Janmashtami

Thought One

Krishna was born on Janmashtami.

Let us get re-acquainted with Krishna

Krishna is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu

Meaning of Krishna Krishna means the one who attracts, ‘akarshit ati te Krishna’. Krishna attracts people not only by the matchless beauty of his form. He attracts people by his music, his dance, his sports and his words…But one must need to love Him first. Understanding follows…

Krishna is the ‘The Dark One’ Krishna’s colour is  dark blue.

The  color blue is associated with the ‘ infinite’ like the blue sky.

Krishna’s favorite color of ‘dress’ is  yellow.

Yellow is the color of the Earth. I have read that this is because, the earth when introduced into a colorless flame emits a yellow hue. 

The Blue colour of the sky and the yellow colour of the Earth could indicate that  the Pure and Infinite Consciousness of Krishna has descended on earth to play a human role.

Men love to say with a naughty twinkle in their eye: “Why cant we have as many girlfriends as Krishna had gopis, and get away with it like He did?

I say: “If you can pick up the Govardhan mountain with your little finger, if you change the poison that was offered to Meera and turn it to nectar, if you can dance on a thousand fanged cobra, and above all if you are a young lad of 9, you may dance with as many gopis as you please.

Why does Krishna steal butter?

When the negative emotions are churned which turns into devotion (symbolizing butter) which Pure Consciousness (as Krishna) then steals….also the heart is soft like butter and that is what Krishna steals…

Krishna is considered a 16-kala-Avtaar which means that He is as close to God-head as one can get.

Lord Krishna is a son, friend, lover, teacher, king and philosopher. He can perform pranks, play the flute, be a brilliant statesman and a Spiritual par excellence.  As He expounds the Geeta to Arjuna, He weaves a philosophy of everyday living.

The religions of the past were life negating. 
What Lord Krishna stands for is life affirming. Krishna teaches us to accept the joys that life brings and laugh and dance in sheer gratitude!
It may be difficult to understand Lord Krishna but it is easy to love Him.
But how does one love Him? By being close to His devotees.

I remember when I first met my Guru, Ma Indira Devi, she said “To most people, He is made of stone, to me, everyone is made of stone, only He is real!”.  She believed that the Lord is more or less a theory, for most people, but for her, He was an intimate reality. Her love and faith for the Lord was contagious. She passed a small measure of it to me. I hope I am able to pass some on to you, through these words.

Harsha V. Dehejia states:

Krishna is the purna avatara and goes from sheer sensuality to serene spirituality…The romantic Krishna is as meaningful today as He was in the last millenium, perhaps more so as He does not demand any archaic religious rites or cumbersome rituals, neither ascetic withdrawal nor denial from this world of the senses, but leads us to an awakening of madhur dhara, or streams of honey, within ourselves. This is refreshingly different from our present day world of religious fundamentalism, religious driven terrorism, politically imperative religiosity or mindless guruism…

Malay Mishra states: 

…Thus begins the saga of greatness. Here is a son, friend, lover, teacher, king and philosopher, all human qualities surfacing over convulsions of time, as human body and intelligence, to weave a philosophy of everyday living for posterity.

The omniscient teacher stands imposingly in the chariot, in the middle of the battlefield with two mighty armies arraigned against each other. The skilled warrior Arjuna breaks down and needs convincing to go to battle against his kin. What purpose will that serve for him or his family or even for the kingdom, he wonders. Answers burst forth from the lips of the divine charioteer, delineating the three stages of perfection in yoga, through karma or action, bhakti or devotion and jnana or knowledge, to reach the highest evolved state. This is where neither action nor its fruit sticks to the body or mind, when dispassion and detachment guide the conduct of the soul in its future moorings, carving the way towards perfection and ultimate salvation.

The Vishwarupa darshan is where the whole universe, with its physical, metaphysical aspects and the diabolical meet and merge in the giant gnawing of the jaws and grind to eternity. 

The same vastness which had been displayed to the mother and a distraught Yashoda had looked petrified, of nourishing a baby which had displayed such awesome powers.

Everything becomes simple and easy to understand thereafter – to the mother as to all the gopikas and Krishna’s consorts, each having realised their individual liberation. This was possible by uniting with the very source of love, in a unique creative symphony of purusha and prakriti which becomes the leitmotif of human creation and the staple of a myriad folklores embracing the cohesive architecture of a constantly reinforcing cultural matrix.

The Divine Flute, reverberating through time, captivating millions, has entered every breath of mine. I have discovered Krishna far beyond the banks of the Yamuna, the meadows of Vrindavan, the battlefield of Kurukshetra and the splendour of Dwarka. I have realised the Blue God in my consciousness and beyond, and have merged in Him.

Read: Krishna is born

Thought Two

My mother introduced me to Krishna.

Ever since I can remember I have had a ‘Krishna and Radharani’ to worship. They were there in my mother’s house.

Mummy gave me a Krishna to take with me when I went abroad after my marriage and she brought me a Krishna when I moved into my new home in Bombay. Tomorrow is Janmashtami, the birthday of Krishna and my mother is in the hospital. I shall miss her at the kirtan tomorrow, but she will be with me and Krishna will be with her, and I shall pray that my Blue Lord protect her from pain of any kind.

(Mummy has since passed on)

DAKOR (Aug 2006)

Let me tell you a story that happened 500 years ago in Dakor (A short distance from Ahmedabad in Gujarat) There was an old man called Bodana who would travel all the way to Dwarika every year to see (Do darshan) his Krishna (Dwarkadheesh) On his last trip there Bodana told Krishna that he had become too old so this was probably his last trip there! Bodana had a dream at night where Krishna told him to take Him (Krishna) away with him. Bodana did as he was told and he was accused of stealing the Idol by the King…When Bodana told the king his version of the story the king in order to humor the poor man said that they would weigh the idol of Krishna…They would put the Idol on one scale and posessions on the other) and whoever’s turned out heavier would get to keep ‘Krishna’ Yes…you have guessed right…Bodana only put the only posession that he and his wife possessed (a nose ring) and the scale tipped in Bodana’s favour! Anyway the point that I am making is that I used to go to the Hare Rama Hare Krishna Temple in Juhu on Janmashtami and now an Iskcon temple has ‘come’ very near to my house near Babulnath Temple… …And I am cordially invited and taken care of…you see now I am older and need a little extra comfort…and my Krishna gives it to me…Koun kehta hai Bhagwan aatey naheen tum Meera ke jaisey bulaatey nahin!

Picture on the left: Iskcon Temple. Picture in the centre: Myself with the Chaturbhuj Krishna in the temple where we completed (ooops…we can never say we have completed a scripture…so we restarted the Bhagavad Geeta….(Aug 2006) Picture on the right: The group that participated in ‘The Geeta study’

Janmashtami 2007

Chaitanya Charan Das says:
Nietzche said: “I would believe in a God who could dance”
During his time God was generally portrayed as a frozen perfection, remote, static, and wholly unsociable…Nietzche would have been pleasantly surprised had he heard of Krishna, who danced expertly on the hood of the venomous serpent Kaliya…Krishna delights, not in the magnificence of godhood but in the sweetness of uninhibited love…He gives a glimpse of His awe inspiring greatness through His Vishwa roop darshan, which is one of the greatest mystical visions in world literature…Arjuna saw within the Universal form-within Krishna-everything and everyone in existence…The disarming hospitality that Krishna extended to Sudama and the subsequent generous benedictions that He bestowed upon His poor guru-kul friend are also eloquent testimony to Krishna’s personal warmth and sweetness…(Before the great war of Mahabharata) Krishna went as a Shantiduta (peace messanger) to dissuade Duryodhana from war with sweet words…

Shakun says:
What else to speak about my Krishna? He sang the Immortal philosophy: Bhagvad Geeta!
But today I sing!
Roop saanvala, man ka gora
Krishna Kanhaiya naam hai
Ek baalak ka janam hua hai
Radha ka jo Shyam hai
Meera ka Ghanshyam hai!

Tum hi bal mukunda ho
aur tum hi hamaare Gopaala
Tum hi Govardhan Giridhaari
Tum hi pyaare Nandlala
jag se hume kya lena dena
Jag se hume kya kaam hai
Ek baalak ka janam hua hai
Radha ka jo Shyam hai
Meera ka Ghanshyam hai

(Excerpts from) Jagannath (Lord of the Universe)
Rath Yatra (Chariots of the Gods)
By Damodara Pandita Dasa



Jagat means universe
Naath means Lord
Rath means chariot
Yatra means journey

(During the Rath yatra,)Why is the Lord of the Universe pulled around by ropes, balanced on 12-foot wheels, in a primitive fashion?

Because Lord Jagannath is bound by the ropes of His devotees’ affection. He goes wherever they take Him.

Why does Lord Jagannath have such big round eyes?
Because He is staring wide-eyed at all of us showering everyone with His Love.

One day Krishna’s brother Balarama, and sister Subhadra rushed off with Krishna to Vrindaavan.
When they reached Vrindavan, Balarama and Subhadra are wonderstruck at the deep intense love of the Brijvasis for Krishna…and the latter weeps inconsolably when He sees Radhika lying lifeless and burning with the fire of separation. The siblings’ hands and legs retract into their bodies…Their eyes widen with awe!