Sri Krishna

Sri Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The name ‘Krishna’ in Sanskrit means ‘all attractive’. Krishna is the reservoir of all pleasures and opulences – the principal of them being full beauty, full strength, full wealth, full fame, full knowledge and above all full renunciation. Bhagavan is the word in Sanskrit that is used to address The Almighty. ‘Bhaga’ means ‘opulences’ and ‘van’ means ‘he who possesses’. Hence Bhagavan is he who possesses all the opulences. Since Krishna possesses all opulences in full and to an unlimited extent, He is called as the Supreme Bhagavan.

Krishna appeared as the eighth son of Devaki and Vasudev in Mathura. He was then taken to Brindavan where He enjoyed His childhood pastimes with his friends and his foster parents namely Yashoda and Nanda Maharaj. The cowherd girls – the Gopikas or Gopis loved Him more than their own lives. Of all the Gopis in Brindavan, Sri Radha is the dear most devotee of Krishna. In spite of being the supreme controller of everything – both animate and inanimate, Krishna always loves to be bound by His devotees' rope of love.

At the age of 11, Krishna left Brindavan and came back to Mathura to execute His duty as the protector of the whole world. He killed the demon Kamsa and established the new capital city of Dvaraka. Krishna along with his brother Balaram attended gurukul under the guidance of the holy sage Sandipani Muni. There the two brothers learnt all the 64 arts in as many days and came back to Mathura as fully qualified Kshatriyas. Kunti Devi, the holy mother of Pandavas, was the sister of Krishna’s father Vasudev. Hence the ace archer Arjuna is the cousin of Sri Krishna.

( Krishna’s father’s name is Vasudev. This ‘Va’sudev is to be pronounced with a dipping intonation. Krishna’s name is also Vasudev. But it is to be pronounced as V-aa-sudev. Thus according to the rules of Sanskrit grammer, the son of Vasudev is called Vaasudev. Likewise the son of Prtha (other name of Kunti) is called Paartha (other name of Arjuna). Since Krishna was the charioteer(sarathy) of Arjuna(Paartha) during the war, He is called as Paarthasarathy )

Krishna ruled his kingdom of Dvaraka for the rest of his period on earth. As a king, he always established dharma or righteousness setting the benchmark for the human society. He married 16,108 queens and had one palace for each of them. Though He is one, He expanded himself into 16,108 Krishnas. Hence all the queens always felt that Krishna was with each one of them. He had a family of eight children. Pradyumna, the famous warrior, is the dear child of Rukmini and Krishna. Aniruddha is the name of Krishna’s grandchild.

Krishna never swerved from the path of righteousness and he made sure that truth always emerged victorious. During the famous war of Kurukshetra, Krishna assumed the role of Arjuna’s charioteer and preached the most confidential knowledge of Bhagavad Gita to him. This matchless hero helped Arjuna during the course of the war and brought victory to the Pandavas. Krishna represented everything that is best, moral, blissful, beautiful, powerful, wealthy, famous and eternal. Though he had all opulences in their fullest and most perfect form, he till date stands as the most perfect example for absolute detachment. One of his most profound instructions to Arjuna was “Your right is only to perform your duty and not to its fruits”. In other words, He asked Arjuna only to fight the war and not to worry about the results.

Our first lesson from Bhagavad Gita is that we should do our duty just for the sake of doing it and not worry about the results. An analogy can be cited in this regard. An excellent archer can have full control over ONLY his bow and arrow and not on the target. If he wants to shoot at the target, in spite of his best efforts, all he can do is take an aim correctly and release the arrow at the right time. But whether the target will still be in the same position or move to a different position, is something that is not in his control. If the target is the same place, the arrow will hit it yielding positive results for him. If it moves, the arrow will miss the target and his shot will be a failure. Thus results are always not in our control. Of course we should always aim to get the best results in every work we do. But we should only do our work and leave the results to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus our job is to work and ONLY to work. That is the secret and the only way of how we can enjoy doing our work.

Let us all start to walk in the path shown by Sri Krishna, the Supreme master of all yoga. May He who created the entire Universe, you and me bless us in our endeavor towards acquiring perfection in our work.

Jai Sri RadhaKrishna!

The Bhagavad Gita

The ‘Bhagavad Gita’ or the ‘divine song of the Lord’ is the holy book of Hindus. It is widely regarded as the essence of all Vedas. As the popular saying goes “What is found elsewhere can be found in Gita but what is found in Gita cannot be found elsewhere!”. Dec 1 2006 was celebrated all over the world as Gita Jayanti. It was on this day 5200 years ago that Sri Krishna spoke ‘The Bhagavad Gita’ to his friend and ace archer Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

Arjuna was about to fight a war with his own cousins and relatives to claim the right of his own kingdom. The feeling of love and affection towards his relatives overwhelmed him. Forgetting his duty as a warrior, he was ready to give away his kingdom to his evil-minded cousins. Thoroughly confused about his duty, he let his famous bow ‘Gandiva’ slip from his hands and surrendered at the lotus feet of Sri Krishna asking for his guidance. It was at this juncture that Krishna, the Supreme mystic spoke ‘Bhagavad Gita’ to Arjuna. During the course of this holy dialogue, Krishna not only advised Arjuna of his own duty but also on the most confidential knowledge one can ever imagine of. Krishna spoke on a wide variety of topics – the most prominent of them being “How should one do his/her work?”. The Bhagavad Gita comprises 18 chapters, with each of them speaking on different fields of knowledge. It is said that it takes more than a lifetime to understand the knowledge of Gita. May Sri RadhaKrishna bless us in our sincere attempt to understand this Supreme knowledge and the secret of all secrets.

One common school of thought about Bhagavad Gita is that it is a book only for monks and holy sadhus. In reality it is not so. Arjuna was ready to give up his kingdom and was keen to lead a life of a monk. Krishna spoke Gita to Arjuna; changed his frame of mind and made him fight for his kingdom. That being the case, this misconception about Gita being an instruction only for holy men can be shunned aside. In fact Bhagavad Gita only stopped the warrior Arjuna from becoming a monk:-) Bhagavad Gita helps one to do his work more effectively and productively. In Gita, Krishna spells out the supreme secret about the art of gaining expertise in any field of work. Let us all attempt to read Bhagavad Gita and try to become a better professional, a better son, a better daughter and above all a better human.

Jai Sri RadhaKrishna!