jabdakhata

Krishna did not want the Mahabharata war. Yet he knew that Mahabharata war was inevitable. He knew the consequences and he knew his larger duty as a friend of Pandavas and as an incarnation to set the wheel of dharma running for ages to come. He knew that given the attitude of the Kauravas towards the Pandavas, given their greed and hatred, a peace treaty was not possible. Duryadhana was sure of his superiority. He had Bhisma, Drona and above everybody else Karna to fight for him. Yet one thing he did not have, dharma, on his side. His mother told him before the beginning of the war - yatah dharma tatah jaya, but he did not listen. He was sure that Pandavas with their limited resources esp. after spending 13 years in the forest and in exile would not be able to muster enough manpower to wage a war. Even if they dared to do so, he had his full army, support of many kings whom he had won over a period of time through either good behavior, bribe or treachery, warriors like Bhisma, Drona

When Avataras or special manifestations come to the world to embrace a worldly life they have to behave exactly like ordinary human beings. Otherwise every body will know them and their mission will not be successful. They would play a role knowingly and thus like the best actors they would act so convincingly that it would be difficult to distinguish them from ordinary men. However, their powers will still manifest through their selfless actions and love for humanity and they will reveal their identity to a select few through whom they will leave a message for the mankind. As human beings they too will be subjected to suffering and will have passions like happiness. Rama was grief stricken by the loss of Sita. Krishna too had his moments of weakness. When he left Vrindavana there is no account of how he felt for the loved ones he were leaving behind, knowing fully that he wont be returning to them, that these simple village girls and boys loved him with their everything and he too re

The conquest of Jarsandha had to be done in a way that would not get attention from his allies. They would not have time to react against the Pandavas and Krishna. They would be awestruck by the policy and the swiftness. Also it had to be a just battle so that it did not cause any censureship on Yudhisthira who was conducting his Rajasuya. Jarasandha was notorious for another reason. He was planning to conduct a great nara medha yagna or sacrifice of human beings to become invincible by begetting divine power. He captured eighty four kings and small chieftains and was waiting to capture sixteen more whom he would have sacrificed to Mahadeva to get a boon of invincibility. So he had to be stopped for saving the lives of his hapless victims through his foolishness and fundamentalism. There was no other person who was capable of fighting him, other than Bhima. Bhima was young and powerful. Moreover he had Krishna on his side and Arjuna to back him up. So the three went to Magadha disgui

Now let us come to one of the most important and also controversial episode of Krishna’s life, one which has been maligned by many, understood by few and appreciated by fewer – The Raas Leela or the Autumn Dance festival. Swami Vivekananda had said that one having body consciousness can never understand the true spiritual significance of the Raas Leela. Only people who have achieved transcendental love can understand the Raas Leela and what it meant to a bunch of women who were mad with divine love, divine fervor. The story goes on like this – The Hemant season was the harbinger of the winter. On a lovely day the young maidens, the gopikas took a bath and went to the temple of local goddess Katyayani and almost all of them prayed privately for having Krishna as their husband. On a lovely moonlit autumn night Krishna was desirous of playing with the folks and he started playing on his flute. Hearing that ethereal music, full of bliss and joy, none of the gopikas could remain in the

By killing Jarasandha with the help of Bhima who was equal to him in strength, Krishna secured the safe execution of the Rajasuya for Yudhisthira. There was no further obstacle as most of the other kings were either friendly or indifferent to Pandavas performing Rajasuya. They were also afraid of the strength and power of the Pandavas, esp. of Bhima and Arjuna. So far so good. But then Shishupala played the spoilsport. That cousin of Sri Krishna had a major hatred against Krishna and he never lost on opportunity to display that. There are some myths regarding his birth, that he had extra organs which came off once Krishna took him in his lap and the oracle revealed that he would die in the hands of Krishna. So his mother extracted a promise that Krishna would forgive his sins. Krishna agreed to forgive his ninety nine omissions. However fantastic this tale is, there is probably one shade of truth, that Shishupala knew that Krishna was going to be his nemesis, like that of Kamsa. Ther

What's the purpose of advent of a great incarnation or a person who can significantly steer the course of history and civilization? In Gospel Sri Ramakrishna says that only the power vested and its manifestation is the difference between an incarnation and an ordinary person, and also across different incarnations. They had been vested with varying degrees of power depending on the purpose, the situation and the historical need. In Gita Sri Krishna says that an avatara, or a special incarnation, a divine being who has more power than anybody else appears when dharma or the discriminating faculty (between right and wrong, moral and immoral and the mode of action needed) falls steeply among the larger masses esp. among the leading section (kings, politicians, statesmen, intellectual, leadership) and adharma or the ignorance, or lack of discrimination and associated vices, rises. More the degeneration, more powerful is the incarnation. What is the impact? The power helps in restorin

Let us now try to describe Krishna and analyze his activities in Vrindavan. Unfortunately there isn’t much realistic information available on how Krishna looked like, even though there are a lot of poetic descriptions. So it’s really difficult for us to construct the human Krishna from the poet’s or devotee’s imagination. However there are some pertinent and relevant pieces assimilated from various sources. For instance, he had curly hair, his body colour had a greenish (like that of new born grass) hue and was not exactly blue as depicted in popular imagination, he had large eyes (like petals of a lotus), he was fond of yellow garments, used to wear ornaments possibly of wild flowers and used to carry peacock’s tail plume on his head and carried a flute. His eyebrows were thick but not bushy. Atleast that was his description from Vrindavan days and since we have been discussing the Vrindavan days so far let us focus on these descriptions and their inherent meaning. Krishna is dark i

A word about Devas and their king Indra. In Mahabharata, Ramayana and Puranas there is copious reference to devas and Indra. In fact when we read these scriptures it seems to us that these devas were actually humans with more powers. For instance, they had constant fights with the danavas. The danava king Vrishaparva’s daughter Sarmistha was wife of Yayati. Yayati’s son Nahusha was offered the post of Indra in heaven. Devas were constantly mingling with the humans and even had human sons, like the five Pandavas. Devas and Danavas were inter related as both were sons of sage Kashyapa through his two wives Aditi and Diti. This leads us to naturally assume that these devas were actually a tribe like Nagas, who were more powerful than ordinary men. The same has been claimed by Swami Vivekananda in his East and West. He shows clearly on how the tribes of the Devas and Asuras evolved from human beings an. The word divine came from devas – derived from div or light. So possibly they had som

The most important mysterious incident is however the lifting of the Govardhan hill in order to save Vrindavan residents from a possible deluge owing to incessant rainfall. The story goes like this – The residents of Vrindavan used to worship Indra for having rains at regular intervals when needed, Indra being the god of the rains. This included an elaborate sacrifice aimed at propitiating Indra. Krishna stopped this practice by influencing his people to worship Govardhan hills instead of a costly sacrifice to propitiate Indra because he felt that Govardhan and surrounding areas confer more benefits to a primarily agrarian community such as the Gopas as the hilly region provides the grasslands and forests with streams that help in nourishing the cattle and livestock. People accordingly stopped the sacrifice in honor of Indra and started a custom of Govardhan Puja. This angered Indra so much that he deluged Vrindavan for 7 days and nights. But Krishna protected the Gopas using Govardh

So there is no reason to discard the special feats of Sri Krishna, although we need to be cautious about the possibility of loss of information over time and some exaggeration by ardent devotees and admirers which is quite natural. Gopas migrated to Vrindavan and thought that they were safe but Kamsa was not sitting idle. He had spies everywhere and he had friends who would attempt the assassination of Krishna and Balarama. One of them was Pralamba, who carried Balarama away, to be eventually overpowered and killed by him. Bankim thinks that the incident of Dhenuka involved actual wild asses who were very dangerous and reigned over the palm groves. Dhirendra Nath Pal seems to agree that Krishna possibly got rid of dangerous animals in the Vrindavan and made it safe for the habitat of the Gopas. The logic seems incorrect because mere slaughter of dangerous animals would not have earned Krishna the reputation that he earned. Kings usualy went in Mrigaya or hunting expedition and killed

Here comes the tales of some extra ordinary feats of the baby Krishna. Some of them are corroborated in the Mahabharata in the Sabha Parva by Sishupala who was disparaging the achievements of Sri Krishna. Mahabharata in its present form misses some sections of the interchange between Bhisma and Shishupala during the Rajasuya sacrifice. Bhisma was perhaps recounting the exploits of Sri Krishna in order to justify his receiving the arghya and Shishupala countered them in his own style. The first exploit is that of killing of Putana. Putana was sent by Kamsa to kill suspected babies by poisoning. According to Vishnu Purana she was a child killer. According to Harivamsa she was the nurse of Kamsa, while Bhagavatam shows her as a demon or an ogre. Bankim Chandra thinks Putana was a bird. He cites the exchange between Shishupala and Bhisma where Shishupala dismisses Krishna’s feats esp. that of killing of a vulture as a child. Also Putana in Sanskrit means a bird. Dhirendra Paul while cons

As per the facts from Krishna’s life – When Devaki and Vasudeva were married by the efforts of none other than Kamsa himself who loved them both, they were being driven in a chariot by Kamsa. At that point it was only he who heard a divine oracle that the eighth child of Vasudeva and Devaki will be his nemesis. He flew into a rage and decided to kill Devaki then and there but Vasudeva persuaded him to spare her life and reasoned with him. He also pledged his child to Kamsa as soon as it would be born and kept his words. His honesty and sincerity temporarily turned Kamsa into a better person and he set them free with dignity and respect. But sage Narada’s advise and the unholy company of bad men and associated ill advises again made him a cruel ruthless tyrant and he imprisoned Vasudeva and Devaki. Their children were killed one after another and finally the seventh one was mysteriously transferred to Rohini, the other wife of Vasudeva and he was none other than Balarama or Samkarshan

Let us first start analyzing the facts that we know. The sources of information about Sri Krishna’s life are primarily four fold – 1) Mahabharata 2) Vishnu Purana 3) Srimad Bhagavata Purana 4) Harivamsa Purana Of these, Mahabharata primarily deals with an adult Krishna of Dwaraka and his relationship with the Kuru Pandavas. In Mahabharata Krishna Balarama does not appear until Draupadi’s swayamvara. We come to know some aspects of his childhood from his own statements in Sabhaparva and also that of the abuses of Shishupala. Harivamsa gives his exploits and the details about the Yadava dynasty and its kings. Vishnu Purana also has many interesting accounts. But the most comprehensive account of his life and childhood and found in Srimad Bhagavatam or Bhagavata Purana. It is said that there was an older version of Bhagavatam which was composed possibly before Buddhist period. But Bhagavatam underwent some fundamental changes and between 6 th and 8 th century AD it was transformed i

So far so good. We know the Sri Krishna existed. There are far too many textual references and cultural linkages to ignore him as a myth. In fact history of India is inevitably linked to Mahabharata and Krishna and a large part of our cultural lineage is shaped by Sri Krishna. To ignore him is to ignore Indian culture, tradition and one of the major pillars of the Unity in Diversity across India. Now comes the major question. Let us accept Sri Krishna existed, he was not a myth as many Western scholars, Christian missionary historians and Communist writers would want us to believe. Then when did he exist? The Aihole inscription of Pulakeshin II dates Bharata war at 3102 BC, which is almost the central period in Kuru-Pandava’s and Krishna’s life. According to Mahabharata, after the war the Pandavas and Sri Krishna lived for only 36 years. But how reliable is this date? Bankim Chandra in Krishna Charitra places Sri Krishna’s period as 1400-1500 BCE, a period which was also proposed b