; it is spirituality; it is meditation; it is love; it is ecstasy. You will find everything in every Mantra of the Veda. All depends upon how you look upon it, how you feel it. A person may be a father, he may be a brother, he may be a son, he may be a friend, but all the while he is one and the same person. Attitudes are different on account of the various relationships. So the Rudra Adhyaya before us is a majestic prayer for world peace, international peace, subjective peace, universal peace and God-consciousness.
It is difficult to chant this Veda Mantra called the Satarudriya, because it requires a training – as in music, for example. Everybody cannot sing. It requires tremendous training for years together. Likewise, the chanting of the Mantras of the Veda requires training for years together, and not for a few days only. Just as one who does not know how to sing will make a jarring noise and you will like to get up and go away rather than listen to it, so also when you chant the Mantra wrongly, the gods will get up and go away. They will not bear it any more. Hence, it requires training. But once it is properly learnt, it becomes a protection for you from catastrophes of every kind – physical, psychological and what not. So, those who know may chant it, recite it and take part in the recitation of it every day in the temple, at least during the worship on Mahasivaratri.
Those who cannot do this because it is difficult, can chant the Mantra ‘Om Namah Sivaya’, the Panchakshara Mantra of Lord Siva with Om preceding it. It is a Kavacha, a kind of armour that you put on. This armour will protect you from danger of every kind. It will protect you and also all those whom you want to be protected. It will protect your family; it will protect your country; it will protect the whole world. It can cease wars and tensions of every kind, provided you offer the prayers wholeheartedly from the bottom of your heart. Collective prayer is very effective. If a hundred persons join together and pray, it will have a greater effect than one person praying. Of course, if that single person is very powerful, even one person’s prayer is all right. But where personalities have their own weaknesses and foibles, it is better that people have congregational prayer. When all the minds are put together they form a great energy. It surges forth into God.
So, during this period preceding Sivaratri, prayer is to be offered to Lord Siva as the Master of Yogin, as the incarnation of all virtues and powers, as a facet of the Almighty Lord. The glory of Lord Siva is sung in the Siva Purana, in the Yajur Veda Rudra Adhyaya, as I mentioned, and in the Mahabharata. You will be wonderstruck at the force with which Vyasa and other sages sing the glories of God – of Vishnu, of Narayana, of Siva, of Devi in the various Puranas and epics – because these masterpieces have been written by those who had the vision of God. Only one who has the vision of God can express with a soulful force. Otherwise, it will be an empty sound without much significance and thought. So, chant the Mantra ‘Om Namah Sivaya’ as many times as possible every day, mentally or even verbally as is convenient, with selfcontrol – which means to say, without any thought of sense-object. If you chant the Mantra together with the thought of sense-objects, then there is divided devotion. It is like dividing the course of a river in two different directions so that the force of the waters gets lessened. Suppose you have five sense-objects, and towards all of them your senses are running, and you are thinking of God also at the same time – then energy is divided, concentration becomes weak and meditation is not successful. No meditation will become successful if the senses are active, because the senses oppose the effort at meditation. While meditation is the collective force of the mind concentrating itself on God-consciousness, the senses, when they are active, do the opposite of meditation and you become a tremendous extrovert. You are connected to the objects of sense rather than the universal concept which is God. God is unity, whereas sense objects are multiplicity. They are the opposite of what you are aiming at in your spiritual life.
With moderate behaviour in every manner in your spiritual life, you will attain success. As the Bhagavadgita beautifully puts it, “Moderate in your eating, moderate in your activity, moderate in your speech, moderate in your sleep” – form the golden mean, the via-media, the golden path. God is the harmony of all powers in the universe. Harmony means the middle course – neither this extreme nor that extreme. You cannot say whether it is or it is not. We do not know what it is. As Buddha said, “‘Nothing is’, is one extreme; ‘everything is’, is another extreme. God is in the middle. Truth is in the middle.” So, the middle path is the best path, which is the path of austerity with understanding. This is the characteristic of the middle path. When there is understanding without austerity, it is useless. When there is austerity without understanding, that is also useless. There must be austerity with understanding and understanding with austerity, knowledge with self-control and self-control with knowledge; that is wisdom. Knowledge with self-control is called wisdom, whereas knowledge without self-control is mere dry intellectuality. That is of no use. And austerity without understanding is a kind of foolishness. It will have no proper result.
Lord Siva is not merely an austere Being but also a repository of Knowledge. All worshippers of knowledge also worship Lord Siva, as He is the God of all students, scholars and seekers of wisdom and knowledge. Thus, Mahasivaratri is a very blessed God-sent opportunity for us. So on this day, pray to Lord Siva with all your heart, with all your soul, fully trusting on the might of God, wanting nothing from the objects of sense, and delighted within that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. God is bound to come. The powers of the cosmos are everywhere and they can be invoked at any time by us, provided we are strong enough in our will and in the method of invocation. We are blessed because we live in the Kingdom of God. We are blessed because we are seekers of Truth. We are blessed because we are disciples of a great Master. We are blessed, thrice blessed, four-times, five-times blessed because we are seeking God who also seeks everything in this creation. God seeks the world and the world seeks God. This is the mystery of creation, the subtlety of the spiritual path and the glory of the meditative life. Jnana and Vairagya combined is Lord Siva, who is worshipped on Mahasivaratri day.
Lord Siva is easily pleased. He is called Asutosh. Asutosh means ‘easily pleased’. He is not a difficult Person. You can quickly please Lord Siva. If you call Him, He will come. Sometimes He is also called ‘Bhole Baba’ – a very simple, not complicated Person. He comes to help you, even unasked. He helped the Pandavas. The Pandava brothers were in war with the Kauravas in the Mahabharata battle, and Lord Siva helped them without their knowing that the help was being offered. Lord Siva helped the Pandavas invisibly – and why would He not help us? He helps all those who tread the righteous path. So let us tread the path of righteousness and be recipients of Divine Grace.
We may look at the whole thing from another angle of vision. The Sanskrit word ‘Sivaratri’ means ‘the night of Siva’. On this holy day we are to fast during the day and keep vigil during the night. You may be wondering why Siva is connected with the night and not with the day – otherwise we could observe vigil during daytime and fast during the night. Instead of that, why has the whole thing been put topsy-turvy? Siva being connected with night has a highly spiritual and mystical connotation. It is not that divinity as manifest in the form of Lord Siva has any special connection with the period we call night. If you study deeply the Upanishads and such mystical texts of high spiritual significance, you will realise that the Supreme Being, the Absolute, is designated in its primordial condition as a Supreme Darkness due to excess of light. This adjective or qualification ‘due to excess of light’ must be added. It is darkness because of the excess of light. When you look at the sun directly for a few minutes and then look elsewhere, you will see only darkness. The sun has dazzled you to such an extent that all else appears as darkness. It is said in the Mahabharata that when Lord Sri Krishna showed the Cosmic Form in the court of the Kauravas, everything was dark, as it were. The intensity of the light was such that it looked like darkness to the eyes of man. In one of the famous creation-hymns of the Rigveda we have a similar reference made to the original condition of creation. There is the hymn of the Veda called the Nasadiya Sukta, wherein it is said, “Tama asit tamasa gudhamagre”:Darkness there was; at first concealed in darkness. According to us, light is perception of objects, and therefore non-perception of objects is regarded by us as night, because knowledge or consciousness unrelated to the perceptual process is unknown to the human mind.
Generally, to know is to know an object; and if it is not to know an object, it is not to know anything at all. For example, take the state of deep sleep. Why do we fall asleep? Do you know the reason? What is the cause for our going to sleep every night? Where is the necessity? The necessity is psychological and, to some extent, highly metaphysical. The senses cannot always continue perceiving objects, because perception is a fatiguing process. The whole body, the whole nervous system, the entire psychological apparatus becomes active in the process of the perception of objects. And without our knowing what is happening, the senses get tired. They cannot go on contemplating things all twenty-four hours of the day. Why should they not be contemplating objects of sense throughout the day, all twenty-four hours of the day? The reason is that perception is an unnatural process from the point of view of consciousness as such. Perception of an object is the alienation of an aspect of our personality through the avenue of a particular sense in respect of its object. All this is difficult for many to grasp. This is a highly psychological secret. Consciousness is indivisible. This is a simple fact. Many of you would have heard about it. Consciousness is undivided; it is incapable of division into parts. So it cannot be cut into two sections – subject and object. On the basis of this fact there cannot be a division between the seer and the seen in the process of perception. To make this clear, let us see what happens in dream.
In dream we see objects like mountains, rivers, persons, etc. But they are not there. Things which are not there become visible in dream. Now, did the mountain you saw in dream exist? It did not. But did you see it? Yes, you saw it. How did you see, when it was not there? Is it possible to see a non-existent object? How can non-existent things be seen? It is contradictory statement to say that non-existent things can be seen. What do you see when things are not there? You will be wonderstruck! What happens in dream is that there is an alienation of the mind into the objects of perception; and the mind itself becomes the mountain there. There is tension created due to the separation of a part of the mind into the object and a part of it existing as the perceiving subject. That is why we are restless in dream. We cannot be happy. It is neither waking nor it is sleep. It is very difficult to be happy in this condition because a tense situation of consciousness is created. What happened in dream, the same happens to us in the waking condition also. Just as the mind in dream divided itself into two sections – the perceiving subject and the object that was seen – in the waking state also, it divides itself into the subject and object. It is like a divided personality. It is as if your own personality has been cut into two halves, of which one half is the ‘seer’ and the other half is the ‘seen’. It is as if one part of your personality gazes at another part of your own personality. You are looking at your own self as if you are a different person. You are objectifying yourself; you alienate yourself. What can be more false and undesirable than this situation? It is a mental sickness.
Now you are able to understand this situation in dream on account of the comparison that you make between waking and dream. When you wake up, you do not see the dream objects, and then you begin to analyse the condition in which you were when you were dreaming. You say, when you are awake, that you are in a world of reality, whereas in dream you were in a world of unreality. How do you know that the world of dream was a world of unreality? It is merely because you compare it with the waking condition which you consider as real. How do you know that the world of waking is real? You cannot say anything about this, because there is nothing with which you can compare it, as you did in the case of the dream. If you can know another standard of reference, higher than the waking condition, you would have been able to make a judgement of it – whether the waking condition is real or unreal, good or bad and so on. When you are dreaming, you do not know that the objects are unreal. You consider them as real and you take it for granted. The comparison between the dream and the waking world is responsible for our judgement of the unreality of the dream world. But with what will you compare the waking world? There is at present nothing to compare it with, and therefore you are in a condition which is self-sufficient, self-complacent and incapable of rectification.
When you feel that you are perfectly right, nobody can teach you. Nobody can set you right, because you think that you are right. The question of teaching arises only when you feel that you are ignorant and you need teaching. The waking world is only an indication as to what could be happening or what is perhaps happening. You cannot know what is happening actually, unless you transcend this condition, which you have not done yet. But, by the conclusion that you can draw from an analysis of the dream condition, you can conclude to some extent that in the waking state also you are in a fool’s paradise. What is the guarantee that you will not wake up again from this waking world, into something else? Just as in dream you did not know that you were dreaming, in this waking also you do not know that you are in a state similar to dream. You think that this world in waking is a hard fact and a solid reality, just as you believed the world of dream also to be real. To the senses an absence of perception is equal to darkness – the darkness that we experience in deep sleep.
Let us come back to the subject of Sivaratri, the night of Siva. When you perceive an object, you call it waking. When you do not perceive it, it is darkness. Now in the waking condition – the so-called waking world – you see present before you a world of objects, as you are intelligent. In dream also there is a sort of intelligence. But in deep sleep there is no intelligence. What happens? The senses and the intellect withdraw themselves into their source. There is no perceptional activity, and so the absence of perception is equated to the presence of darkness. The cosmic Primeval condition of the creative will of God, before creation – a state appearing like darkness, or night – is what we call the condition of Siva. It is very important to remember that the state of Siva is the primordial condition of the creative will of God, where there is no externality of perception, there being nothing outside God; and so, for us, it is like darkness or night. It is Siva’s night – Sivaratri. For Him it is not night. It is all Light. Siva is not sitting in darkness. The Creative Will of God is Omniscience, Omnipotence, Omnipresence – all combined. Sometimes we designate this condition as Isvara.
The Supreme Absolute, which is indeterminable, when it is associated with the Creative Will with a tendency to create the Cosmos, is Isvara in Vedantic parlance, and Siva in Puranic terminology. This is the very precise condition described in the Nasadiya Sukta of the Veda as Tamas or darkness. This is, to repeat again, darkness due to the excess of the Light of the divine Absolute. If you look at God, what will you see? You will see nothing. The eyes cannot see Him because He is such dazzling light. When the frequency of light gets intensified to a very high level, light will not be seen by the eyes. When the frequency is lowered and comes down to the level of the structure of the retina of the eye, only then you can see light. There are various kinds of lights, various intensities or frequencies, and the higher frequencies are incapable of cognisance by the senses on account of their structural deformity. So if you see God, you will see nothing.
As a matter of fact, we are seeing God even now. But we are not able to recognise Him. The world that we see before us is God Himself. There is no such thing as the world. The world does not exist. It is only a name that we have given to the Supreme Being. Call the dog a bad name and then hang it. Who asked you to call it a world? Why do you give such a name? You yourself have given it a name and say, “Oh, this is the world!” You can call it by another name. You are free to give any name to it. Really there is no such thing as a world. It does not exist. The world is only a name that you give to a distortion created in the perception of your consciousness due to its isolation into the subject and the object.
To come back to the analogy of dream again, the mountain that you saw in dream was not a mountain; it was only consciousness. There was no mountain. But it looked like a hard something in front of you, against which you could hit your dream head. You see buildings in dream. It was consciousness that projected itself into the hard substance of bricks and buildings, mountains and rivers, persons and animals, etc., in dream. The world of dream does not exist. You know it very well, and yet it appears. What is it that appears? The consciousness itself projects itself outwardly, in space and time created by itself, and then you call it a world. Likewise, in the waking state also the Cosmic Consciousness has projected itself into this world. The world is Cosmic Consciousness. The Supreme Divinity Himself is revealed here in the form of this world. As the dream world is nothing but consciousness, the waking world also is nothing but consciousness, God. This is the essence of the whole matter. So you are seeing God. I am right in saying that. What you see in front of you is God only. It is not a building. There is no such thing as a building. But you call it a building due to an error of perception, due to ignorance and due to not being able to analyse the situation in which you are involved. We are caught up in a mess, in a paradox, in a confusion; and the confusion has entered us, entered into the bones, as it were, into the very fibre of our being and made us the fools that we are today. It is to awaken ourselves from this ignorance and to come to a state of that supreme blessedness of the recognition of God in this very world, that we practise Sadhana. The highest of Sadhanas is meditation on God.
On Sivaratri, therefore, you are supposed to contemplate God as the creator of the world, as the Supreme Being unknown to the Creative Will, in that primordial condition of non-objectivity which is the darkness of Siva. In the Bhagavadgita there is a similar verse which has some sort of a resemblance to this situation. “Ya nisa sarvabhutanam tasyam jagarti samyami; yasyam jagrati bhutani sa nisa pasyato muneh”: That which is night to the ignorant, is day to the wise; and that which is day to the wise, is night to the ignorant. The ignorant feel the world as daylight and a brightly illumined objective something; and that does not exist for a wise person. The wise see God in all His effulgence; and that does not exist for the ignorant. While the wise see God, the ignorant do not see Him; and while the ignorant see the world, the wise do not see it. That is the meaning of this verse in the second chapter of the Gita. When we see sunlight, the owl does not see it. That is the difference. The owl cannot see the sun, but we can. So, we are owls, because we do not see the self-effulgent sun – the Pure Consciousness. And he who sees this sun – the Pure Consciousness, God – is the sage, the illumined adept in Yoga.
Sivaratri is a blessed occasion for all to practise self-restraint, self-control, contemplation, Svadhyaya, Japa and meditation, as much as possible within our capacity. We have the whole of the night at our disposal. We can do Japa or we can do the chanting of the Mantra, ‘Om Namah Sivaya’. We can also meditate. It is a period of Sadhana. Functions like Mahasivaratri, Ramanavami, Janmashtami, Navaratri are not functions in the sense of festoons and celebrations for the satisfaction of the human mind. They are functions of the Spirit; they are celebrations of the Spirit. In as much as we are unable to think of God throughout the day, for all the 365 days of the year, such occasions are created so that at least periodically we may recall to our memory our original destiny, our Divine Abode. The glory of God is displayed before us in the form of these spiritual occasions.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnananda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita
Sivaratri – A Celebration of Transcendence
Sivaratri – A Celebration of Transcendence by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Thursday 8 August 2013 23:08
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(Sivaratri message given on February 2, 1985)
Glory to God Who Alone can be regarded as glorious, Whose glory is reflected in the glory of this world, and the shadow of Whose glory is the magnificence of all this Earthly pageantry. To that great Lord Who is amusing Himself with a play of hide and seek under our very nose here, Who instructs us and teaches us, at the same time teasing us, as it were, to that Father and Mother of the universe, to that great Friend of all beings, to that Eternal This is holy Sivaratri. It is celebrated everywhere in the country as the date sacred to Lord Siva, an ideal of divinity, a great ideal of perfection which mankind has placed before itself in its principle occupation called the awakening into the religious consciousness.
The ideals of life, whatever they be, as long as they are ideals – we have to mark the word ‘ideal’ in its proper connotation – are values which are not necessarily visible to the eyes, and yet they rule the world. So long as these super-sensible ideals and values reign supreme in the life of mankind, it is to be considered as established once and for all that man does not live only for the sake of this Earthly sojourn, a little span of his life. If life on Earth was all-in-all and there was nothing more than that, there would be no such thing as an ideal. The ideal is an aspiration of mankind’s internal secret, the hidden potentiality of an endless longing which is the reason behind a perpetual restlessness discoverable in the minds of all people in the world, irrespective of the large quantum of possessions and Earthly riches. The realities of life do not satisfy man; therefore, he reaches his consciousness to ideals which are transcendent to the realities of life.
We have to think a little cautiously and precisely here in the understanding of this circumstance in human nature. The ideal is not the real. The real is that which is tangible, concrete, substantial, sensible, graspable, and that which can be possessed, but the ideal is not necessarily an accessible, concrete, substantial, tangible something. It is an ‘ought’, a thing that must be, though it is not there. The thing that is does not satisfy and, therefore, we place before ourselves a norm called ‘the ought’. The ought is what we call the ideal, and inasmuch as the ideal remains as an ought, it is not an ‘is’; it is not the prevalent condition of life. If our ideals are identical with the existent state of affairs, if we are realising our ideals in our day-to-day existence, there would be no ideals because they become directly practical realities of our personal Our wealth, our riches, our status, our joys, the heights that we might have reached in social existence and in our personal lives are our realities. If these realities could exhaust all that our innermost being longs for, there would be no ideals in life, because an ideal is something which is placed as a norm in front of our mental eye which we would like to make a reality of day-to-day experience. In other words, we set up a standard of perfection before ourselves, and there would be no point in setting up a standard of perfection if it were already there prevailing in this world. So willy-nilly, knowingly or unknowingly, we are demonstrating by our acceptance of the necessity for an ideal in life a dissatisfaction with everything that is in this world, which cannot arise in the soul of any person unless there is the possibility of the realisation of that which is now remaining as merely an ideal or an ought.
Impossible things cannot be conceived by the mind. That which does not exist cannot become a content of our awareness. Though it may not be existent now to the eyes of our sense organs, it has to exist in some circumstance, in some condition somewhere under some given circumstance. An utter impossibility cannot be contained by the mind. The reaches of the mind cannot accommodate themselves to utter impossibilities. The conception of perfection which is the great ideal we place before ourselves in our lives, whatever be our notion of perfection – call it political perfection, social perfection, economic perfection, family perfection, religious perfection – so long as a thing called perfection is our desire, so long as this perfection does not seem to be accessible to our sense organs, so long as it appears that no man in human history has ever achieved it, to that extent is the demonstration of the presence of a masquerading transcendence invisible to the eyes, beckoning everyone and wanting everyone to be aware of its presence. This is why I said in the beginning that it seems to be playing hide and seek, compelling us to be aware of its presence and yet eluding our grasp, forcing us to remain ever restless in the absence of that great transcendent occupation, keeping us crazy, as it were, ever discontented with any kind of possession. Even if we reach up to the skies in our riches, we shall be discontented for other reasons. Thus keeping us ever in a state of discontent, it is teasing us. I deliberately use this word. It is playing with us as cats play with rats. Maybe it is a joy for the cat but it is death, a sorrow for the mouse.
Yet, at the same time, I mentioned it is not really a cat. It is the mother who is putting on the mask of a cat just to play with the little child, to terrify the child for some time in a mood of play and diversion. God is the greatest player. Nobody can act like Him to such accuracy and perfection, and in such precision.
We are not logical enough in our understanding of even the day-to-day events of existence in human history. We perhaps do not have the time to be capable of utilising the insight which is vivid before us as daylight – namely, that there is something beyond this world. How could you know that there is something above this world? Your own daily experience is a proof. A few instances of this proof I placed before you just now: your dissatisfaction with anything you are provided with is nothing but an indication that the world cannot satisfy you. If the world is not going to satisfy you, something else has to satisfy you. That something else is the ideal, and it has to be there. I also added a proviso that impossibilities cannot be aspired for. Even the idea of achieving the utter impossibility cannot arise in the mind. So a transcendent, invisible, super-Earthly existence has to be there in order to account for the miseries of human life and the sufferings of man and the perpetual discontent harassing the minds of even the greatest geniuses in the world. We do not require any more proof for the existence of God. Our own wretchedness is enough proof. The reason behind this inadequacy that we feel in our life, the utter finitude in every corner, is the proof of the presence of an infinite – or, if you would not like to call it infinite, a super-finite.
The longing of these haunting aspirations of mankind for an invisible something that does not seem to be in this world and yet seems to be immanent in this world, catching hold of our ears every moment, has been the occupation of certain great divine heroes. People of this type who were cocksure that the history of this world is guided by a super-historical manoeuvring agent have been produced in all the nations.
The events of life we call human history are not chaotic occurrences. It is not that something happens for no reason whatsoever and something else can happen tomorrow for any meaningless reason. Nothing is meaningless in this world. The movements of things we call natural history or human history seem to be chaotically taking place to the sensory perceptions of people like us because of the fact the man behind the screen is not visible to the eyes. The one who runs a puppet show is not seen. It is only the dancing of puppets that is visible to our eyes. Can you say the puppets dance chaotically? Those performances are mathematically conceived movements, well-motivated, conditioned, controlled operations, though it appears that these dolls dance hither and thither with no positive factors or reason or rationality behind them.
Our running hither and thither, struck with frenzy and anxiety for various reasons and pressures of occupations in life are not unintelligently directed chaotic dramas. Every event in life, even the movement of a leaf shed by a tree and driven by wind in a particular direction, is not a chaotic movement. It is a highly intelligent direction given by something which is not visible to the eyes. There is a supernal intelligence operating behind the apparently non-intelligent objects in this world.
Can we say that there is no intelligence in us merely because we cannot photograph the intelligence of a person? Nobody can see the intelligence of a person; nobody can touch, taste, hear or smell intelligence. Nobody can grasp intelligence with their hands; yet, man is nothing but what his intelligence makes of him. That which is seen, that which is touched is not man. It is a conch that you are seeing and touching. The sensorily conceived or perceived human personality is a dead mechanism. The value of a person is in the intelligence, the consciousness, the mind, which is not visible.
So do you believe that the human being is a super-sensible something? Even you and I are not visible objects, because what is visible is a dead machine. It has no life. And the meaning that you see in a person, the significance of an individual, the value of a person is the percentage of intelligence in the person, which is transcendent to the body that is visible. So even in our own day-to-day personal lives as human beings, we see a transcendent operation, although we do not seem to be concerned with anything that is transcendent. We are over-occupied with material comforts and pleasures, the machines that have no life. Very surprising!
The ancients conceived a modus operandi for keeping the human mind abreast of the situations of this world, which are not merely the visible historical movements but the operations of an invisible intelligence.
We cannot conceive intelligence. As I mentioned just now, it cannot be sensed. Therefore, it cannot be even imagined. That which we cannot see and hear, we cannot think, so we cannot understand what intelligence is. When we see an intelligent person, we do not see the intelligence of the person. We are only inferring the operation of intelligence in the person through the visible physical body. In the same way is the inference of the presence of a supreme intelligence in the whole cosmos, without which we cannot account for any event in this world. It would be a meaningless pursuit of a will-o’-the-wisp, a phantasm.
But no one believes that his or her action or occupation is without significance. Whatever we do seems to have some meaning. Are we engaged in meaningless activities? No. We see a meaning. But the meaning is an invisible something; it is a concept, an ideal. Therefore, even in the condition of this present-day twentieth-century over-materialistic, industrialised, mechanised world – a God-negating world, I may say – even in this so-called condition of despair, we seem to be living by the breath that is breathed into us by a transcendent presence, whether we accept it or not.
These great ideals are the ideals of religion. What is called religion is nothing but this aspiration for the great ideal of life implemented through the visible conduct and behaviour of our day-to-day existence. When the aspiration of our soul for an invisible ideal works through the visible mechanism of the human body and social relationship, we call it religion; therefore, religion is the be-all and end-all of human existence, finally. No one can live without it, because no one can be without longing for the realisation of an ideal. Inasmuch as this ideal is something which is all-comprehensive, no man can be satisfied with a little jot of joy. He wants a large Atlantic of satisfaction, and even that would not satisfy him. Nothing can satisfy us. Even if all the skies, all the stars become our possessions, they will not satisfy us. We want something beyond the stars, which is an indication that our ideal is an all-comprehensive super-presence.
It is, therefore, firstly, not a visible mortal object. Secondly, it is invisible for reasons obvious because our sense organs can contact only physical objects. Ideals cannot be seen or touched or sensed, and this ideal appears always to be before us. It is an ideal which does not appear to become a reality of our life because it is an ideal to our consciousness. As the mind, the consciousness, the spirit within us is invisible as intelligence within us is invisible, the ideal that we set up before ourselves also is invisible. It is the invisible in us that is asking for the invisible that is above, while the physical body that is here is likely to be satisfied by coming in contact with visible objects in this world. The visible can be satisfied with the visible, but the invisible cannot be satisfied by anything but the invisible transcendent.
Are you a visible thing? I just mentioned to you by an analogy that none of us is a visible object because the visible part is only a flesh-and-bone frame. Can you say you are only that? No. You are a great man, a very important person. This importance, this greatness, this value, this significance is not in your bones, flesh, marrow and nerves. It is something transcendent, and it is invisible. That transcendence in you is asking for a satisfaction which cannot be provided by anything visible in this world. So the religious ideal looks like a longing for a super-physical all-comprehensiveness.
Why should you long for an all-comprehensiveness? Why should you not be satisfied with a little salary? Why ask for something large? It is because at the back of your being is a large sea of dissatisfaction. There is a vast ocean of longing at your back and, therefore, it cannot be satisfied with drops of joy which are promised by the objects of sense.
What is religion? What is God? I need not go into further details. Any man with a little common sense would have read between the lines of what I told just now. There must be a God, and there must be religion.
We attempt to practically implement these concepts of religion and godliness in our day-to-day life by certain occasions such as the observance of Sivaratri, Sri Krishna Janmasthami, Ramnavmi, Christmas, and so forth, inasmuch as it would be humanly impossible for any one of us to be perpetually conscious of this predicament which I tried to analyse threadbare in a few minutes just now. We cannot be always conscious of our inward invisibility and a transcendent invisibility. We have become so identified with this flesh-and-bone frame of ours, we have become the body and lodged ourselves in the body to such an extent that we cannot imagine that there can be anything more real than what is presented to the sense organs.
But we are not to go to doom with this kind of idiocy of mere satisfaction of sensory contact. The great masters who were benefactors of mankind placed before us certain principles of disciplined conduct, at least occasionally, though not every day because the frail human mind is not up to the mark in the fulfilment of this otherwise-necessary discipline every day. These occasional disciplines are these religious observances where we muster in our energies and become, for the time being at least, what we are, and do not go on haranguing on what we appear to be. We do not look at our body too much, or look at the bodies of others. But we have no other occupation in life except connecting this body with other bodies, animate or inanimate.
Now is the time of this sacred occasion, and there are many such in our religious history, when we think certain true thoughts at least for a few moments, a few minutes, a few hours – true thoughts, not untruths masquerading as truths in life. That we are the son and daughter of somebody is an untruth which looks like a truth. That we are materially rich or poor is an untruth which looks like a truth. That we have to enjoy the material glories of this world through these physical organs is an untruth, but it passes for a great truth, and perhaps the only truth.
It is these so-called galvanised truths that we are expected to set aside for a few moments and become what we really are. In moments of great crisis we seem to realise what we are. Great men tumble down to the dust in one second as if they were never born. They raise the dust by falling off their thrones, which can happen in one second if the Director of the cosmos wills so for a purpose which is judicial in His own way, legal in His own way, and justifiable in His own way.
Are these not truths? The coming and going of beings, the fall of empires and the tragedy of kings who trod the Earth with their pomp and glory give us a retrospective look at human history. What happened to the great empires which rolled in gold and silver? What happened to emperors who slept on emerald couches? Where are they? Why should they vanish like that? What is that terrific law that seems to be operating in this world which snatches even without previous notice the greatest treasures of this world? Masters, kings, geniuses and most desirable persons, for the death of whom people cry for days together – such persons have been snatched. Who is snatching? Not me, not you. There must be somebody who is playing this game, who is seeing to it that it has to be done. Oceans become deserts, and deserts become oceans. Kings become beggars, and beggars become kings. Today’s born dies tomorrow. What is this meaning? Who is the operator of this peculiar government of the comings and goings of things without any one of us having a say in this matter?
Are we to be awakened to these truths, or are we to die like flies as many have come and many have gone? Do we also feel that we shall die like anybody else? Crows die, animals die, flies die, and we also die. Are we to live like crows and flies? A dog also eats, it also procreates, it also sleeps. Are we also interested only in this much? Man is supposed to be endowed with a super intelligence, not merely ordinary intelligence like the animal’s or the jackal’s intelligence – a super intelligence which enlightens him about the facts of his own future destiny.
In the concept of Lord Siva relevant to the present occasion, we have the ideal of a god who is transcendentally unmoved by the winds that blow in this world, as the peak of a mountain which cannot be shaken by even a hailstorm. We see portraits of Lord Siva sitting in the position of a samadhi, with half-closed eyes and crossed legs in a position of meditation. The so-called transcendence, the ideal, the all-comprehensive mystery to which I made reference, is what we call God. He is portrayed, at least in the personality of Lord Siva, as a great meditator. God is a great meditator. Nobody can meditate like Him. Unmoving settlement of consciousness is called meditation, and who can be so unmoved as this Absolute – unmoved because it wants nothing, unmoved because it has everything, unmoved because it is everywhere, unmoved because it is at all times. Who can move it?
Such supremely satisfied inclusiveness and perfection is portrayed in this great composure of the personality placed before us of the great Siva, simultaneously with an injection into our brains of the power of his being. Indomitable is that person. No one can touch him. No one can go near him. Fearsome, terrible, awesome judiciary of the universe, and yet unconcerned with what is happening because the happenings are within the bosom of that being only.
There is yet a third proviso: he is a very well-concerned, all-knowing person. It is not an unmovingness of an unknown and unknowing person. We can be unmoved because we know nothing, but this is an unmoved condition which knows everything, which is all eyes, all ears, all hands and all feet.
Is it possible for us to be aware of everything and yet be unmoved? Inconceivable is that state. We can be idiots and be unmoved like stone, but this is the utter apex of intelligence – all-knowingness which is unmoved because of the perfection of that state, and at the same time because of the power that it wields. And yet, in spite of this awesome picture of God Almighty, we have also the most tender, motherly feelings associated with the Almighty. We call God Asutosh in Indian terminology: the very easily pleased. This awesome terror of a universal judiciary, which will drive us out of our wits if we think of him, is more kind than a mother, more useful than our bosom friend, and more intimate than our life partner. He is such kindness, such tenderness, such goodness, such compassion, such accessibility, and such concern for even the littlest of things.
There is a humorous story. We have plenty of stories. The consort of Lord Siva one day wanted to play a joke with Lord Siva. “Lord, do you feed everybody every day?”
“Yes,” Lord Siva replied.
“I heard that you feed everyone every day, even the ants.”
“Yes.”
She was holding one ant in her hand so that no food could go inside. She was tightly holding one ant in her grip to falsify the statement of Siva that he feeds everyone without exception. “Have you fed everyone today?” she asked.
“Yes, I have.” Lord Siva replied.
“Have you fed all the ants also today?”
“Yes, I have fed all the ants also.”
“Have you not forgotten even one ant?”
“No, I have not forgotten even one ant. All the ants I have fed today.”
She opened the hand to show him one ant which is not fed, and to her surprise it was munching something, some little seed. “How did it go inside? It was inside my hand.”
God has no inside and outside because the idea of inside and outside is due to space and time. God is beyond space, beyond time, so you cannot hold anything in the hand, as if it is hidden from His eyes. Well, this is just an analogy of the kindness and the overcautious consideration for every one of us little fellows here in this world – overcautious consideration He has for every little foolish person like us, also.
Such is Lord Siva, the great master, and we offer our humble obeisance to that great father, great mother, great friend, great benefactor, great judge, great everything.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnananda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita
Radha – the Intriguing Mystery
Radha – the Intriguing Mystery by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Wednesday 7 August 2013 21:55
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(Spoken on Radha Ashtami on September 14, 1983)
Last month there was the celebration of the coming of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, and today the country observes the coming of that mysterious counterpart in the life of Bhagavan Sri Krishna who devotees everywhere adore as Radha – a principle whose association with Bhagavan Sri Krishna is as important and unique as the message that is delivered to mankind by the life of the Lord himself. There is some intrinsic peculiarity between creation and the Creator of this creation. The impossibility to intelligently comprehend the dramatic relationship between God and His manifestation has been highlighted in many ways by philosophers and devotees, and till this day nobody has ever been successful in knowing how the world came about. This secret is always hidden from the eye of man by an A sort of illusory relationship is essential even to enjoy the enactment in a dramatic theatre. It is not logically possible for a person to explain the relationship between the act and the actor. We may think that we know it very well, but it is not easy to understand it. The person who acts in a theatre is one person, and the part that he plays is another thing altogether. There is practically no known relationship between these two elements. The one who acts is certainly different from the role the actor puts on because the actor behaves in a manner totally different from the manner in which he would normally behave in the world. Hence, in that sense we may say the acting is totally different from the actor but, at the same time, we know they are identical. We cannot keep the acting somewhere in a corner and the actor in some other place, two Such is the relationship between God and this world. We cannot know whether it is one, or it is not one. Many a time people, even sincere devotees, are likely to have a subtle unconscious feeling that the relationship between Krishna and Radha is something like the relationship between Narayana and Lakshmi or between Siva and Parvati. That is not the relation. Here itself we have the mystery. The Puranas, the epics and the glorified expositions of the creative process highlight the relationship between Siva and Parvati as the power and the wielder of the power, Shakti and Shakta, and a similar relationship may also be attributed to Lakshmi-Narayana. We understand them as inseparables in an obviously known manner. Such a relationship cannot be introduced here between Krishna and Radha. The world can easily comprehend, from the point of view of the accepted mode of understanding things, the relation between Narayana and Lakshmi. It is an intelligible, acceptable and glorious relation. Here we have something altogether different. Radha was not the spouse of Sri Krishna, nor can we consider Radha as a Shakti in the sense we consider Parvati or Shakti as a power of Siva.
The very purpose of the incarnation of Bhagavan Sri Krishna was to glorify the magnificence of God. The purpose was twofold. While the establishment of How does God play? That is the history of Sri Krishna’s life. Even with the furthest stretch of the imagination of human genius, this play of God cannot be comprehended by any mortal existence. It is futile to hope to understand what it is. I gave you a homely and well-known illustration of the difficulty in our understanding the relationship between the actor and the acting, though we cannot easily explain what it actually means. But the glory of God is not merely superhuman in the sense of something transcending human relations; it also violates human relations. God is not merely a conformity to law; He is also a violation of law. This description of God may look frightening to the law-bound human mind, but the fright that it may engender gets diminished and becomes intelligible the moment we understand that a king is considered to be above the law. All legal enactments, principles and norms of conduct and behaviour are laid down by the king, who is the highest judiciary, and the judiciary that he sets up lays down the consequences of a particular judgement or investigation of a circumstance or a situation. But the king can set at nought the judgement of the highest judiciary in his kingdom by another law altogether, which is not contrary to the operating law but transcends the operating law. To the ordinary mind this looks like a violation of the existing law.
God’s law differs totally from man’s law because it transcends man’s law and, to the human mind, transcendence always looks like a violation. All laws or norms that we see in the dream world are violated in the waking world, as we know very well. Waking is a total negation of every principle that we considered as valid in dream, but we cannot consider waking life as a violation of law. It is a fulfilment rather than a violation. All the laws of dream are fulfilled in a higher comprehension and a greater profundity in that so-called violation, the negation of the rules of dream. So is God’s behaviour in the world. It is a negative stroke that is dealt at all behaviour in the human world and, as such, there is a marked difference between the manifestations or the Avataras of Bhagavan Sri Narayana in other contexts and in the life of Sri Krishna.
Now we come to the context of the relationship between Sri Krishna and Radha. As I mentioned, it is not like the relationship between Narayana and Lakshmi or Siva and Parvati. It is the relationship between God and His creation, or in a more philosophical jargon we may say it is the relationship between consciousness and matter, the seer and the seen. Nobody can say what that relationship is. In a psychological sense we may say it is the relationship between understanding and emotion; in a logical sense we may say it is the relationship between subject and object; in a cosmical sense we may say it is the relationship between God and creation; and in a more precise, analytic sense we may say it is the relationship between reason and instinct. They are integrally connected so that they cannot be set apart as two different things. One continues in the other, one is inseparable from the other, one is necessary for the other, one is absorbed in the other.
There are two stages of spiritual sadhana, the lower and the higher. All the Incarnations depict behaviour which is normal, and it is only in Sri Krishna’s life we have a behaviour which is supernormal—not abnormal, but supernormal—and, therefore, to apply the norms of human life as a yardstick to measure the measureless immensity of Sri Krishna’s manifestation would be to carry hot embers on a dry straw. It would not be possible. Sri Krishna’s coming and the various lilas that he played, as described in the Srimad Bhagavata and in the other epics and the Puranas, are expected to act as a kind of hint or an indication as to the existence of something which is totally different from what man considers as valuable and meaningful.
All the meanings that we read in this world are meaningless in the Kingdom of God. All the wealth of the dream emperor is meaningless in the waking life. Not only the possessions but also the values, the very outlook of life and the norms that we set up in every field of human understanding and relationship are, as mentioned already, negated, set at nought, overruled, defied for the sake of a fulfilment—which is God coming into the heart of man. If we have to understand how God expects a godman to behave, we have only to study the lives of godmen. The great saints who were possessed by God-love and God-experience did not behave like human beings, nor did they behave like males and females. That they did not behave like human beings is to say the least. They were erratic elements in human society and considered in every way incomprehensible to the human norms of mutual behaviour and the conduct and norms of relationship.
Even to this day it has never been possible for anyone to understand what the relationship is between Sri Krishna and Radha. They are not husband and wife, not brother and sister, not parent and child. What else is it? It is something which has never been said anywhere, and never will be said anywhere, because it is not supposed to be said. As I mentioned, it is a demonstration of human need and human nature, which in ordinary life also manifests itself in our own practical existence. But when we live in the shackles of human society and political embankments related to the physical existence of this body, we many a time try to fit these supernormal expectations and visions into the procrustean bed of the visible norms of the ritual-ridden, mechanised religion of human history.
Thus, the holy observance of Sri Radha Ashtami is a reminder to the spirit of man—not even to his psyche—that there is something in him which is not male or female, and not human. For all practical purposes, we cannot think except as human beings. No man can think that he is a woman, and no woman can believe that she is a man. We can imagine how limited our thoughts are. Whatever be their acuteness and genius of penetrative thinking, men can never believe that they are women; similar is the case with women. There is this terrible limitation set upon our thinking itself and, much worse, is that which compels us to feel that we are human beings. But Sri Krishna did not behave like a man or a woman, nor did he behave like a human being. These elements of a non-human or ultra-human behaviour are described in certain sections of the Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana, and we are always intrigued when we hear or read about these mysteries.
God is an intriguing something, and He shall ever remain an intriguing something. We can never calculate the length and breadth of God’s existence by arithmetic or algebra and, similarly, we cannot measure the rightness and the wrongness of God’s actions by our ethical standards because human ethics is also mathematics; it is also a measuring rod, as arithmetic is. This cannot apply to the manifestation of a limitless being in limited form, which we call the Avatara or the Incarnation. In these realms, the entry of man’s thought is forbidden. As the Bible tells us, man is forbidden entry into the Kingdom of God, and God has placed an angel wielding a flaming sword at the gate of the Kingdom, the Garden of Eden, so that no man may enter. No mortal can enter the Garden of Eden because the flaming sword is whirling at the gate. This is only to say that man should not and cannot understand God and, therefore, the laws of God also cannot be comprehended by human behaviour and human norms.
The complacency of man’s immersion in this vainglorious feeling that his understanding is complete has to be shattered one day or the other by the invasion of God’s infinity, and that was done by the advent of Bhagavan Sri Krishna with all that he demonstrated in these lilas and stories that we hear of as described in the Puranas and the epics. They say God entering man is like a mad elephant entering a thatched hut. The hut will not remain once the elephant enters it.
All these remain only as examples for us because with man’s hardboiled ego, with this flint-like feeling that man’s possession seems to be, he will cling forever to his own stereotyped fashions of thought; and he would like to extend the domain of his measuring rod of understanding to the Kingdom of Heaven—which would not be permitted because the flaming sword is there; thus, man’s entry is debarred. This is why the Upanishad says that speech, together with the mind and the understanding, turn back baffled when they try to enter, when they even behold the gateway to the Kingdom of God. Therefore, it is a matter for us to admire from a distance and be thrilled at the very thought if it. Such is the glory which, in mysterious and indescribable ways, we seem to reveal in our own lives by religious and spiritual observances of this kind.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnananda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita
Lord Sri Krishna, the Majesty of the Almighty
Lord Sri Krishna, the Majesty of the Almighty by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Tuesday 6 August 2013 21:13
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Narayana and Nara, the great sages who are supposed to be performing eternal penance in the holy shrine of Badrikashrama (modern Badrinath), and who are the representations of Vishnu’s presence on earth, are regarded to have taken birth as Krishna and Arjuna, respectively, for the redemption of the world from sin and evil. Krishna, who is considered to be the Purna-Avatara (full incarnation) of Vishnu or, according to some, of the Universal Narayana who transcends even Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, revealed himself in Mathura as the child of Vasudeva and Devaki. We need not go into details of the miraculous and dramatic events of his early life in Vrindavana, such as the spontaneous opening of the gates of the prison where Vasudeva and Devaki were confined; the ebbing of the River Yamuna when Vasudeva tried to cross it with the child Krishna; the destruction of Putana and other Asuras like Sakata, Trinavarta, Vatsa, Dhenuka, Baka, Agha, Pralamba, Kesi, Chanura and Kamsa at the hands of the boy Krishna; the release of the sons of Kubera from their curse due to which they were born as trees; his self-multiplication as thousands of cows, calves and cowherds in place of the real ones that were lost; the subjugation of the serpent Kaliya; the swallowing of the forest fire; the lifting of the Govardhana mountain and the humiliation of Indra; the bringing back of the dead sons of Sandipani; and several other incidents of this nature which revealed the divinity of Krishna even at an early age.
The most intriguing and significant incident in the early life of Krishna is what has been called the Rasalila or his love-dance with the Gopis of Vrindavana. Commentators have tried to interpret the romantic seeking of Krishna by the Gopis and his response to their search in a dalliance that surpasses understanding as the eternal quest of objects for the Universal Subject which is present in every one of them as their Atman, the seeking of the individual for the Absolute in an ecstasy of feeling that the intellect cannot measure or estimate, a rapture of love for God in which all rationality is hushed, and the divine reaction from the Supreme Atman in a revelation of multiple immanence or a universal Self-manifestation, a state of spiritual superconsciousness in which one forgets one’s own personality and becomes conscious only of God’s existence everywhere in an emotion of love which bursts the bubble of individuality, which, indeed, was the condition, of the Gopis. There was nothing of the human lust or physical passion in While the early life of Krishna Krishna closes his sportful life as a child and an adolescent with the destruction of Kamsa, and suddenly assumes a stern outlook of life and turns his attention to the work of freeing the world from all sources of wickedness. The first serious opponent whom Krishna had to meet was Jarasandha, king of Magadha, a worshipper of Rudra and a menace to all good and Sattvika natures. He attacked Mathura repeatedly and, after being harassed several times, Krishna and his elder brother Balarama determined to rout his forces, sparing his life alone to allow him opportunities for collecting larger forces, which were destined to be uprooted. It was here that Krishna assumed the weapons of Vishnu, which all descended from the heavens, together with a celestial chariot which he rode in war.
With a view to the fulfilment of future purposes politically manoeuvred by him as the world’s greatest statesman and spiritually ordained as the world’s greatest Yogin, Krishna got constructed a mighty and gorgeous fortress at Dvaraka, in the western ocean, from where he began to rule the fortunes of people. The first question that arose in his mind was to enquire into the fate of the Pandava brothers, with which errand he sent Akrura to Hastinapura. His first meeting with the Pandavas was during the marriage of Draupadi in the palace of Drupada. After the marriage, Krishna offered them costly presents as a mark of respect. When Yudhisthira expressed his desire to perform the Rajasuya sacrifice, Krishna pointed out a great obstacle to it in Jarasandha and cleverly arranged to get rid of the latter through a private deal with Bhima. The occasion of the Rajasuya sacrifice of Yudhishthira became also the scene of the death of Sisupala whose head Krishna severed with his discus, Sudarsana. This event is the theme of a famous poem of that name by the poet Magha and the incident may be regarded as the background of the bigger and more complicated scenes of the Mahabharata war. In the celebration of this sacrifice Krishna is said to have allotted more honourable duties to other kings and reserved for himself the humbler service of washing the feet of the guests who came for the function and of removing the remains after the banquet served by Yudhishthira to all those who attended the sacrifice. It is here again that the divinity of Krishna was publicly announced by Bhishma, to which Sisupala took exception and with insolent words challenged Krishna for battle.
Krishna met the Pandavas now and then even while they were in exile, encouraging them with comforting words and promise of help to vanquish their foes and regain the kingdom. The incidents of Krishna’s miraculous help to Draupadi in the form of unending clothes in the court of the Kauravas and his sudden appearance before her in the forest and demanding of her a little food by the acceptance of which he filled the stomachs of sage Durvasa and his large following of disciples are too well-known to need any description. On the completion of the period of exile by the Pandavas, Krishna arranged for a conference in the court of Virata to decide the question of taking up arms against the Kauravas. As a measure of intelligent statesmanship, Krishna, however, accepted to go for a mission of peace with the Kauravas, though he knew well that the mission was not going to serve its purpose. As he himself expressed in his talk with Yudhishthira, it was more a diplomatic move than a step that was really necessary or meaningful. Sanjaya’s description of Krishna to king Dhritarashtra in his court is again a public proclamation of the divinity of Krishna. Krishna revealed his powers to the apprehensive Yudhishthira when he said that if the Kauravas attempted to do him any harm when he went to them for peace, he would not wait for the war to destroy them, but burn them down, single-handed, and relieve the burden of Yudhishthira. The mission of Krishna to the court of Dhritarashtra, his famous speech in the assembly and the stunning cosmic form which he showed before the Kauravas, mark a wondrous scene in the great drama.
The next scene is the delivery of the gospel of the Bhagavadgita at the commencement of the war. His going for Bhishma with the Chakra, his hypnotisation of the Kaurava forces by his looks, the confusion he caused in the minds of the opposing army by making everyone in the battlefield look like Krishna and Arjuna, his dexterous moves which assisted Arjuna in vanquishing the Samsaptakas, his intelligence which destroyed the invincible Bhagadatta, his Yogic power which worked in overcoming Jayadratha, his clever stratagem, again, which foiled the Sakti of Kama while simultaneously getting rid of the demoniacal Ghatotkacha, the way in which he saved the Pandavas from the Narayana-Astra of Asvatthama and invoked the help of Rudra himself in the war for the victory of Dharma in the cause of the Pandavas, the power which he exercised in vanquishing Kama’s weapons sent against Arjuna and in the saving of the latter from being burnt while his chariot itself was reduced to ashes by the Astras of Bhishma and Drona, his common sense in the event of the killing of Duryodhana, and the mysterious instructions of his which saved the Pandavas from being destroyed by the icy hands of Asvatthama, his succour of the child in the womb of Uttara, his great understanding which saved Bhima from being crushed at the embrace of Dhritarashtra, are all highly interesting and instructive episodes described in the Mahabharata. He showed his cosmic form four times in his life – firstly to his mother Yasoda, secondly in the court of the Kauravas, thirdly to Arjuna on the eve of the war, and fourthly to sage Uttanka. The prayers offered by Kunti and Bhishma to Krishna, as recorded in the Bhagavata and the Mahabharata, are magnificent not merely as forms of literary force, but also as specimens of the glorification of God in his Avatara as Krishna.
There are many other incidents in the personal life of Krishna mentioned in the Harivamsa, Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata which inspire one spiritually and provide a stimulating reading in the biography of one who demonstrated to the world the character of all-round perfection. The birth of Krishna is celebrated on the eighth day of the dark half of the month of Bhadrapada (August-September) every year.
The purpose of the Krishna-Avatara was not only to destroy unrighteousness but also to reveal to the world the glory and greatness of God. In the well adjusted integral conduct of the life of Krishna is manifest the majesty of the Almighty.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnananda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita
The Call of Sri Krishna: The Gospel of Super Excellence
The Call of Sri Krishna: The Gospel of Super Excellence by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Monday 5 August 2013 21:14
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(Talk given on Janmashtami, Sri Krishna’s birthday.)
One important lesson of our scriptures which we have overlooked is their call to a life of glory. There are many passages in the Vedas in which the Rishi The Bhagavadgita has a whole chapter – Vibhuti Yoga – in which Sri Krishna exalts the best or most outstanding specimen in each class of beings by identifying himself with it. For example, he says: “Among immovables I am the Himalaya; among rivers, the Ganga; among trees, the holy fig; among cows, the divine cow of plenty; among sages, Vyasa; among heavenly songsters, Chitraratha; among generals, Skanda; among rulers, Yama; among celestial sages, Narada; among warriors, Rama; among men, the King. I am the glory of the glorious, the victory of the victorious, the goodness of the good-natured. I am life in all beings and austerity in ascetics.”
Sri Krishna summed up the general principle of Vibhuti Yoga in these words: “Whatsoever being is glorious, good, prosperous or powerful, understand thou that to go forth from a fragment of My Splendour.”
In this way Sri Krishna has commended the celebrities in all walks of life but not the mediocre of routine workers. This is the Gospel of super excellence – a clarion call to all aspirants to acquire greatness and glory by their golden deeds. As if to leave no room for doubt, the same previous lesson was taught by Sri Krishna, while showing his cosmic form to Arjuna: “Therefore, stand up! Win for thyself renown! Conquer thy foes! Enjoy the wealth-filled realm!”
Modern thinkers have made a strong plea for the cultivation of super excellence. Thus Emerson wrote: “If a man can write a better book, preach a better Similarly Swett Marden said: “There is a fitness in doing a thing superlatively well, because we seem to be made for expressing excellence.”
In his book, Excellence, J.W. Gardner, President of the Carnegie Foundation, writes: “Excellence implies more than competence. It implies a striving for the highest standards in every phase of life. We need individual excellence in all its forms, in every kind of creative endeavour, in political life, in education, in industry – in short, universally!”
“An effective personality,” says the noted Seva Dharma requires hard work, but mixed with brains. All work must be done efficiently. According to the Gita, efficiency in work is one of the definitions of Yoga (II/50) and the devotee who is dear to Sri Krishna is daksha or dexterous in whatever he does (XII/16).
Efficiency has two sides – spiritual and temporal. The essence of spiritual efficiency is selflessness or other centredness, to do the work as an offering to God or for the good of fellow beings, keeping the eye on the interests of those whom the work is intended to serve rather than one’s own. Strikes, demonstration, go-slow and work-to-rule campaigns and the clamour for more pay for less work are as anti-social and unspiritual as the practice of getting richer and richer by exploiting employees or customers.
The performance must also be satisfactory in the worldly sense. First and foremost, it must be of good quality, neat and clean, free from errors and blemishes. Secondly, speed must be added to accuracy. The work must be completed in time. Usually a good worker is also a fast worker and slowness is a sure sign of incompetence. Nothing big can be achieved without promptness.
Another important factor in efficiency is economy in labour, money and material. A capable person can work for long hours without feeling fatigued. He uses his time and energy, in fact all resources, to the best advantage. He never attempts things which his assistants can do for him. He multiplies his powers by winning the cooperation of others.
Finally, the highest ingredient of efficiency is inventiveness and originality. The really efficient man is not simply a routine worker, doing things as they were done in the past. Rather he breaks new ground, makes new, better and cheaper things, simplifies procedures and makes improvements everywhere. He leaves his organisation better than he found it.
But the Lord of Infinite Glory is not satisfied with ordinary skill; He expects superbness from His devotees.
Very noble are those who practise Karma Yoga and work efficiently for the general good. By their efforts, they maintain the world order. Even more valuable are the few who practise Vibhuti Yoga, serve as exemplars, heroes, leaders or luminaries, and make significant contributions to the knowledge, wealth or well-being of mankind.
The development of talent, which has been so much stressed in the Vedas and the Gita, is a basic principle of the doctrine of evolution. Man starts as a seed with several kinds of powers hidden in him. They must be brought out and put to good use. This is essential for the happiness and progress of the individual as well as mankind.
“Each soul is potentially divine,” said Swami Vivekananda. “The goal is to manifest this divine within by controlling nature, external and internal.”
The possibilities for the development of talent are almost unlimited. Even the most learned, if they only feel humble and sincerely try, can gain deeper insights and climb to greater heights of wisdom. Similarly, age is no bar to the growth of talent. While physical development stops in middle age, intellectual development can go on even in ripe old age. Two ways to keep the mind alert and growing even in the evening of life are to apply it to tough problems and to continue learning something new all the time.
William James, the famous psychologist, used to say that the average person develops only one tenth of his latent mental ability. “Compared to what we ought to be,” said he, “we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.”
Alexis Carrel writes in Reflections on Life: “Everyone should realise the full measure of his inherited mental capacities, be these great or small. This obligation is universal. All are equally capable, if they are really determined, of releasing the hidden spiritual energy in their own depths. Though consciousness develops side by side with the body, it does not stop developing when the body has finished growing. Intellect, aesthetic activity, moral strength and religious sense continue to develop even in old age.”
The same lesson of super excellence was taught by an English poet who sang:
If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley – but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
If you can’t be a bush, be a bit of grass,
And some highway happier make;
If you can’t be a highway, then just be a trail.
If you can’t be the sun, be a star;
It isn’t in size that you win or you fail;
Be the best of whatever you are.
We make use of extraordinary or supernatural powers to perform miracles that benefit rare individuals. Such feats, though spectacular, are of limited utility, as the masses can neither imitate them nor take advantage of them. In contrast, we take little notice of common powers developed to an exceptional degree which extend the frontiers of knowledge or make life easier and pleasanter for mankind. It should, however, be noted that Sri Krishna has identified himself with all celebrities, not only with the religious ones. All luminaries, whatever their nationality, period, and profession, reveal the splendour of God.
Worldly excellence is no less acceptable to God than spiritual excellence. Both are necessary for the maintenance and advancement of the world. Both are in fact one, according to the Vedanta. Elucidating this point, Sister Nivedita writes in her inspiring book Religion and Dharma: “We cannot be satisfied till our society has produced great minds in every branch of human activity. Advaita can be expressed in mechanics, in engineering, in art, in letters as well as in philosophy and meditation. But it can never be expressed in half measures. The true Advaitin is the master of the world. He does not know a good deal of his chosen subject; he knows all there is to be known. He does not perform his particular task fairly well: he does it as well as it is possible to do it…. The highest achievements of the mind are a Sadhana…. The man who has followed any kind of knowledge to its highest point is a rishi.”
Similarly Basil King writes in his book The Conquest of Fear: “All discovery of truth, whether by religion, science, philosophy or imaginative art must be discovery in God. When the Lord restores sight to a blind man, or Peter and John cause a lame man to walk, we see manifestations of God, but we see equal manifestations of God when one man gives us the telephone, another the motor car, and another wireless telegraphy. Whatever declares His power declares Him, and whatever declares Him is a means by which we press upward to the perception of His loving almightiness.”
It should be clearly understood here that ‘superior power’ does not necessarily mean increased spirituality. The true test of spirituality is not power, natural or supernatural, but the service rendered to mankind. Demons and devils are not dear to God, though their powers are very similar, sometimes even superior to those of saints. “Man becomes great,” said Mahatma Gandhi, “exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow men.”
The primary condition for super excellence is a lofty aspiration of ambition, a conscious striving to know all about one’s subject, or to do one’s work as well as it can be done. This desire appears in the form of a deep interest in one’s work or the particular problem one has taken in hand. It is well known that scientists and inventors give themselves up whole-heartedly to the object of their pursuit.
A powerful interest that dominates a man’s life polarises his mind, which then acts like a magnet and continually draws out from his stored-up experiences and also from new experiences whatever is relevant and useful to the end in view. Deep interest invigorates the mind, awakens its dormant powers and is the key to super excellence, invention and discovery.
Hard work is another condition of superiority. The aspirant must master the knowledge and technique pertaining to his particular job; in fact, he must be a keen and lifelong learner, ready to pick up new ideas and new ways wherever he can find them. He must cultivate the habits of thoroughness, accuracy and reliability; he must take pains to check, revise and polish his work until it acquires as perfect a finish as possible within the limits of time available.
Inspiration only comes as a result of hard study, deep reflection and patient search for the solution. Scientific discoveries are generally preceded by a large number of different experiments, trying first one thing and then another. Edison, the wizard of inventions, made about ten thousand tests with different chemical combinations before he found the right one for his storage battery. Looking for a suitable material for the filament of his incandescent lamp, he tried more than 6,000 samples of bamboo from every corner of the earth before he found the one that made the Edison electric lamp ready for commercial use.
Similarly, good writing requires not only profound knowledge but also enormous labour in writing, painstaking revision and rewriting. Carlyle took great pains over his works and, before writing a page of his famous history books, he would consult all the well-known books on the subject. Tolstoy rewrote his War and Peace seven times. Adam Smith took ten years to write his Wealth of Nations, while Gibbon spent twenty years over his masterpiece, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
The story of the discovery of radium is a saga of patient toil in the midst of appalling poverty. It took the Curies four years to isolate a very small quantity of radium from tons of ore. All day and for months they worked together in a damp, rotting shed which they called their lab. For much of this time, Mrs. Curie had to stand stirring a boiling mixture in an enormous pot with an iron rod which was as long as she was tall. The roof of the shed leaked and they did not have enough money to get it fixed. When the rains came, streams of water fell between these two workers and their work. Their labour was indeed tapasya of a very high order.
Super excellence means constant improvement and innovation, thinking in straight lines instead of curves, introduction of simpler procedures, time and labour-saving devices, better and cheaper goods, making two blades of grass grow where one grew before. There is nothing in the world which cannot be improved. The best is yet to be made – whether in books or automobiles, radios or nylons, medicines or men.
The ideal of all-round excellence is very difficult to attain. Only rare persons can become versatile geniuses. But everyone can acquire mastery in some little branch of knowledge or skill. Everyone can do at least some phase of his work superlatively well by developing his strong point or specialising in the part of his work in which he is most interested. And once this is done, superiority in one part of his life will stimulate superiority in other parts. Whatever a man’s vocation, let him not be content to remain mediocre; let him lift himself from the commonplace to the outstanding.
In India, we are fortunate to have excellent human raw material. But the opportunities and incentives for its development are sadly lacking. Religion has, on the whole, a blighting effect on secular professions. Even in other spheres, the strong tendency is to encourage subservience and sycophancy rather than initiative and talent. Had we paid proper attention to this matter, our country would have produced giants in every field of endeavour.
We should recapture the spirit of the Vedas and the Bhagavadgita. We should exalt work. We should discover and encourage talent wherever we can. We must produce not only great saints, philosophers and yogis, but also top class men in every walk of life. We need eminent scientists, selfless rulers, farsighted statesmen, dedicated administrators, educationists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, inventors, sportsmen, artists, explorers, writers, industrialists, managers, seers, dreamers, as well as organisers and leaders. No great man has done his duty until he has made at least ten persons worthy to take his place.
“This very moment,” exhorted Swami Vivekananda, “let every one of us make a staunch resolution: ‘I will become a prophet. I will become a messenger of light. I will become a child of God. Nay, I will become a god.’”
“Arise! Awake! Stop not till the goal is reached!”
[Extracted from Swami Krishnananda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita
Bhagavan Sri Krishna The Great Incarnation
Bhagavan Sri Krishna The Great Incarnation by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Sunday 4 August 2013 20:11
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Invocation
The One alone, which’s all this manifold,
Revealed as twofold inseparables,
Announced the strange togetherness of form,
Which undivided on one side abides
And vast creation on the other stands.
The unseen and the seen are just the one,
The That-which-is, is all this Narayana and Nara immortals,
The great resources puissance e’r attained,
Whose radiance o’rshadows all the gods,
Whose lustre fills this world with vibrant life,
And reaches e’n all realms beyond the earth,
Who glow as fire invincible, yet calm,
As sun who shine, as wind are lofty strong,
Dazzling as flame and beautiful as moon,
As Krishna and Arjuna came on earth,
As fullness grown of Vishnu’s encompass,
Glory which has no boundaries or walls.
When it descends to picture human frames
Is Superman who wields the field of force
Which throbs in hearts of atoms and all things.
The sea when pressed and To fill a space as wide as human form
Becomes the genius stunning human brain.
Stupendous surges from the infinite
Contain the whole of what’s infinitude.
The full when all this world of things projects
Is still the full with no diminution,
And that which comes is also full ablaze;
So Krishna came as full eternity
Which walked the streets of temporality.
Bhagavan Sri Krishna is the Purna Avatara (Full Incarnation) of Narayana; the What man thinks as a content of his mind, as an object of his perception, and what he himself is, is all comprehended in God-consciousness. It is the spiritual law that is manifest in the life and gospel of Sri Krishna, and not just the human law, the legal or political law of man, as it is enacted variegatedly from time to time according to the counsels of ministers or the members of a parliament. The Divine law is a perpetual one and it is an eternal enactment of the Universal Constitution of God’s creation.. To think Sri Krishna is to think the Cosmos. It will stir the personality at one stroke and raise it to a sense of ecstasy. The necessity to demonstrate the Visvarupa, or the Universal Form, in the life of Sri Krishna, is enough indication of what was hiddenly present in the personality of Sri Krishna as the purpose of his incarnation. We have been told that a gesture of his hand, a smile from his lips, or any movement of his body, indicated, suggested a cosmic event taking place somewhere. This can be appreciated by us when we see that any movement of a particular limb of our body is related to a simultaneously sympathetic operation of all the limbs of the body, the whole body. If a toe moves, the whole body moves because of the interrelatedness of the parts composing the organism. In a similar manner is the way we have to understand the performances in the life of such a mighty incarnation as Sri Krishna. The whole cosmos was involved. It is only in this sense that we can say that he was considered Sampurna, Purna, Akshaya, complete. As every part of our body in its movement indicates a function of all the parts of the body simultaneously, we can understand how the events and actions of Sri Krishna in his life have relevance to anything that could take place anywhere in the cosmos. Cosmic was Sri Krishna, supreme par excellence. Transcendent Man was Sri Krishna. This is why his ethics, his teachings, his philosophy, is found to be so hard for us to go deep into it. Look at the Bhagavad Gita gospel, for instance. It is not easy for us to know what is its essential message. Anyone can read any meaning into it, according to one’s own needs, predilections and dispositions. So was Sri Krishna’s behaviour, the concretisation of the exemplary Superman.
To some he looked like a small child, to some others a beautiful youth, to some others a terror and a warrior, and to the Yogins he was the most beloved and magnificent object of highly satisfying meditation. Like the ocean in which one can find anything, so one could find everything in Sri Krishna, the great perfection. Narayana and Nara are supposed to have taken form as Sri Krishna and Arjuna. They were almost like twins, working together living together, eating together, one being in two bodies. The association of Sri Krishna with Arjuna, so inseparable, is an illustration of the inseparable relation between God and man. This truth is brought into high relief especially in the last verse of the Bhagavad Gita. “Yatra yogeshvarah Krishno, yatra partho dhanur dharah; Tatra srirvijayo bhutir dhruva nitir matir mama,” says Sanjaya. “Where Sri Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, is; and Arjuna, the wielder of the bow, is; simultaneously seated in one chariot, together; there perfection reigns supreme, success is at hand, all glory is there at once, and there is perfect righteousness.” Divine grace and human effort go together. Knowledge and action are in the state of a perfect blend. The absolute and the relative are not two different entities; they are in one chariot. The chariot in which Sri Krishna and Arjuna are seated may be the historical chariot that moved on the field of the Mahabharata, or it may be symbolic for Ishvara and Jiva, God and man who are working together in the human heart. Or, this chariot can be the whole Universe, and it could be the Absolute enacting the drama of the relativity of manifestation. The inseparability of Sri Krishna and Arjuna as friends, as has been told again and again in the Mahabharata, is an illustration of the point of the inseparability of God and man, the Creator and his Creation. It is to demonstrate this truth of the universality of God’s perfection and the ideal inclusiveness of everything that this incarnation shone on earth. “Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati Bharata; Abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham. Paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya cha dushkritam; Dharma-samthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge.” “Whenever the balance of the universe is disturbed by external interference from any of its parts, then I reveal Myself as the Power of eternal balancing. For the protection of those who are in harmony, and the rectification of everything disharmonious, I incarnate Myself at every juncture of time.”
Through these verses of the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna proclaims the meaning of his descent for the ascent of the spirit of man. God’s incarnation is a perpetual act, an eternal occurrence. It is not merely a historical event that took place centuries back and is not taking place now. The words, ‘Yuge yuge’, imply every juncture of time. At a great juncture and critical moment and crisis, God manifests Himself to dissolve that crisis and conflict. The perpetual incarnation of God is taking place every moment of time, which is the work of Vishnu, the Sustainer, who is ever vigilant in maintaining the harmony of all creation, which gets disturbed by an excess of rajas and tamas, distracting desires in the direction of objects of sense and torpidity due to excessive fixity caused by dark natures, clouds of unknowing.
There are various facets in the life of Sri Krishna, the spiritual or the supremely transcendent metaphysical aspects, the cosmic aspect, the human aspect, the family aspect, the national aspect and the ethical, moral, social, economic and even political aspect. Could anyone imagine a greater warrior, a soldier, a field marshal, than Sri Krishna? Can anyone, any Yogi, any saint, any sage, any Rishi, excel, in any manner, the knowledge and the power of Sri Krishna? The greatest householder, the greatest Sannyasin, the greatest Yogin, the centre of knowledge and an abundant source of affection and love, embodiment of duty supreme and power magnificent, comprehensiveness of all sublime values, thus he excels. Such was Sri Krishna who could speak to Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra at the same time, and yet wash the feet of guests who attended the Rajasuya sacrifice of Yudhishthira. What a combination! To face Rudra and Brahma in the highest heavens and have concourse and discourse with them perpetually, while walking on the dusty streets of Kurukshetra and wielding a whip in his hand, driving the horses of the chariot of Arjuna in the battlefield! What a comprehensiveness! The highest and the lowest, both find an affectionate haven in Sri Krishna’s glorious person. He himself was not a king, he was not an emperor, he was not a ruler, but he could manifest any number of kings. He was a master kingmaker. His word could bring kings down from their thrones. Such was his power. What a glory!
Sri Krishna attended the ceremony of the wedding of Draupadi with the Pandavas in the palace of Drupada, and he was silently sitting there unidentified by people. He uttered not a single word. In that audience he never revealed himself. But, when the ceremony was over and Draupadi was back at home, the Pandavas were in their little cottage with their mother Kunti, Sri Krishna came there with large presents, gold, silver, treasure, horses, elephants and what-not. Yudhishthira was in a state of daze. He was not to reveal himself because they were living incognito. Yudhishthira asked Sri Krishna, “Krishna, how could you recognise us?” Sri Krishna replied humbly, “Fire cannot be hidden. Wherever fire is, one can know that it is there.” Smilingly, he offered them rich presents and walked back to Dvaraka, as if he had nothing to do with the Pandavas any more, except to pay homage and respect as a gesture of goodwill, love and affection. This is the first time, perhaps, that Sri Krishna met the Pandavas. He only knew their presence and was fully aware of their difficulties. And in his great vision he knew all the things that were to take place eventually. Unfortunately, the mystery of the divine ordinance is that he was not present during the gambling game of Yudhishthira in the palace of Duryodhana. When the Pandavas were driven into the forest as a result of the play, Sri Krishna came to know of this catastrophe, collected a large number of people, and with a huge army, went to the forest, to greet the Pandavas in their condition of destitution, poverty and sorrow. The Mahabharata tells us that Sri Krishna sat for a few moments closing his eyes and he appeared to be filled with an insurge of power which terrified those around him. Arjuna who observed the peculiar manifestation of something that is coming out from him, prostrated himself before the great Master, begged him with folded hands and offered a prayer, “Master, cool down, cool down. If you get angry, the world cannot stand.” Sri Krishna spoke, “What a pity that I was not able to be present when the shameful drama of the play of dice took place in the hall of the Kauravas. I was in Dwaraka at that time in an encounter with Saubha who harassed the people of Dwaraka, and, therefore, I was not able to be present. Otherwise, I would have averted this misfortune with the power of my arms.” Satyaki was roused. He got up and announced that the Yadava army should proceed straight to the Kauravas and put an end to the whole problem without associating the Pandavas in any way in this matter. Sri Krishna knew the mind of Yudhishthira and said, “The Pandavas are Kshatriyas; they will not accept charity from anybody. There is no point in our gaining the kingdom and handing over the dominion to Yudhishthira. Being a Kshatriya, he would like to acquire it with his own prowess and would not accept it as a gift from us.” This reply calmed down Satyaki, and Yudhishthira thanked Sri Krishna for having taken the trouble of coming all the way from Dwaraka to see them in the forest. The Yadavas leave the place; Sri Krishna returns to Dwaraka.
For a long time there is a gap, as it were, after this meeting that took place between Sri Krishna and the Pandavas till the subsequent events. The Pandavas underwent great hardship due to lack of facilities in the forest. Being princes, they were not accustomed to that kind of difficult living. However, time passed. But Duryodhana was not satisfied even with the exile of the Pandavas. He wanted to see their death. He was hatching plans to put an end to the Pandavas even while they were in the forest, so that he might be rid of them and not have the anxiety that perhaps after twelve years or thirteen years they may come back and create further troubles for him. He was thinking what to do. He was conniving with Karna and Sakuni about this idea in his mind, which somehow reached the ears of Bhishma, the grandsire, who became enraged that Duryodhana had plans of this mean nature. Hearing of this, Bhishma summoned Duryodhana and reprimanded him severely. Duryodhana had no alternative but to yield. Then he thought again, what he could do under the circumstances. He concocted some story, as his previous plan failed due to the intervention of Bhishma: “The cattle of the palace have strayed away to the forest and so we are all to go there in search of the cows and bulls.” With this pretext he thought he would go to the forest and put an end to the Pandavas by some means. He mentioned this sojourn of his to his father Dhritarashtra-not to Bhishma-that they are all going to the forest for bringing back their cattle that had strayed away. Dhritarashtra knew Duryodhana to some extent. He had some suspicions in his mind. However, he warned Duryodhana, “When you go to the forest side, do not go near the place where the Pandavas are staying. Do not go there. I advise you not to go near the Pandavas.” “No, no, we are going to collect our cattle.” Duryodhana went with an army. God is great. Indra. in heaven knew why Duryodhana with his army was going to the forest. How God works one can know from this incident. How compassionate God is! Even when we do not ask for help, He comes to our aid.
The Pandavas knew nothing of this matter. No body knew anything at all. But God knew. Indra sent Chitrasena, the Gandharva, to encounter the Kauravas an,d drive them out. What a coincidence! When Duryodhana’s retinue entered the forest, the Gandharva attacked and drove them out, caught hold of Duryodhana, bound him tightly with ropes and wanted to carry him away. Duryodhana cried in a loud tone. The Pandavas were living nearby. Yudhishthira heard a voice which sounded like Duryodhana’s. He was surprised. “How am I hearing the voice of Duryodhana here?” He told Bhima, “Go, and find out what is the matter. I am hearing some voice like that of Duryodhana. How is it possible?” Bhima went and saw what was happening. Duryodhana was bound hand and foot by the Gandharva and was being dragged. Bhima came back and exclaimed in joy, “Very good, very good, indeed. Very nice, I am very happy. Duryodhara is about to see his end just now at the hands of a Gandharva.” Yudhishthira queried, “Why do you speak like this, he is our own brother. Go and help him if he is in trouble.” “No, I will not; let him die.” “I am your elder brother; you must do what I say.” “No, I shall not. Let the evil Duryodhana go.” Then Yudhishthira instructed Arjuna to go and help Duryodhana. Arjuna went and fought with Chitrasena, the Gandhanva, defeated him and released Duryodhana from bondage. Then Chitrasena, revealed to Arjuna, “Do you know why I have come here? I was sent by Indra. Otherwise, you could not imagine what would have been the consequence.” Arjuna understood the whole situation. Duryodhana was in the pangs of shame and wanted to commit suicide at that very moment. He came to do something, and something else happened! He had come to kill the Pandavas and the Pandavas had to come and rescue him! What a life! When he was sitting there and telling everyone that he would be there till he died, without eating and without drinking, Karna came and advised, “Kshatriyas do not speak like this. The past is past, dead and gone. Get up and be a hero.” Duryodhana, thus dissuaded from his intention of fasting unto death, was taken back to the palace. So goes this wondrous story which can make anyone shed tears.
Duryodhana was evil incarnate. He was not to be satisfied, yet. He thought of some other plan to destroy the Pandavas. When he was thinking like this, the sage Durvasa came to the palace with his eighty thousand disciples. Duryodhana received the sage with great honour, respect and hospitality, fed him and arranged for his stay in the palace, very comfortably. The next morning, when the sage was to leave, Duryodhana made a request, “I have a humble request, great Master. My brothers are in the forest. They would be immensely happy if you would bless them too, by receiving their hospitality.” The sags Durvasa replied, “Well, I shall go, of course.” The intention of Duryodhana was something different. He knew that the Pandavas were not in a position to receive the sage and to feed this large number of disciples, as they were themselves living in utter poverty. Moreover, the sage was renowned for his anger, his sudden rage, for even the smallest displeasure. Duryodhana thought that this would end in the destruction of the Pandavas, because the sage would be so wroth with the inhospitable reception meted out to him by the Pandavas, that he would curse them to death, and that would rid Duryodhana of the Pandavas. This was the mischievous intention that was in the mind of Duryodhana when he made this seemingly pious request to the sage that he might very kindly receive the hospitality of the Pandavas living in the forest. Durvasa went with his large retinue of disciples. Yudhishthira received him with love. “Sage, today we are all thrice-blessed by your visit. You all shall have your day’s meal with us.”
Why did Yudhishthira speak like this? How could he utter such words when he knew that there was nothing in the house! No doubt, there was a vessel with the Pandavas, given to them by Bhagavan Suryanarayana who was pleased with the worship they offered to him. There was a condition attached to the gift of the vessel. Bhagavan Surya had ordained, “O Pandavas, you are in sorrow; you have prayed to me for succour. Well, I give you this vessel. The food that is cooked in this vessel shall be inexhaustible. You may take any amount of food from this vessel, it shall not get exhausted. But it shall become empty after Draupadi eats from it, so that it could be cleaned for the next day’s cooking.” So there was no difficulty with the Pandavas as far as food was concerned. And, always, Draupadi was the last one to eat, because the condition was that when she ate there would be nothing left in the vessel. It so happened that, on that day, when sage Durvasa arrived, Draupadi had already eaten. And so, the question of feeding the sage and his disciples did not arise. Draupadi was very much disturbed in mind when she heard, through the window, Yudhishthira inviting the sage for meal. She was wondering, “What is this person speaking? From where will we get the food?” The sage Durvasa responded, “Yes, I shall have my bath in the river and come back by noon.” “Yes, please,” said Yudhishthira, “We shall be honoured.” Then Draupadi spoke into the ears of Yudhishthira, “What have you done? How is this indiscreet behaviour of yours? From where shall we get food to serve the sage? I have already eaten. There is nothing in the vessel.” “Well, I have said what I have said. What can I do now? Let the inevitable happen,” spoke back Yudhishthira in his usual demeanour. This was a foolish promise and indiscriminate behaviour of Yudhishthira, which had no remedy. Neither did he know what was to take place. Great trouble was to come; everyone knew the nature of the sage, a terrible person, short-tempered and capable of getting roused into irascible, cursing mood in a moment.
Draupadi went in and silently wept. “What is going to happen to us? Krishna, are you alive? Do you see what is happening to us? Are you aware of our condition? The wickedest heart on seeing us being forced into the woods like this, would burst.” Her soul was crying. When the soul calls for God, Gad has to come. Tradition holds that Sri Krishna knew the predicament of the Pandavas. He was in Dwaraka, some thousand miles away from this forest where the Pandavas were living. In his omniscience, he knew what was happening. There was a sudden knock at Draupadi’s door. She was seated inside and beating her breast in sorrow, weeping. When, on hearing the knock, she opened the door, she saw the miracle man standing there, stunning her vision. “O! You! How did you happen to come in the thick of this forest now, at this moment? From where are you coming?” “Sister, I am tired, coming on a long journey. I am hungry, having eaten nothing since yesterday. Give me something to eat.” “Lord, do you tease me, knowing well that I have nothing with me?” “Do not pretend. Do not hide your food.” “No, Krishna, nothing is left there with me. Why do you trouble me with this request?” “You do have something left; give it to me.” “I have nothing. I have told you. I have already eaten from the vessel and cleaned it. Nothing is left.” “No, you are not telling the truth, Draupadi. When I am hungry, you must not speak like this.” No, please, I do not know why you say thus. There is nothing left. See, here is the vessel, empty!” Sri Krishna saw that she had not cleaned the vessel properly. There was some little leaf of vegetable sticking to the side. He took out the leaf. “Here is something. Why did you tell me that there is nothing with you. You have not told me the truth. Here is the food for me.” He took out that, ate it and mentally invoked his blessings, “May the Universe be appeased.” Unceremoniously, he then left the place, saying nothing, to the consternation of Draupadi. She wondered, “What has happened; where has he gone? What is this, he has vanished!” She looks. He was not to be seen. It was noon. The sage was not coming. It was one o’clock; nobody comes. Three o’clock; no news of the sage! Yudhishthira was distressed. “How is it that the sage has not yet come? He must be angry with us. And we shall receive his wrath if he is annoyed.” He sent Sahadeva. “Please invite the sage for the meal.” When Sahadeva was seen, the sage and the disciples ran in fear. Why they so ran, nobody knew. Sahadeva returned and reported to Yudhishthira, “They are running away.” “Oh! They are running away? Are they annoyed with me?” He sent Nakula. When the sage and the disciples saw Nakula, they ran faster. “Listen, Bhima, you go and see why they are not coming. Are they angry with us? Go and find out what the matter is.” Bhima went. On seeing him, they all wailed, “Let us run away. He is coming. He will kill us.” No one knew what had happened. Only God knew the mystery. It appears, the stomachs of all those people got bloated as if filled with food to the brim; they all felt a satisfaction as if they had eaten up to their noses. They ran because they had no space in the stomach to eat further. The thing was that if they had gone back to Yudhishthira, and he offered food, they would not have been able to eat, which would be an insult to Yudhishthira. They ran in fear of Yudhishthira’s displeasure. They ran, and ran, and ran, and never came back. And nobody knew anything. Neither Yudhishthira knew, nor his brothers, nor even Draupadi. The mystery, only Sri Krishna knew. Who else can? Thus did Sri Krishna protect the Pandavas. God listens to the prayer of a helpless soul. This incident is narrated in the Aranya Parva of the Mahabharata.
There again is a silence for a long period. We never hear of Krishna. The Pandavas go on suffering and spending their years in the darkness of the jungle. It is in this context that we hear of the encounter of Arjuna with Lord Siva, when he meditated on the Lord for receiving the boon of a divine weapon, the Pasupata Astra, from the Lord, for the events that were to come. Lord Siva was deeply impressed by the austerity of Arjuna, and appeared before him, assuming the form of a hunter, with Parvati also beside him, dressed as a huntress. A wild boar attacked Arjuna in a vigorous manner, which he struck with an arrow, while, at the same time, the hunter also sent an arrow at it. “O! I have killed this boar,” said the hunter. Arjuna retorted, “No, it was I who killed it.” “No,” said the hunter, “it was I.”There was an argument between the two. Arjuna, being a Kshatriya, had his own pride of honour. So there was a fierce duel between him and the hunter. An unfortunate event took place. Whatever weapon Arjuna cast was countered back by the hunter. Finally, he took up the best of his weapons, which was broken into two! Arjuna took up his sword. It broke into pieces on the shoulder of the foe, as if it was striking steel, or rock. There was no weapon left with Arjuna, everything was swallowed by the wild man. Arjuna could not understand. “How, today, I am defeated by a mere forest dweller, when I could engage even gods in battle?” Then took place a regular duel, a hand-to-hand fight, between Arjuna and the hunter, in which context the hunter gripped and threw down Arjuna with such force that he fell unconscious. And it took time for him to regain awareness. Befooled, put to shame, totally helpless, bereft of all strength, Arjuna wept and offered prayers to Lord Siva for help, as a last resort. “How is this that I am in this predicament today, that a hunter has thrown me into this condition? Who is this rude fellow, that can be so strong?” Arjuna was offering flowers at the feet of Lord Siva, in an altar that he had kept there for worship, that he may be blessed with His Divine Grace. It is said that every flower that Arjuna offered on the altar rushed to the feet of the hunter and fell there. Arjuna could not understand, again. Perhaps the wind was blowing in that direction and the flowers were blown by the wind towards the hunter who was standing nearby? But, continually, every flower that he offered at the Sivalinga that he was worshipping moved away from that image and fell again and again at the feet of the hunter. Arjuna was surprised. All that he offered, leaves, flowers, hastily moved away from that place and adored the feet of the wild hunter who was tauntingly laughing at his victory over Arjuna. Arjuna began to feel, than, that there was some mystery behind this man, and fell at his feet. “Who are you? I cannot understand you.” Immediately the hunter and the huntress vanished and they appeared in their true forms of Siva and Parvati. Here the story ends. Grand and hair-raising. Siva gives him the Pasupata Astra and tells him that he shall be at his disposal even in the future, whenever it was necessary.
The Pandavas completed their period of exile. The thirteen years were over, and Arjuna overcame all the Kaurava forces in a battle that took place in the city of King Virata, where the Pandava brothers were then living in disguise. The Kauravas had to withdraw into safety. King Virata thereafter recognised who his guests were. The royal brothers who were all serving there in their different capacities, he recognised them to be the Pandavas. Now, knowing who they were, the king could not contain himself. All were deeply touched, and the whole palace honoured the Pandavas and the queen. On this occasion, Sri Krishna, with the chiefs of the Yadavas, comes to the court of Virata, uninvited, and, after formal greetings, summons a conference. Here, in the meeting, Balarama, elder brother of Krishna, somehow speaks in favour of Duryodhana. “What mistake has Duryodhana committed? If the Pandavas lost their kingdom due to their foolishness, getting defeated in playing the game of dice, it is their fault. What is the fault of Duryodhana? I do not understand the meaning of this conference, here, which seems to be contemplating on a future conflict with the Kauravas. This is, indeed, beyond me.” This gesture was very strange, indeed. Satyaki and many other Yadavas spoke back fiercely as a counterblast to the view of Balarama, and affirmed the necessity to help the Pandavas, inasmuch as it was not true that they had lost their kingdom due to their foolishness merely. It was a kind of trick that was played upon them by Duryodhana, an unfair game, which was well known to the wise Vidura. Sri Krishna consented to take necessary steps to see that the Pandavas received their share of the kingdom. Long discussions, argumentations and suggestions come forth from the various people assembled. It was decided finally that some emissary should be sent to the court of the Kauravas, to speak on behalf of the Pandavas. This was done, but the mission did not succeed. The Kauravas, also sent an emissary, Sanjaya, to speak an their behalf and to plead that war is not good, that the Pandavas should be satisfied with what they have at present; that everything is fine, nothing is wrong with Duryodhana. So on, and so forth, was the message conveyed by Sanjaya to the Pandavas, on behalf of Duryodhana. Sri Krishna firmly spoke in reply: “Sanjaya, how can you speak like this, that there was no fault on the part of Duryodhana? How cunningly did he manage to deprive the Pandavas of all their possessions, right from the beginning? The Kauravas tried to poison Bhima, even when he was young. The whole series of dastardly events was picturesquely narrated by Krishna to Sanjaya, so that he would go back and convey what was in the mind of the Pandavas. “From the beginning till this moment, it was all ill doing and a vengeful attitude on the part of Duryodhana. There was no iota of goodness in him. He tried his best to see the end of these poor brothers. That he did not succeed was a different matter. Now the time has come, and the brothers cannot keep quiet. They have to receive their share.” And Arjuna speaks, Bhima speaks, Nakula speaks, Sahadeva speaks. Everyone has something to say, confirming the opinion of Sri Krishna that their share is due and they cannot wait anymore. Sri Krishna gives a long discourse, in the presence of Sanjaya, so that he might convey back all that transpired between him and the Pandavas here in this meeting. Arjuna again speaks, “Sanjaya, go and tell Duryadhana: people can swim across the ocean with their arms, they can drink fire, they can shake the Meru mountain, but they cannot face the great Krishna if he is to stand against them, and we have his blessings. Let Duryodhana beware. Let him not be foolish.” The whole of the Udyoga Parva, especially the earlier part of it, is a beautiful dramatic presentation of the glory of Divine prowess, both on the part of the Pandavas and Sri Krishna. It was decided in the end that Sri Krishna, being the wisest of persons, should go on a peace mission to the court of the Kauravas.
Sanjaya returns and explains in all detail, in the Kaurava court, what he heard from Sri Krishna and the Pandavas, and advises, “There seems to be no hope. They are very powerful.” Dhritarashtra called in Sanjaya and asked, “What did you see there? Tell me what happened.” “Venerable king! Krishna is there, and as long as he is there, I do not think that your children have any chance of victory, in, case a war breaks out.” “Krishna is there, what of that? Why are you afraid? What is Krishna’s strength? What is in your mind? I cannot understand. Explain to me, what you mean by saying that Krishna is there and so there is no hope for us. What is the power of Krishna? What are you going to expect from him?” Sanjaya answers Dhritarashtra: “O king, you ask me, what is Krishna, what he is capable of, and why we should fear him. I am surprised that you put this question to me. Krishna is a great master, He can burn up all your children by a mere thought. I have understood what he is. Let the whole world be on one side and Krishna alone be on the other side; the world cannot shake a single hair of his body. He is there, ready to swallow all of your children on the pretext of the war that is going to take place, evidently, since your children are not going to listen to anybody’s advice. I am fearing that he might even come here to speak to you all.” “He is coming? Oh! such a person! Arrange, arrange, arrange for his reception beautifully and grandly. Let him be pleased. Please him. Appease him. If he is such a person as you have described to me, we should fear him. Please see that he is not displeased in any manner. Let him be taken care of as our most honoured guest and treated finely as a king. Arrange, arrange.” Sanjaya, however, warned the king: “Krishna is not to be beguiled by praise, gifts and presents. Do not have misconceptions. Krishna cannot be visualised by those who have no sense of justice, who have no control over their senses.” Dhritarashtra orders a grand reception to Sri Krishna who was expected to come.
On the other side, there was a talk among the Pandavas. Yudhishthira’s heart would not really permit sending Krishna alone to the midst of enemies. “Whom shall we send as an ambassador?” No one could think of any suitable person who could speak in an appropriate manner and convey the proper message and carry the correct news. Sri Krishna said, “I shall go on your behalf. It shall be my pleasure.” Yudhishthira sobbed: “Lord, I shall, not permit this. You go alone? They are like wolves. I cannot send you, my dear friend, to that jungle. I shall myself go; or I shall send one of my brothers.” “No,” replied Sri Krishna. Have no apprehensions about my safety. I think I can take care of myself.” Thus, Sri Krishna goes in all glory, and reaches the palace of Duryodhana and beholds the grand arrangements that have been made to receive him. Duryodhana had organised a gorgeous feast in honour of Sri Krishna, and invited him royally. “Please,” said Duryodhana. Sri Krishna’s response was unexpected. “I have come to speak to you. I have come with a purpose, and where comes the question of a dinner, unless the purpose for which I have come is fulfilled. Let me be satisfied first that the thing I have come for is gained. Also, what is a meal? One cannot eat when one is not hungry, or when one has not been offered food with love. You know that I am not hungry, and you are not offering me food with love. So, in either case, there is no point in your telling me to partake of your feast. I shall see you tomorrow morning at your court and tell you the purpose for which I have come. I go.” Duryodhana was startled and hurt. “What do you mean by saying, ‘I go’ ? You should not speak like that. What harm have I done to you? Here is my palace, everything is ready for you. You be seated here. Take rest tonight in my palace. Where are you going?” Sri Krishna declines the offer and goes straight to the hut of Vidura. He does not stay at the palace of Duryodhana, because he knew that behind this apparently beautiful arrangement and wonderful show of hospitality there was deception and absence of affection. How could he accept such a hospitality when he was sure that it was not real but wholly fake?
When Vidura, the poor man, who was living in a cottage, learnt that Sri Krishna had come, he was beside himself with joy. He had nothing to give, because the coming of Sri Krishna was sudden, and Vidura knew nothing about it. He could not keep anything ready. He had nothing, literally. The only thing that he had was pure water, with which he washed the feet of the honoured guest, made him seated and in an ecstasy of joy, spoke in a choked voice : “Lord, how are you? How came you here?” The story that we hear in this connection is something touching indeed. Vidura had nothing to offer Krishna except some plantain fruits. In his joy, which made him lose his body-consciousness, he offered the peels to Krishna and threw the pith away, not knowing what he was doing. Such was the delight he was immersed in, on seeing Krishna in his cottage. Sri Krishna uttered not a word. He went on swallowing the peels. He noted that the plantain stuff was being thrown off, but said nothing. At that time, it appears, the wife of Vidura was taking a bath. When she heard that Sri Krishna had come, she ran without even dressing herself properly. She forgot herself equally. When she saw Vidura giving peels to the Lord, she yelled, “Oh! What are you giving?” The moment she uttered these words, Vidura came to consciousness and he immediately told her, “Go and put on your clothes, please.” Neither she knew that she had no proper clothes, nor Vidura knew that he was feeding the Lord with peels. When both began to realise the mistake they had made in their overwhelming joy, the one rushed to put on decent clothes and the other offered the fruit instead of the peels. But Sri Krishna is reported to have smilingly remarked, “Now the taste of the fruit has gone. The peels were tastier.” God loves only himself. He cannot love anything else, because anything else does not exist. And Vidura, when he transcended his body-consciousness in the love of Cod, became one with Sri Krishna. And Sri Krishna loved Vidura, not as Vidura, but as himself. But Vidura came back to body-consciousness. It meant that an independence was established, and the contact was broken. God was delighted at the taste of love, not of the plantain fruit. However, the matter ended there.
“How, O Lord, are you here?” “Well, I have come with a message from Yudhishthira to Duryodhana. I hope to deliver it tomorrow morning.” “No, no; you should not go. They are very bad ones. I am afraid they may do some harm to your person.” “Harm my person? Nothing of the kind is possible. If they intend doing any harm to me, I shall not wait for the war to take place. I shall give all my blessings to the Pandavas that they be rid of the trouble of making preparations for the war, and reduce the whole host of the Kauravas to ashes with my anger; and go back, and fill Yudhishthira with joy, if any such thing takes place as you are apprehending.” The next morning the Lord rides to the Kaurava court, speaks in great detail, in his sonorous tone, the justice of the cause of the Pandavas, and when Duryodhana was adamant, refusing all good advice, and even tried to capture and imprison Krishna, the great Master of Yoga revealed the Cosmic Form of the Almighty in his person, striking terror to everyone, and left the palace of the Kurus.
And, how could anyone forget to rejoice over that event when Duryodhana and Arjuna went to Dwaraka to seek assistance from the Master in the war which they felt had become unavoidable? Duryodhana reached first. The Master was reclining and resting on a couch in the palace. The royal Duryodhana sat, leg over leg, on a chair towards the head of the reclining one. A little later, Arjuna arrives, and, finding the Lord resting, stands, humbly, with folded hands, at the feet of the great one.
The Lord opens his eyes and, naturally, his eyes fall on that which was near his feet. “Oh, Arjuna? How are you here, now?” accosted Sri Krishna. “I came first, Sir; I am here,” spoke Duryodhana from the other side. It is said that Sri Krishna, on hearing these words from over his head, turned to that side and looked askance at Duryodhana, seated. Devotees say that this side-glance from the eternal light sealed the fate of Duryodhana, then and there. For it is held a side-glance on a person does speak ill to that person. But, here, it had to be so, because there, was no other way of bestowing honour on pride: “Oh, you are also here?” said the Lord. “No, I came first, and have been waiting for your goodself.”
“Now, Arjuna, what for have you come here? Let me hear, please.” “No, Master, you should speak to me first, since I arrived first, and also I am elder,” intervened Duryodhana. Smilingly, the Lord replied, “King, you say you have come first. But I saw Arjuna first. It is proper, therefore, that I should speak to him first. Also, being younger, he certainly deserves a kinder treatment. Arjuna, speak.”
“Great Master, What can I say before you? You are quite aware that a conflict between us seems inevitable. I seek your blessings.” “O, I see; this is why you have both come here. Yes; I understand the whole situation. But, what help do you expect from me? I have a large army, known as Narayani Sena, which is almost invincible. If you so wish, have it, and be pleased. Or, I am also here, a single person. If you want me to be with you, you may so choose. But, there is one thing I have to add here. Even if I am to be with you, I shall not take part in the war. I shall not take up arms and fight. I would do nothing, and remain just a silent witness. If you think that there is any point in your having me, such a person as I am, as I have told you, you are free to have me, for whatever worth I can be.” “Oh, Master, I want you alone. Bless me, O great one! I do not need the large army. I seek you, and you alone, even if you would do nothing to help me in the war. Your mere presence shall be my delight.”
“I have won! The idiot has rightly proved true to his salt, by choosing an inactive single man,” so thought Duryodhana in his mind, and spoke in a jubilant tone: “Master, give me the army; I shall be satisfied. Please bless me with the army.” “So be it,” replied the Lord Duryodhana took leave in great joy, and, returning to his court, announced loudly, before all, that he had already won the war.
“How foolish have you been, Arjuna! What made you commit this mistake of avoiding the powerful army, and wanting me, who can actually do nothing for you?” queried Sri Krishna, seeing Arjuna still standing there, in obeisance. “Worshipful Master,” saying thus, Arjuna began to wipe his tears of joy, “Mighty One! What shall I do with the army, if you are not to be with me? Your blessings I consider as of far greater importance than even the whole world of militant generals. I am indeed blessed that you are with me.” Sri Krishna laughed and said, “Do you want to compete with me? All right; may you succeed.” Arjuna prostrates himself, and leaves.
Stupid, of course, was Duryodhana, who thought that he gained all the power because he had the army, and that Arjuna had only a non-combatant single individual. He never knew that the millions of soldiers were millions of drops, and the one chosen by Arjuna, the only one, just one only, was indeed one; but it was the one ocean, which could swallow any number of millions of the drops. Who can appreciate that God Almighty, is greater than all the incredibly great and vast universe of power and glory!
There is no necessity to dilate on a chronological narration of the various miraculous incidents that hinge upon the life of Sri Krishna, but it is enough if we try to understand that the completeness which God portrays in this Incarnation, Sri Krishna, is perfection in every sense of the term and that it is a many-sided relationship with the whole of reality. There is no dearth in any aspect of the manifestation. Sri Krishna is a completeness in every field of activity and existence. The greatest was he in every arena, every field and every undertaking. Unparalleled learning and knowledge, incomparable majesty of a prince-this Sri Krishna was. And he was a matchless warrior in battle whom no one could encounter, and Maha-Yogesvara, the great Lord of Yoga, greatest genius, and yet the most humble servant of mankind. That which is the greatest can also absorb into itself the lowest. Extremes meet at the same point. Perfection is not a one-sided greatness but an unthinkable arrangement of values, where to have one thing is to have all things at the same time. No one has succeeded in writing a competent biography of Sri Krishna, because to attempt such a task would he to assume in oneself the capacity to think in such an integrated manner as would be commensurate with the characteristics embodied in Sri Krishna’s Life. He was a mini-universe acting, God descending on earth as spiritual wholeness, the whole cosmos dancing in a single atom, as it were; infinitude operating through the finite features of a visible human form.
Sudama Receives Blessings
The childhood friend of Sri Krishna, Sudama, now beggared and poor, approaches the palace gates in Dwaraka and requests to be taken in to his beloved friend. The gate-keepers were astonished and even annoyed at the impertinence of the beggar wanting to meet the king. The Lord knows everything. On importunity, the news was formally conveyed to the great Master. The Lord, we are told, got up from his throne and ran to receive the poor man, personally, to the consternation of all the gate-keepers and the 0fficials of the palace. Carefully, he led the guest inside, embraced him with immense love, and made him seated on a soft, elevated cushion, in a raised royal sofa. The feet were washed with great care. They were kneaded by Sri Krishna himself, massaged to relieve the limbs of pain after the long journey. “Why, dear friend, have you come all the way walking on bare feet? You are tired. Your feet must be aching.” Thus saying, the Lord was pressing gently the feet of the poor old one, who looked astounded, dejected and much intrigued to find himself in such an atmosphere of cleanliness, neatness and gorgeous magnificence of a princely court, where he was a total misfit in every way.
After a few minutes of hearty conversation, Sri Krishna, in his own mischievous way, asked the friend, “You have come all this way. You must have brought something for me to eat. I can imagine that you would not have come without something for me.” Though it was true that there was a little, wretched handful of beaten rice tied in a half-torn towel clutched under the armpit of Sudama, which had been handed over to him by his wife while starting from home days back, the stunned poor man was not courageous enough to reveal that he had brought anything. He was in utter shame even to think that he could offer such a petty thing to this great one in that palace. So he hid it tightly under the armpit and said, “I have nothing, great one. Dear friend, what can I give you? There is nothing that I can offer you. I have not brought anything.” “No, no, you must be having something. Let me search. Let me see.” Sri Krishna pulled out the little rag. Naturally it broke; it was a piece of old cloth. And there was a gold plate that lay there on which was poured the so-called handful. Tradition goes that the poor handful of beaten rice multiplied itself into a little mountainous heap overflowing the large plate of gold. It was not a handful, certainly. The last is the first, and the humblest is the greatest. The handful of stuff becomes a delicious fragrant offering, overflowing on that large plate placed before all there. Now, the Lord eagerly took a mouthful of it and ate it in almost an ecstasy of the joy of taste. “How nice; how tasty! How, beautiful; how grand!” And he took another handful and put it into his mouth. And when ho was about to take a third handful, the queen Rukmini is reported to have held his hand and prevented him from attempting to eat it, for reasons she alone knew. Devotees tell us of this marvel. With one handful the blessings of the entire earth were bestowed on the guest. With the second handful, final liberation was assured. Rukmini could not understand what was the intention of taking the third morsel, when the earth and heaven were already offered with the two morsels. “Do you want me also to go as a servant? Enough of it.” And she stopped him from taking the third morsel. But the poor man had no guts to speak the purpose for which he had come. He was in consternation, that is all. He was flabbergasted. How could he speak, wretched that he looked in that atmosphere? He uttered nothing, though he was treated with such a wonderful hospitality and kindness. He was made to relax and rest on the beautifully laid cot. But, with all this graciousness of the host, the guest was not offered any thing. He was not even asked the purpose for which he had come, or whether he needed anything. “Do you want anything from me?” This Sri Krishna never uttered, nor did the old man say anything about his needs, though he had really taken all this pain on himself to request for some economic aid, on persistent pressure from his wife. The night passed. In the morning he was permitted to leave with the same love and kindness.
“I came all the way from my hut, my little cottage. What for is this my painful trekking? What am I going to tell my lady in the house? She expects me to bring her some wealth from Dwaraka. I had already told her that I had no wish to go and beg from Krishna. How could I, myself, ask anything? I thought he would understand my condition, he being so great. Probably he felt that I should not be bothered with wealth, the sorrow of all people. It is a bondage. It is a harassment. It is a suffering. In his great wisdom he must have known that it is not good for me to have these anxieties. I told the lady that I should not go spreading out my palms before my friend. God is great and He knows my state of affairs, which is to be worked out well. I thank my destiny. I go back with empty hands. I have received nothing, and I was not even asked if I had need of anything, though I was treated with the prince’s love and affection as an honoured guest. Yes, he was considerate to me. Poverty is a blessing. The rich have their load of sorrow. Yes, I am blessed. I go.” Once again, he walks back the terrible distance in the-heat of Saurashtra and Rajasthan, to reach Ujjain, his abode. He was staying in Avanti, so was today’s Ujjain called then. Having covered the journey back, he was trying to find the location of his residence, which he could not visualise. In the place of the old broken cottage, he saw radiance, magnificence, gorgeous decorations a shining palace, angel-like people waiting for his arrival. He thought he was mistaken, that he had by chance entered the capital of a king, and his house lay in some other direction. When he was passing by, he enquired of a boy, “Could you tell me what is the direction in which lies the hut of that old man, Sudama?” The boy pointed out, “There it is,” indicating the palatial structure. A very well-dressed, celestially happy woman comes and greets him. “Mother, where is the house of the old man, Sudama? I seem to have missed my way.” “You do not recognise me? Am I not your beloved consort? Overnight this has been bequeathed to us by some miracle.” In the place of that little hut, there was heavenly grandeur.
Anyone who has a mind to think will be able to understand what all this meant. The blessing which Sri Krishna bestowed upon the poor man was a secret communication, not publicly announced. But the purpose was fulfilled. God does everything in the manner in which it has to be done, and he does things in the exact and precise way as required, and not in any other way. Everything is done at the proper time, at the correct hour, in the most proper manner. Often it appears that God has many other ways than what we have in our minds. He is not always the bestower of material wealth, though in this instance of Sudama, we have the revelation that God showers on devotees material prosperity also; indeed, infinite prosperity. God can, on the other hand, rend a person to extreme poverty and the worst torment. “Yasyaham anugrihnami tasya vittam haramyaham” “Whenever I bestow my grace upon a person, I absolve him of all material possessions, the centres of his pleasure.” The greater the love that God has for his devotees, the less seem to be the material amenities available to that devotee. The more one moves towards God, the more also one moves away from the world! The securities of life which are materially construed are not necessarily the ways in which God thinks what is right. There seems to be some other way altogether, in which he can consider the welfare of people. God is truth, pure reality, and, therefore, whatever the world has we can have in God, also; yet, God is more than the world, and, perhaps, he is not the world at all.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnananda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita
Lord Sri Krishna, the Majesty of the Almighty
Lord Sri Krishna, the Majesty of the Almighty by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Saturday 3 August 2013 21:14
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Narayana and Nara, the great sages who are supposed to be performing eternal penance in the holy shrine of Badrikashrama (modern Badrinath), and who are the representations of Vishnu’s presence on earth, are regarded to have taken birth as Krishna and Arjuna, respectively, for the redemption of the world from sin and evil. Krishna, who is considered to be the Purna-Avatara (full incarnation) of Vishnu or, according to some, of the Universal Narayana who transcends even Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, revealed himself in Mathura as the child of Vasudeva and Devaki. We need not go into details of the miraculous and dramatic events of his early life in Vrindavana, such as the spontaneous opening of the gates of the prison where Vasudeva and Devaki were confined; the ebbing of the River Yamuna when Vasudeva tried to cross it with the child Krishna; the destruction of Putana and other Asuras like Sakata, Trinavarta, Vatsa, Dhenuka, Baka, Agha, Pralamba, Kesi, Chanura and Kamsa at the hands of the boy Krishna; the release of the sons of Kubera from their curse due to which they were born as trees; his self-multiplication as thousands of cows, calves and cowherds in place of the real ones that were lost; the subjugation of the serpent Kaliya; the swallowing of the forest fire; the lifting of the Govardhana mountain and the humiliation of Indra; the bringing back of the dead sons of Sandipani; and several other incidents of this nature which revealed the divinity of Krishna even at an early age.
The most intriguing and significant incident in the early life of Krishna is what has been called the Rasalila or his love-dance with the Gopis of Vrindavana. Commentators have tried to interpret the romantic seeking of Krishna by the Gopis and his response to their search in a dalliance that surpasses understanding as the eternal quest of objects for the Universal Subject which is present in every one of them as their Atman, the seeking of the individual for the Absolute in an ecstasy of feeling that the intellect cannot measure or estimate, a rapture of love for God in which all rationality is hushed, and the divine reaction from the Supreme Atman in a revelation of multiple immanence or a universal Self-manifestation, a state of spiritual superconsciousness in which one forgets one’s own personality and becomes conscious only of God’s existence everywhere in an emotion of love which bursts the bubble of individuality, which, indeed, was the condition, of the Gopis. There was nothing of the human lust or physical passion in the immortal dance of Rasa, when especially the age of Krishna was only of a small boy who could not be expected to excite carnality in the minds of elderly women in such large numbers. Another interpretation regards this incident as an occasion when Krishna, though to physical perception he was a small boy, appeared as a charming young hero in the eyes of every Gopi, with everyone of whom he was individually present by a multitudinousness of form which he assumed in the majesty of the power of his Yoga. To a doubt expressed by Parikshit on this question, sage Suka gives an adequate answer. The Lord, Suka replies, appeared in human form to shower his grace on those who came in contact with him and to create devotion in those who listen to the greatness of his deeds and of his life. It is strange that the husbands of the Gopis never missed their wives, having had them, by the power of the Lord, always by their sides, even when the Rasa dance was going on. How, then, can human judgment of values be applicable here? Further, Suka prescribes a study of the Rasa chapters of the Bhagavata as a remedy for lust and a means to acquire self-control and mastery over all desires.
While the early life of Krishna Krishna closes his sportful life as a child and an adolescent with the destruction of Kamsa, and suddenly assumes a stern outlook of life and turns his attention to the work of freeing the world from all sources of wickedness. The first serious opponent whom Krishna had to meet was Jarasandha, king of Magadha, a worshipper of Rudra and a menace to all good and Sattvika natures. He attacked Mathura repeatedly and, after being harassed several times, Krishna and his elder brother Balarama determined to rout his forces, sparing his life alone to allow him opportunities for collecting larger forces, which were destined to be uprooted. It was here that Krishna assumed the weapons of Vishnu, which all descended from the heavens, together with a celestial chariot which he rode in war.
With a view to the fulfilment of future purposes politically manoeuvred by him as the world’s greatest statesman and spiritually ordained as the world’s greatest Yogin, Krishna got constructed a mighty and gorgeous fortress at Dvaraka, in the western ocean, from where he began to rule the fortunes of people. The first question that arose in his mind was to enquire into the fate of the Pandava brothers, with which errand he sent Akrura to Hastinapura. His first meeting with the Pandavas was during the marriage of Draupadi in the palace of Drupada. After the marriage, Krishna offered them costly presents as a mark of respect. When Yudhisthira expressed his desire to perform the Rajasuya sacrifice, Krishna pointed out a great obstacle to it in Jarasandha and cleverly arranged to get rid of the latter through a private deal with Bhima. The occasion of the Rajasuya sacrifice of Yudhishthira became also the scene of the death of Sisupala whose head Krishna severed with his discus, Sudarsana. This event is the theme of a famous poem of that name by the poet Magha and the incident may be regarded as the background of the bigger and more complicated scenes of the Mahabharata war. In the celebration of this sacrifice Krishna is said to have allotted more honourable duties to other kings and reserved for himself the humbler service of washing the feet of the guests who came for the function and of removing the remains after the banquet served by Yudhishthira to all those who attended the sacrifice. It is here again that the divinity of Krishna was publicly announced by Bhishma, to which Sisupala took exception and with insolent words challenged Krishna for battle.
Krishna met the Pandavas now and then even while they were in exile, encouraging them with comforting words and promise of help to vanquish their foes and regain the kingdom. The incidents of Krishna’s miraculous help to Draupadi in the form of unending clothes in the court of the Kauravas and his sudden appearance before her in the forest and demanding of her a little food by the acceptance of which he filled the stomachs of sage Durvasa and his large following of disciples are too well-known to need any description. On the completion of the period of exile by the Pandavas, Krishna arranged for a conference in the court of Virata to decide the question of taking up arms against the Kauravas. As a measure of intelligent statesmanship, Krishna, however, accepted to go for a mission of peace with the Kauravas, though he knew well that the mission was not going to serve its purpose. As he himself expressed in his talk with Yudhishthira, it was more a diplomatic move than a step that was really necessary or meaningful. Sanjaya’s description of Krishna to king Dhritarashtra in his court is again a public proclamation of the divinity of Krishna. Krishna revealed his powers to the apprehensive Yudhishthira when he said that if the Kauravas attempted to do him any harm when he went to them for peace, he would not wait for the war to destroy them, but burn them down, single-handed, and relieve the burden of Yudhishthira. The mission of Krishna to the court of Dhritarashtra, his famous speech in the assembly and the stunning cosmic form which he showed before the Kauravas, mark a wondrous scene in the great drama.
The next scene is the delivery of the gospel of the Bhagavadgita at the commencement of the war. His going for Bhishma with the Chakra, his hypnotisation of the Kaurava forces by his looks, the confusion he caused in the minds of the opposing army by making everyone in the battlefield look like Krishna and Arjuna, his dexterous moves which assisted Arjuna in vanquishing the Samsaptakas, his intelligence which destroyed the invincible Bhagadatta, his Yogic power which worked in overcoming Jayadratha, his clever stratagem, again, which foiled the Sakti of Kama while simultaneously getting rid of the demoniacal Ghatotkacha, the way in which he saved the Pandavas from the Narayana-Astra of Asvatthama and invoked the help of Rudra himself in the war for the victory of Dharma in the cause of the Pandavas, the power which he exercised in vanquishing Kama’s weapons sent against Arjuna and in the saving of the latter from being burnt while his chariot itself was reduced to ashes by the Astras of Bhishma and Drona, his common sense in the event of the killing of Duryodhana, and the mysterious instructions of his which saved the Pandavas from being destroyed by the icy hands of Asvatthama, his succour of the child in the womb of Uttara, his great understanding which saved Bhima from being crushed at the embrace of Dhritarashtra, are all highly interesting and instructive episodes described in the Mahabharata. He showed his cosmic form four times in his life – firstly to his mother Yasoda, secondly in the court of the Kauravas, thirdly to Arjuna on the eve of the war, and fourthly to sage Uttanka. The prayers offered by Kunti and Bhishma to Krishna, as recorded in the Bhagavata and the Mahabharata, are magnificent not merely as forms of literary force, but also as specimens of the glorification of God in his Avatara as Krishna.
There are many other incidents in the personal life of Krishna mentioned in the Harivamsa, Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata which inspire one spiritually and provide a stimulating reading in the biography of one who demonstrated to the world the character of all-round perfection. The birth of Krishna is celebrated on the eighth day of the dark half of the month of Bhadrapada (August-September) every year.
The purpose of the Krishna-Avatara was not only to destroy unrighteousness but also to reveal to the world the glory and greatness of God. In the well adjusted integral conduct of the life of Krishna is manifest the majesty of the Almighty.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnananda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]