BHAGAVATHAM – The story of KRISHNA

BHAGAVATHAM – The story of KRISHNA

Bhagavatham is the story of Bhagavan, the lord of the universe. Bhagavan is named Krishna literally meaning ‘the one which attracts’. One may call it by any other name like Yahova or Allah or Buddha or Sufi. It hardly matters. What is there in a name? It is only the indicated entity that is of any significance. The cause of the universe and life.

The book contains stories containing morals / lessons / hints to strengthen the mind and transcend death. It starts with the story of a King Pareekshit (meaning ‘the one who was tested’) who while hunting in forest happened to see a rishi (Indian saint) in meditation posture. The king was chasing a deer and wanted to know if the saint had seen the deer and in which direction it had gone. As the saint was deep in meditation oblivious of the surroundings, there was no reply. The king felt angry and insulted. He abused the saint, lifted a dead snake from vicinity, garlanded the saint with it and stomped off !

The son of the saint, who also was a saint, on his visit saw the dead snake around the neck of his father who was still in deep meditation. Infuriated, he realised the event through his sixth sense and cursed king Pareekshit to “die of snake bite within 7 days”!

The king got information about the curse and was alarmed. He tried to escape the curse by making a single pillar tower with just one door which was heavily armed by his trusted soldiers. Not even a fly was allowed to go inside ! Then he sought advice from a learned saint how to escape the predicament. The saint told him about the truth about life through the life story of Bhagavan. By the seventh day, the king was enlightened to face death without fear.

On the seventh day, some saints came to see the king. The king informed that he would see them the next day after the deadline is over. But he accepted the fruits that they brought. While trying to eat one of the fruits, a small worm creeped out and suddenly transformed into a huge snake ! The king realised that there is no escape from the destiny. He bowed to the snake and invited it with a smile to bite him. Because he had transcended fear by realising about his deathless true self and was consciously willing to relinquish his death prone body.

This is the goal that Bhagavatham leads the readers to. Realise our self and thus transcend death. If we don’t, then we continue to think that the body is the self and face death. We falsely think that a tremendous loss is about to happen by death. The book depicts life and times of Krishna, the incarnation of God in a human form. It shows the extent of intelligence and imagination the author had to clarify certain things that he knew and others did not about ourselves through a story.

Only some of the controversial (read misunderstood) portions of Bhagavatham are discussed here.

1). KRISHNA THE 8TH SON OF SISTER KILLS KING KAMSA:

King Kams is the embodiment of ego present in various degrees in each and every human being. Ego is actually the identification that one develops about himself by interacting with the world. It is primarily the body-mind combo identity given by the society or assumed by the individual about himself. If both tally, then there is harmony. Else there is mistrust hatred and fear.

The human body has eight distinctive elements. The five senses namely 1). Eyes - to see 2). Ears - to hear 3). Nose - to smell 4). Tongue - to taste and 5) the skin - to touch. In addition, there is 6). Mind and 7) the intellect. The eighth element is the ego.

The book says that the first seven elements would not kill an individual. But the eighth element (ego) would certainly kill us ! If we analyse this statement, it can be seen that the first seven elements only gather information and interpret it. It is the eighth element that might seize the information and initiate actions that can affect others. Ego is like a bubble or balloon with limited period of existence with hardly anything worthwhile inside it except hot air ! It is destined to burst sooner or later. Even if the ego dies, the other 7 elements would remain.

The ego is not an insignificant element. Even those who appear to be humble may have a trace of it. It cannot be erased easily. It can be understood and dealt with by the intellect. The mind would try to inflate it.

There is an Osho story of a king who was praying at a temple. “Oh ! God. I am nothing. I am just a dust at your feet”. Meanwhile a beggar was also praying on similar lines. The king got angry and shouted at him. “Hey you dirty beggar. I am the king. I reserve the right to say that I am a dust before God. You are even smaller than dust !”

So be very very very…… careful about this guy named ego alias king Kams. Surrender the ego to the soul and realise that there is a natural flow of events inside you. Don’t resist it. Simply float about it. Things to do will be revealed to you as and when necessary. Do it at the most earnest and leave it. Don’t hang on to it. This attitude will make you fearless of even going through the event of death. Resist it and you would feel pain. Allow it to flow through us and happiness would break out even in situations where traditionally others feel miserable. It is therefore simply a matter of acceptance as you are, as it is, as others are, as the nature is. Relax and feel one with the universe. Ego would try to project one as special or unique. That is the beginning of miseries due to duality.

2). TEENAGED KRISHNA STEALS THE CLOTHES OF GOPIKAS BATHING IN RIVER :

In this part of the story, teenaged Krishna steals the dresses of the females bathing in a river and hangs them from the branches of a tree. When the Gopikas ask for the clothes, he asks them to come ashore with the ‘hands raised well above their heads’ !

To the critics, this was more than enough to jump the gun. To be fair to the author, he could very well have omitted this part from the story as this could create confusion among the readers later. But this story is very much kept there. So the author kept it there purposefully. What does it really mean then?

Females are naturally shy of their body because the males look at their body. The male on the contrary does not feel shy if exposed. Males walking or working half naked does not make the female curious of feel sex. However a female’s body part even if slightly exposed attracts the attention of males. No wonder the burqa was invented to shield the female from the prying eyes of the strangers !

By the way there is no stranger in this world which is a different issue.

Krishna is not an ordinary teenager voyeur who likes to peep at women. Krishna is characterised by the author as the incarnation or the creator of all bodies including those of the females. A creator does not have to peep at the creation. He can look straight into it without any inhibition or cover to see if it is in order. Therefore the natural human conclusion that it is the mischief of a teenager boy is not realistic.

Well and good ! But then what does this incident signify?

Quite simply Krishna does not want women to be shy of their body.

Why? Is it not virtuous for women to be modest and shy? Is this a call for women to be shameless and expose in public? Won’t this increase the lust of men?

The women also have the knowledge and consciousness as much as the male to wear appropriate clothes according to the situation. She may wear a bikini at the beach and a skirt on the road. The male need not interfere in what she chooses to wear. She very well knows how to dress for the occasion. Male chauvinists may excuse or go to hell.

But the reason why Krishna asked the women to come out of water with hands folded above their heads is different. In the ultimate analysis, we are not the body. Or mind. But the soul which has no sex. To a male, the mind would identify itself with the male body and behave accordingly. To a female, even though she knows that her soul is not the body, the males keep reminding her, day in and day out, of her body either by looking at it or by feeling uneasy when other males look at her, which she understands immediately and covers herself.

Because of this repeated reminders, the women’s mind get conditioned to be aware of the body at all times than about her soul. On the contrary the male can imagine himself to be the soul forgetting the body. This is a disadvantage the females have. In presence of a male, she becomes conscious of the body ! To make the women realise that they are actually the soul and not the body (like Krishna knows about himself) he played a practical joke by stealing their clothes. He wanted the females to be proud of the body than crumbling inside. In fact they are not the body. This truth they had to realise at least before Krishna. If they think of Krishna as a male, they would feel body conscious and cover themselves. But Krishna is not an ordinary human male. He is a characterisation of how the soul would behave if incarnated in a human form according to the imagination of an Indian rishi. The soul which created all bodies including the universe need not feel shy to be in a female body for that matter in any body.

This is applicable today also. Females feeling shy about the body and restricting their movements is a pitiable sight. Females think they are females ! Just as the males think they are males. But both are only partly right. They are not either male or female. But they have either a male or female body. If they identify themselves with the body, the mind is trapped. They behave like males and females only. But if they realise that they are actually the soul which is pure consciousness without sex, then they would not treat the male female discrimination as the ultimate truth. It may be true for practical life. But continuing to believe that they are only the body actually traps the mind and makes it difficult to know the soul within. The mind tries to see the outside where it sees males and females. But if the mind is able to look within, then there is the soul only within all males and females.

Male and female bodies are actually different dresses worn by the soul. If we remove that dress, then we can see the soul. Else we see only the dresses. This is what Krishna wanted to teach us through the story.

A small warning to the males aspiring to be modern Krishnas.

Don’t try this out yourself at your village! The other males might teach you a different lesson that you are just another male body for target practice!

3). KRSIHNA MARRIED 16008 WOMEN:

To be fair, not a bad achievement at all by any standards. Because of these qualities, eve teasers and womanisers are nicknamed Krishna these days !

There is a subtle meaning on the number of wives. To understand this, again one is advised to look at Krishna as the soul, the life energy and not as a sex addict human being.

The soul is the base of all life. It manifests in human body as 8 elements as already stated. The five senses, the mind, the intellect and the ego. These elements are dependent on the soul. They exist because the soul supports them. Without the soul, there is no question of these 8 elements existing on their own.

These 8 elements are thus individually equated to the wife of a husband. The wife exists because of the husband. It is a euphemism to clarify the concept. Actually there is no husband or wife as we know. There is no owner or slaves. When the soul so wishes, the elements manifest and dance around the soul just for fun ! The wife-husband relationship is to show the depth of relationship and the complete merger of the elements with the soul. It is the concept to clarify that the 8 elements are part and parcel of the soul.

In today’s language, it is like the hard disc, drives, monitor, mouse, keyboard, mother board etc. The electricity is the soul. These various elements in the presence of power provides a functioning instrument called computer ! If there is no power there would be no activity. The instrument would be dead. Similarly the human body with the soul as the power source.

Just that the soul is a UPS which requires no charging. It is a magical entity with oceans and oceans of energy and knowledge at its command. We are all parts of this entity like the different fingers in the palm. We don’t realise this because we have somehow brainwashed ourselves to believe that we are the body. This is like the fingers individually boast of their qualities thus making the little finger cry. Without knowing that all these fingers are actually just the parts of a bigger design called the palm. The fingers are parts of the palm. They don’t exist in the air as individual fingers. The palm would tell the fingers that if it really wanted all the fingers to be similar, it could very well have made them that way. But then the purpose of holding will not be as smooth as it is now !

We may feel belittled before better bodies. But we are actually not the body. It is ignorance or darkness that makes one think that one is the body. We find such individuals all around. Some think they are better than the rest being taller, richer, better looking, stronger or smarter. It is like the middle finger claiming to be the best. If someone tries to belittle you this way, just think of the middle finger (without lifting it).

Bhagavatham is the message to leave this false identity and embrace the soul as your true self.

Coming back to the innumerable wives issue, we have so far accounted for 8 wives. Now we have only 16000 left ! We have just made a head start.

The human mind is stated to have 16 different types of feelings. We know of fear, jealousy, happiness, frustration, pain, anger, love, hatred, irritation etc. Each of these feelings has many variants. For example, pain can be bearable to barely bearable. In Hinduism, ‘many’ is denoted by the figure thousand. One can have different degrees of a particular feeling. Thus the 16 feelings along with its thousands of degrees or variants is collectively termed as 16000 ! And these feelings are all dependent on the soul. The soul is the owner of all the feelings in mind.

In rishi’s words these 16 main feelings and its thousands of variant feelings are the wives of Krishna the soul. The word Krishna literally means ‘to attract’. It attracts and keeps all these feelings in its position ready to burst at the face of the deserving ones at appropriate times. The earlier mentioned 8 and this 16000 adds up to 16008.

And that explains the multitude of wives.

4). KRSIHNA'S OWN CHILDREN DIED FIGHTING ONE ANOTHER !

This is also true ! There is no hiding from the truth. The so called lord of the universe could not save his own children from getting killed through infighting as stated in the book.

Makes one wonder what is the use of being the lord if one can’t save at least his family members from disaster !

But this is exactly the lesson that the book gives us. We will not be saved just because we are actually the God’s own children. The children of Krishna had high level of egoism. After all everyone used to bow to their father ! But that legacy did not help when the ego came out.

The story goes that a son of Krishna dressed up as a pregnant woman and made fun of the visiting saints to predict if the child is going to be a boy or girl ! The saints got furious and cursed him that he would deliver an iron rod which would destroy the entire family. As soon as the saints left, the prince developed labour pain and delivered exactly an iron rod ! The brothers got alarmed and decided to grind / file the rod to fine powder and throw into the sea. They managed to file down the rod to powder except a small piece which could not be filed any further. They threw the iron powder to the sea. It was washed ashore by the waves and grew into sharp edged thorny bushes. Krishna’s children fought with theses bushes later and perished.

The small piece of the rod left ungrounded was transformed into the tip of an arrow which killed Krishna himself later.

The lesson of the story is that parentage or relationships will not save anyone from disaster. One has to lift himself mentally to transcend death.

Now ask yourself. When we pray to God to save us, won’t the God be musing inside. “Do these idiots not know that I myself could not save my own children from ego driven destiny?”.

So don’t pray to God to save you. God cannot and will not !!

Instead pray this way in your own language.

“I know I have the faculties to face the challenges. My intellect may remain clear to make the most appropriate decisions. My mind may remain firm while taking decisions. Let my action not hurt anyone. If some one is hurt I am responsible and would pay for it. Let my actions create goodness to all beings and mother nature. Let me be capable of repaying all debts. I remember my parents and the chain of heritage that has brought me where I am now and I am thankful to them. I am thankful to the sun for giving me heat and light. I am thankful to the ocean for providing me water to drink. I thank the air for making me able to breathe. I am capable of facing any challenge or adversity. I thank everyone for making me capable”

Just try and see if there is any change !

5). CHILD KRISHNA DANCING ON THE HEADS OF SNAKE KALIYA:

The picture on Bhagavatham can be many but normally a child Krishna dancing on the many heads of a giant snake or an adult Krishna playing a flute by leaning to a cow. The snake with many heads refers to the worldly desires. When its venom – jealousy and hatred - start affecting normal life of the people, Krishna interferes. He gets on top of the desires and makes the snake eject the venom. But carefully note that he does not kill the snake (desires) ! Because he only created the desires. God does not want the desires to die. A disciplined enjoyment of desires is not ruled out.

6). ADULT KRISHNA PLAYING FLUTE LEANING TO A COW:

This sums up the meaning of this world. The universe or nature is the cow. God sings a tune by leaning into nature. God loves the nature. The cow consumes lowly grass and convert it into nourishing milk. In other words the nature converts earth into food. The flute is the human body with 9 holes, the ultimate creation. Life energy flows through the human body creating melodious music. When we surrender the ego to God, then God flows through us or we can see God breathing life through us.

Know Krishna consciousness in the right way. You may laugh all the way to salvation !