Krishna : An Enlightened View

Lord Krishna, the most colorful and highest incarnation ever happened on the planet earth. His attributes ranging from being a shepherd to a lovely friend to a flutist to a warrior to a great strategist to a great statesman. But in this modern era, he was being criticized on the pretext of a womanizer, a warmonger, and a destroyer. Many scholars and even common people misunderstood him. A country like Russia once took the stance to ban the Bhagwadgita, as he delivered it on the battlefield. Many religious critics undermined his divinity by putting some scandalous attributes on him. So understanding Krishna in the eyes of materialists, separatists and atheists will be surely a dangerous deal. To understand Krishna we need to understand his inner realm. He can never be understood with a profit-oriented middle-class mentality. Even in the Mahabharata period Duryodhana always hated him and he never accepted him to be a godly figure. Shakuni, the maternal uncle of Duryodhana always looked at him as a clever prankster who can trick you with all his charm. Very few people in the Mahabharata era were aware of the fact that he was the real god. Although, he himself was not that serious to be revered and brandished as a god. Extreme joy and playfulness were the core of him, who just loved to play with life with beating against all the odds. He can’t be bound with the rules-based social frame, because he loved to break the rules. Krishna represented the cosmos or universe. In his entire life, he was seen to be in tune with cosmic principles. Aligning to the universal order or cosmic balance was the center point on which he can be understood. Now let us focus on some of his attributes in the prism of dharma…….

Rasleela and 16000 wives: Many staunch and fraudulent minds mock Krishna to be a polygamous or flirtatious one. But the real rasleela, happened in Vrindavan when he was just below 10 years of age. Many references blindly project Radha to be his lover. But in reality, it was the unconditional love for a companion. Not like modern-day disloyal and crooked friendship affairs. His love was beyond any expectation and any prejudices. To dispense with all the Gopa and Gopikas he shared that same friendliness. At that time he established the order of social relationship going beyond any partiality and conflicts within. Although after 10 he left Vrindavan and went to Mathura.

He released 16000 widows from the prison of tyrant Narakasura. Now the society was not ready to accept that 16000 widows to be legitimate. To save them from that stigma he declared them to be the better half or ardhangini of himself. What an absolute sacrifice! For upheaval of those captive widows, he bestowed them the status of Krishna’s wife. He is a real sarva parityagi for humanity.

Mahabharata war: Mainstream scholars often blamed Krishna for the occurrence of the great destructive Mahabharata war. But actually, at that time the war was necessary. Already the earth was having great warriors like Drona, Bhisma, Ashwathama, Karna, and many others. Each of them has the potential of destructive weapons like Brahmastra, Narayani Astra, Pashupatastra, etc for which the earth could have been annihilated forever. Krishna actually chose the Kurukshetra to be the battlefield and made the war happen in a controlled environment. He himself did not take any weapon but dismantled many of the destructive atomic weapons. Even though he gave his skillful Narayani senas to the Kauravas. Instead of having a personal attachment to Krishna, his Narayani senas fought for the Kauravas against him. What an integrated and impartial leader he was. At that time unless the war happened the whole earth would have been destroyed forever.

Acceptance of Gandhari’s curse: Sri Krishna was the real god and he could get himself out of any curse. He diffused the curse of Brahmastra on Parikshita in the womb of Uttara. But he gave value to queen Gandhari’s pain of losing 100 sons in the war and he understood her perception of him to be the real warmonger. He accepted her curse which ultimately led to the destruction of his own lineage, yadu kula.

So Krishna was not that type of perfect one, who did something for which he will be greatly respected in history. He was open to embracing all imperfections unto himself. He is the God who actually showed how to live life in all possible dimensions. He showed us just to accept life as it is and to flow in the way of existence. Not to be blindly possessive in every case, rather than he taught us to foresee the life from a larger vision, which actually can save us from many wrongdoings. His “karmanye vadi ka raste ma phalesu kadachana ha” is often misunderstood by doing things without having any expectation of the results. But actually he wants us to move from a controlled environment to a liberated environment. He stressed on living intensely with every moment without getting psychologically enslaved by it and liberate ourselves from our anxiety and fear. Let’s imbibe all the kalyana gunas of Sri Krishna in our life………Radhe Radhe!!!