Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
  
Location: A Blue State | Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram, Hare Hare!! Oh...sorry...I have a Kirtan coming up soon, and I can't wait to sing the Maha Mantra again. I agree with you completely about the Gita...I'm always finding something new in it. ....bg |
Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | And here's a little story to better understand Krishna.
Bhagwan Krishna came to Earth in the darkness of night, into the locked confines of a jail cell where His mother and father were being held prisoners, due to His evil uncle Kansa. However, at the moment of His appearance (in the form of a human infant) all the guards fell asleep, the chains were broken, and the barred doors gently opened. Thus Vasudeva (Krishna's father) safely and easily carried baby Krishna across the flowing Yamuna to Gokul.
There is a beautiful message here, even from the first moment of the Lord's life. We may be living in the darkness of midnight; we may be bound and chained by so many attachments, temptations, anger, grudges, pains and by the binding force of maya. We may feel ourselves locked into the prison of our own bodies, the prison of duality. However, as soon as we let the Lord come and live in our hearts, all darkness fades, all chains are broken and all prison doors open freely. Wherever the Lord is, there are no locks.
Also, we can see that the door to the Lord - from any direction, inside or outside - is always open. The only lock is the lock of our own ignorance and our own illusions. As soon as that ignorance is dispelled, as soon as we see His glowing form, all the doors in this life and in all lives open to us.
THE CHILDHOOD OF THE LORD
Beginning with His appearance in a jail and the immediate rush to whisk Him away to a new family, across Yamunaji in Gokul, the Lord was not given an "easy" childhood.
On the sixth day of the Lord's life, Putna (the demoness) made Him drink poison from her breast. In His third month of life a bullock cart fell on Him. Then, when He was four, huge trees fell on Him.
Until the age of eleven, He was in Vrindavan and Govardhan. The people of Govardhan worshipped Indra, singing his praises and making daily offerings to him. However, Bhagwan Krishna admonished them and said that they should worship Govardhan instead, since it was Govardhan who gave them land, water, grass for their cows. Yet, the people were afraid. Indra threatened to wreak havoc upon their lives if they ceased his worship. As Indra pummeled the beautiful land of Govardhan with rain, hail, thunder and lightening, the Lord held up the mountain of Govardhan over the heads of the people, protecting them from the violent storm. As He held this mountain up on the tip of His finger, for days and days as Indra grew more and more furious, He never became tired, nor angry, nor frustrated, nor disheartened. He never sighed "When will this storm end?" No. He was always smiling, always patient, even in the midst of the torrential storm.
A few short years later, He was forced to kill His uncle in order to protect dharma and righteousness, and He had to flee His home in Mathura, barefoot to Junagar, with nothing but a small pitambar. For years, then, this King of all Kings lived in a simple ashram, doing seva for the saints with no facilities, no amenities and no comfort. He had no coat for winter, no umbrella for the rains
Yet, wherever He went, wherever He was, He was always blissful, always joyful, always shining His divine light upon others.
We, on the other hand, get stuck in one traffic jam and our days are ruined. We have one business failure and we feel dejected and broken. We become afflicted with disease and we lose our faith in God.
THE MESSAGE OF HIS LIFE
So, what is the Lord teaching us? If He chose His birth and He chose the course of His life on Earth, why did He choose a life full of obstacles, turmoil, trials and tribulations? Why, if He could have lived His entire life as a king, did He spend so many years living in the jungle?
He did this to show us that the real palace is the palace of our heart. When our hearts are full of God we live constantly in the most beautiful Golden Palace, regardless of where our bodies may be. He chose this life to teach us that regardless of what insults are hurled at us or what obstacles we face, we must remain immersed in Divine Connection. Then we will not become depressed or frustrated.
His life teaches us that we cannot change what happens - it happens for various reasons - but we CAN change our reaction to it. The message of His life is "adapt and adjust." Move forward. We cannot stop the wind from blowing, but we can change the direction of our sails, so that instead of capsizing our boat, we use the wind to take us to our destination.
DEPARTURE ALONE IN THE JUNGLE - EVEN FOR A KING
Even at the time of Lord Krishna's Lila Sanvarana (departure from the Earthly realm), shot by an arrow from a hunter's bow, deep in the secluded forest - He was full of divine light and compassion, forgiving the guilt-ridden hunter. Never did He bemoan the ending of His time on Earth, nor did He cry out for help from His thousands of subjects and devotees No. He consoled the guilt-ridden hunter and quietly left the Earth, alone in the jungle, miles and miles from the glorious kingdom of Dwarka.
This way of departure is to teach us the message that we may be "kings" in this lifetime, living in palaces of gold, but at the end we are always alone. We must cross the threshold from this life to the next alone. Therefore, it matters not what riches we acquire, nor what status we hold. None of it can save us from the hunter's arrow. None of it can come to our rescue at the time of death. All that matters is how we have lived our lives, whom we have helped, whom we have healed, and to whom we have brought peace and comfort.
However, although Lord Krishna's physical incarnation departed from the Earth on that day in the jungle, He is always with us, living on and on in our hearts, minds and souls. He is ever-present, all-knowing and all-powerful.
SEEING BHAGWAN KRISHNA EVERYWHERE
A very important message from Bhagwan Krishna's life is that we should learn to see Him everywhere, in everyone, all the time. He is embodied in every form and in all forms. In Lord Krishna's childhood, he gave Mother Yasoda the darshan of the entire universe in His open mouth. As she looked in His mouth, she was suddenly aware that He encompassed and embodied the entire world, that He was omni-present.
When we sit in our puja, in our worship/meditation, we look at God's divine image and we see everything in Him. However, we must go further than just seeing everything in God. We must also see God in everything! When we look at a poor child, or when we look at an old widow, or when we look in the face of our enemy, we must see God. Then we will truly have learned the message of Bhagwan Krishna's teachings.
THE ULTIMATE DIVINE MESSAGE
As we celebrate the divine occasion of Lord Krishna's appearance day, let us remember to take to heart the message of His life: never lose yourself due to external circumstances, never lose your smile, never lose your song
Let us offer to Him, on this sacred day, not only our prayers and our aarti, but let us offer our lives at His holy feet, so that we, too, may become divine, pure and ever blissful.
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Birthday of Lord Krishna
