Let us worship the brilliant Krishna of Geeta :- Janmashtami Special

Pranaam Everyone,

From our earliest childhood, we all have kept coming around loads of stories of Bhagwan Shri Krishna. The schedule of every night of ours was to listen to the stories of Baal Krishna from our grannies, of him taking cows to graze grass and killing demons like flies and ants!

We see Lord Krishna's life as a mixture of many varied aspects of human life. His life was a fusion of endless drama, endless play and endless wisdom. A person can never mould his life into one single message or in one specific line of thought.

In his life we see his two completely opposite sides. First one is of that Kanha who likes to steal butter from his own mother, plays flute, dances with his friends and teases all the Gopis.

Another is that side of Krishna which we see in his later life.. That political genius Krishna of Geeta, who expounded eternal practical wisdom of life and duties to Arjuna, in the middle of a battleground. There we see that majestic Krishna who summarised whole Vedantic and Upanishadic knowledge to Arjuna.

Earlier, all these holy scriptures and granths were the standard guidebook for monks, only limited to Sadhus and Sanyassins. Note that it was Shri Krishna, who through Bhagwad Geeta, made the knowledge of Shashtras available to every household.

Moreover, we find that the lofty doctrines of Bhagwad Geeta in this Modern Age upholds no exclusive religion. It is simply a solution to every difficulty of a human. It has no spiritual humbug and teaches us perfectly that how to harmonize our individual and social life. Paths of Karma ( Action ), Gyaan ( Knowledge ) and  Bhakti ( Devotion ).

Apart from preaching Geeta, Shri Krishna as a person in the whole of the Mahabharata played a very crucial role, time to time using his political genius and tricks. There is a famous saying, " Lord as Ram taught us to follow rules to protect Dharma and as Krishna taught us to break rules to protect Dharma. "

No wonder that his message on Nishkam-Karmayoga and Non-Attachment are still reverberating in the hearts of every human. Let us know what Swami Vivekananda had said on Shri Krishna and his teachings :-

" The central figure of the Gita is Krishna. … Krishna, perhaps, has a larger number of followers in India than any other Incarnation of God. His followers hold that he was the most perfect of those Incarnations. Why? "Because", - they say: "look at Buddha and other Incarnations: they were only monks, and they had no sympathy for married people. How could they have? But look at Krishna: he was great as a son, as a king, as a father, and all through his life he practiced the marvellous teachings, which he preached". "He, who in the midst of the greatest activity finds the sweetest peace, and in the midst of the greatest calmness is most active, he has known the secret of life". Krishna shows the way how to do this — by being non-attached: do everything, but do not get identified with anything. You are the Soul - the pure, the free, all the time; you are the Witness. Our misery comes, not from work, but by our getting attached to something. Take for instance, money: money is a great thing to have, earn it, says Krishna; struggle hard to get money, but don't get attached to it. So with children, with wife, husband, relatives, fame, everything; you have no need to shun them, only don't get attached. There is only one attachment and that belongs to the Lord, and to none other. Work for them, love them, do good to them, sacrifice a hundred lives, if need be, for them, but never be attached. His own life was the exact exemplification of that.

Swami Vivekananda

(CW/V4/Lectures and Discourses/The Mahabharata)

The moral we get from this blog is to realise the grandeur of the Krishna of Geeta. This may be a very cutting comment but it is the Geeta's Krishna that Modern India needs now. Leave the Baal Krishna to our grandmas. Shri Krishna's Bhakti aspect was important too, but what we need now is his Karma aspect. No matter if you haven't read a single line of Upanishads or Veda-Vedanta, just practicing Geeta in your own life will definately harmonize your individual and social lifestyle.

Let us all be the change that we dream the society to have. Let us all rest on the feet of that fearless, bold Krishna of Geeta to shake off this whole world with its lofty doctrines!

Thanks,

Daksh Parekh.