Krishna The Man ..... contd

Apart from being a shrewd statesman and general, he was a great warrior and he took pains and spent a lot of time to keep upgrading his favourite (and chief) weapon – the Sudarshan chakra and his expertise in its usage. His mastery over the other weapons like the bow and arrow, the mace and the sword was also outstanding at times surpassed those of even Arjuna and Bhima! His mastery over these weapons was not due to some superphysical qualities – rather he practiced regularly to attain those levels of mastery. He was an intelligent student, who was very respectful to his teachers.

He was a loving friend and never cared about the social strata to which his friends belonged. He was just one among them – a friend! When Krishna’s friend Sudama (who was a poor Brahmin) from his student days comes to visit him in Dwarka, he brings Krishna a present of simple puffed rice. On seeing the opulence of Krishna’s home and kingdom, Sudama feels embarrassed to offer him his measely gift. But Krishna takes it very lovingly from him and eats it with great relish - and even before Sudama reaches back to his own home – Krishna sends his emissaries and gets a beautiful house for his friend – complete with all comforts and money. This shows Krishna’s humility! Krishna had this unique quality that whether he was in the company of kings and emperors, or whether he was in the midst of his cowherd friends in Vrindavan or with the commoners in Mathura and Dwarka – he treated all as his equals! And was equally at ease interacting in any type of company! He was equally loving and compassionate to one and all – even animals and birds! As a cowherd boy, he tended to the cows of Vrindavan lovingly. At war and battlefields, at the end of the day, when all other warriors would be taking rest, Krishna would tend to his horses himself, massaging their tired legs, removing the burrs from their bodies and feeding and making them drink water with his own hands! His skill in the breeding and training of horses was legendary.

Krishna showed due respect to all elders – whether it was his parents, relatives or other elders in society. During the assembly when all elders and statesmen of Dwarka sat to discuss the matters of the state – he would respectfully put across his ideas and ask for their approval from elders – even though he was aware of the wisdom of his own proposals and knew for a fact that the elders rather sought his advice!

Krishna loved life and lived it to the fullest with full zest and happiness. He moved freely among one and all and even took part in the festivities and celebrated festivals with kings and commoners alike. As a cowherd boy in Vrindavan he

played pranks with the other cowherd boys and the women folk. He danced and created magic with his flute. In fact it is said that after Krishna left Vrindavan to go to Mathura – he never played the flute again – because it was only in Vrindavan

where he lived and loved totally and with complete abandon!!!!!! Later when he migrated with the Yadavas to Dwarka, he lived in wealth and opulence, yet he never indulged or languished in it! Krishna did not believe in renunciation – he believed in accepting everything that life had to offer, with grace and equanimity – but without getting attached to anything. This is one of the teachings of the Geeta and he gave ample proof of this through the way he lived his life. He believed in living life to its fullest!

Even though Krishna was full of love and compassion for all of creation, yet he never shied away from war just for the sake of keeping peace at any cost!!! He always strived for peace and for peaceful solutions to complicated political issues – yet when war was inevitable or unavoidable – he accepted that also and went into it with full sincerity, enthusiasm and commitment. If the good and welfare of society and mankind came through peaceful means, Krishna embraced peace, but if the same was possible only through destruction and war – then Krishna welcomed even war and destruction with open arms and convinced others to along with his thinking. Whatever he did was never from the point of view of self-ego or self-aggrandizement – but his decisions flowed from what was the need of the hour. According to Osho, Krishna was “that man who can hold to his love and compassion even on the battlefield, he can continue to love with his whole being while wielding a sword in his hand”. Krishna never supported violence; he never wished to destroy or hurt others – but if destruction or war was the only solution possible – (after all other avenues had been exhausted) – if he felt that peace itself was in danger if war or destruction was avoided - then he did not try to prevent it – but went on to prepare for it bravely and with full military preparedness to wage a clear, decisive war – so that at the end peace got a clear chance to be rebuild and re-established and flourish!!! Thus, even though Krishna is held responsible for not preventing the horrible Mahabharata was which practically destroyed everything – but for the abovementioned reasons, Krishna in his wisdom and strength of character felt that it was better to go through with the war rather than let peace and society bleed slowly to inevitable death and create more disharmony and misery for a long, long time to come in the process!!! He tried all peaceful methods at his disposal – ultimately going as an emissary of peace himself to the Kaurava court to strike a reconciliation between the Kauravas and Pandavas. Mankind and society had reached such abysmal depths of degeneration, that war had become imperative so that justice could prevail, good could prevail and virtue

could prevail in society. According to Krishna, war had become a necessary evil that had to be encountered and dealt with decisively so that all that was not right could be destroyed and then a fresh start be made for the reestablishment of lasting peace and Dharma!!! Dharma according to Krishna did not mean ‘religion’, but it meant performance of self-duty! And it was for inspiring this sense of self-duty that Krishna instigated Arjuna to take up arms in the Mahabharat war when the latter had laid down arms in a sense of false despair and sorrow!

Krishna throughout his life was a person who lived life to its fullest in all its varied aspects and accepted life with all its dualities! He accepted praise, devotion and love (of those who loved him) along with brickbats from his opponents with equal equanimity. He never called foul or indulged in self-pity when his enemies tried everything to kill him (he was constantly under the threat of being killed right from his birth and throughout life) or cursed him. He accepted love and hatred with his enigmatic smile. For him life and death were two sides of the same coin … one cannot have only one side of the coin … if one has the coin he has to have both sides of the coin! For him peace had to be protected with war and war was to be fought so that peace could prevail …. Only one was not possible without the other! War for the sake of war and peace just for the sake of peace was untenable! He felt that the importance of peace was enhanced because of war and war had significance because of peace! For Krishna, the dualities of life sustained and enriched it …. Because the positives (as we consider them) are understood and acknowledged and there is importance enhanced only because of the presence of the negatives (as we consider them) not because of their absence but rather, because of their presence. Laughter and tears, happiness and sadness, love and hatred are known because of each other – so to live a full life we must embrace both with equal enthusiasm. If we do not taste one we will never relish the other – the key of a happily lived life is to keep one’s balance in both situations – good or bad – in our likes and our dislikes.

Being a man, he loved women – rather he accepted their love and lavished his love on them. Whether it was Radha, Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati (daughter of the bear king), Ulupi (a Naga princess) ……. All expressed their love for him and in response to their overtures, he accepted their love and in return lavished his complete love on each of them! He had to kidnap Rukmini and then fight with her kith and kin –at her instance – because she loved him and wanted to marry him against the wishes of her brother! He braved calumny on his name just to fulfill her love! He in fact had eight wives and he got a magnificent palace for each of his

eight queens! A wonderful description of these palaces is given in the Mahabharata, Sabha-parva, ch. 57. Krishna lavished his love totally on every woman that he came into contact with – be it the simple gopis of Vrindavan or the princesses that he later married! He had this uncanny ability of giving his all to the woman he was with – to the extent that each of one of them always felt that Krishna was only hers and loved only her! The Rasleela in which he indulged in Vrindavan probably signifies this aspect of his love-making …. Radha and each and every gopi present during the rasleela felt that she was dancing with Krishna and that Krishna was solely hers! This was because although Krishna indulged in a very primal emotion of LOVE …. His love for any woman who came into his life was not motivated by Lust …….. rather it was through pure Love that he interacted with the women in his life! Not only did Krishna have a charming nature – but - his entire personality including his looks, physique, his strength, body vigour - were such that he outclassed the best-looking men of his time! Added to this was that he had great taste of dressing – the yellow silk pitambar that he wore enhanced his looks and complexion – and of course the peacock feather that was always part of his headgear!

Even though he was endowed with great physical beauty, Krishna did not interact with people according to their physical beauty. There is the story about an ugly looking lady named Kubja in Mathura whose body was also highly deformed –but - who had great love for Krishna. It is said that Krishna was very compassionate towards her and after pressing her big toe with his foot and pulling her straight – she was transformed into a beautiful maiden! This story could be interpreted in a more rational way – that Krishna’s love for her (in spite of her deformed body and ugly looks) gave her so much confidence that after that she never bothered about her physical beauty and carried on with her life happily content and confident in her inner beauty!!!!!!! This story probably implies that Krishna gave more importance to the inner beauty of a person and interacted with them at that level …… thus implying that human beings should pay more importance to the real person and his inner compassion and nature rather than getting carried away by the outer beauty of people that they came into contact with!!!!!!

Krishna was probably also a hypnotist – he may have hypnotized the entire Kuru court when Duhshashan tried to disrobe Draupadi – into seeing that the cloth that covered her was endless. Again while living in the forest he was able to hypnotize Rishi Durvasa and his disciples into believing that they were not hungry when Yudhistra had invited them to lunch – (without first consulting or informing Draupadi) but Draupadi had nothing to feed them with!

After having slain his uncle, the cruel King Kamsa, and freed the people of Mathura and his parents of this tyrannical ruler, Krishna alongwith with his elder brother Balrama went to study under the tutelage of the great Guru Sandipani! Having slain Kamsa, Krishna had become very famous – but at the Guru’s ashram he lived, studied, served and did all the chores at the ashram - just like any other ordinary student. The scriptures describe stories of Krishna going with the other boys of the ashram to collect wood from the forest, getting lost in the forest with his ashram companions in a thunderstorm etc.! He underwent all the rigorous training that his Guru deemed necessary so as to build a strong body and develop a strong and courageous mind. According to the Bhagvata, he did all that was necessary “to perfect oneself in the ‘discipline’ fit for a worthy disciple, the training which cultivates the intellect and the emotions that build up a fine character, to acquire the power and the habit of doing all one’s work oneself without dependence on others, to lay the foundations of lifelong friendships, to learn about and duly exercise rights and duties, to gain admission into all the departments of Science and Art, to understand what the real goals (end purposes) of life are and how to achieve them” – and thus illustrate that all this is the real purpose of Education!!!

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