Historical Krishna - Part 8

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 some controlling powers, over natural elements, like Indra controlling rains. In every culture like the Norse, the Romans, the Greeks we have divine beings controlling heaven and having super natural powers and also having a king. In order to pacify the Devas Vedas prescribed sacrifices or rituals that would help Devas and tribe of men to coexist by mutually helping and supporting each other – Devas by giving abundant rainfall or bestowing boons to men. It can also be that Devas were an ancient race of human who ultimately got enough power to become the custodians of heavenly realms after their departure from this world. Similarly Asuras became custodians of the nether regions after their demise. It is also mentioned in Mahabharat that Devas hailed from Uttarkuru region, believed by scholars to be the region around Siberia based on geography descriptions in Purana and Mahabharata, and were custodians of the North. Similarly Asuras were custodians of the Western regions, Pitris or the ancestors that of South and the sages that of East. So humiliating Indra may also signify ascendancy of man over gods and their power. Krishna by establishing the superiority of man over gods ensured that the future human race breaks apart from the tyranny of the gods and their display of power and control over natural forces. It helped in setting a new age which advocated the worship of the Supreme Being rather than the custodians of nature.

So much for lifting of Govardhan. However other miraculous incidents that are narrated in Bhagavatam – like the fruit seller’s fruits turning into gold or mother Yasoda seeing the cosmos within the tiny tot’s mouth, they are not so important and even if they were not there, it would not have impacted Krishna’s greatness a bit. But then again, these are possible feats for a divine boy.

Another story that deserves our attention and that is there in Bhagavatam is the chastising of Brahma, the Lord creator. In order to test Krishna Brahma hides his companions and cattle for a moment of his, which is about a year on the earthly plane. Krishna understands Brahma’s play and he himself becomes everything – including the ropes by which cattle are tethered, the cattle themselves, the cowherd boys and their dresses etc. This story has a great significance. The actual incident may have never happened because if Krishna was God incarnate the Lord creator who is also the Supreme Being in one form and who knows everything about past, present and future, would definitely know it and has no reason to test Krishna in that matter. This story is provided in order to underline the Advaita Vedanta philosophy to commoners in simple parlance, in a story form that they would understand. On the one hand it says that the Supreme Being who has incarnated is even greater than the Hiranyagarbha or the cosmic mind which Brahma stands for. Upanishadas also make a distinction between greater and lesser Brahman, the greater being the Supreme Being while lesser being the Hiranyagarbha or the Cosmic Ego Sense or Mind from where all elements i.e. the creation sprang up, and which is also depicted by the Lord creator Brahma of the Puranas. On the other hand, it clearly spells out that it is the Supreme Being, the great cosmic consciousness that has become everything – all created things, all elements are basically gross forms of the supreme. Every manifestation is His, there is nothing but Him. So that accounts for Krishna becoming everything. So there is an underlying unity and the multiplicity is only apparent, on account of Maya or the special power of the Brahman, the Supreme, the cosmic consciousness who can only be depicted as the infinite existence, consciousness and bliss. There is another subtle angle to this. When the calves and the cowherd boys (who are Krishna transformed into them) return to their resp. parents, the parents feel an uncanny attraction towards their children, much more than they would normally feel. This depicts that the attraction for the Lord is even greater than any attachment or worldly attraction (of children etc.) So this demonstrates how bhakti and gyana converge, that when the One behind many is known there is only love and attraction towards it in a far greater scale than that can be possible in a worldly relationship and yet establishing worldly relationship is one of the means of reaching that transcendental state.

Some other incidents like the attraction of Yagna Patnis who gave the cowherd boys’ food while their husbands who were busy doing sacrifices did not acceded to the request are possibly true. Krishna was loved by everybody who saw his bewitching smile and look and also gentle behavior. Also his divine nature ensured attraction from simple minds, minds which were not tainted by worldly desires. The Brahmins performing rituals were worldly minded. They were performing yagnas to pacify gods for getting material desire fulfilled, while their wives were simple village women who had only devotion in their heart. So their minds were pure and were naturally attracted to the purest i.e. the divine child. We have no reason to disbelieve this story. Instead, it demonstrates one essential feature for which Krishna was universally revered and worshiped even during his time. He was eternally lovable and people put up with his pranks during his childhood for this reason.

One incidence which ensured much vilification later for Hinduism in general and for Krishna in particular in the hands of scholars and missionaries was that of the taking away of the clothes of hapless gopikas bathing in Yamuna. Many found sexual connotation to this simple story depicting playful pranks which even village children sometimes do. However we cannot change inherent bias and prejudices which enable the same incident to be presented in different ways by different minds, the minds accepting the version which best suits their own disposition and natural tendencies. Sri Ramakrishna explained this incident as removal of the eight fetters which bind a person in this world – that of fear, shame, secrecy, pride of the caste etc. Sri Ramakrishna said that through this incident Krishn removed one essential fetter of the gopis – that of shame, all others were removed anyway during Rasa Festival which we’ll discuss later. This seems to be the most logical philosophical version. On a simple worldly way of looking into this – it cannot have a sexual connotation as Krishna was barely seven or eight years old as per Bhagavatam. So there could not have been any ulterior motive and from a worldly standpoint it could have been a childish prank. In this respect one can mention that in childhood Sri Ramakrishna as child Gadadhar would publicly watch the village women taking bath in the local tank. Faced with protests and even rebukes by the women he did not stop doing it but when his mother Chandramani of whom he was very devoted explained to him that by doing such an act he insulted those women folks and their insult was his own mother’s insult, he stopped being a voyeur and never did it again. No spiritual (or sexual) significance is ascribed here – this was just a childish prank and curiosity. Now the same could have been the case with Krishna, although kudos to the author of Srimad Bhagavatam this has been boldly highlighted and underlined and hence we cannot ignore the spiritual meaning or significance. It also shows his complete control over his devotees from whom he wanted total devotion, nothing short of it. Bhagavatam narrates this incident to claim that one should surrender everything to God, including one’s own ego. Shame etc. stems from the ego or the little self that has to be surrendered before the Lord can make one His own.