SRI KRISHNA JAYANTI

On the 26th August 2024 the whole of Bharat will be celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna - the Supreme incarnation of God. If there is one person who has impressed the Indian mind through the centuries, it is Krishna. He has influenced the course of Indian culture in all its aspects – religion, philosophy, art, literature and sculpture. Hindus have always believed in the divinity and historicity of Krishna and Rama even though the British took pains to prove to us that our itihasas- epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata were totally mythological and the characters were the figments of the fertile imagination of Vyasa and Valmiki.

The multi-faceted personality of Krishna defies all attempts to cut him down to fit our particular idea of how a human being should behave. He is unique and can never fit into any of the patterns into which we try to mould all human beings. Actually, we can say that he belongs to the future even though he lived so many years ago. Modern man has still to reach the heights of intelligence and power that he possessed. This is why he has never been totally understood.

In Krishna we find the picture of a completely evolved human being. He is a unique personality. He shows us that the human being is the greatest of all creations and there is no limit to what he can do if he aligns to the source of cosmic power within himself. Krishna accepted no limitations. If anyone can be said to be totally free it is Krishna. He was not bound by any rules of conduct imposed by a mediocre society on those individuals who could not decide or think for themselves. In the galaxy of spiritual luminaries, Krishna is the only one who accepted life in its totality and did not make his followers believe that they were living here only for the sake of going to heaven. He insisted that if there was a heaven it has to be found in this very world. He never offered the uncertain bait of a wonderful life after death for those who lived a pure life on earth. He always encouraged people to rise to the highest within themselves so that they would be able to enjoy this life along with all its dualities and contradictions.

He saw life as a drama in which each of us has to play the part we are called upon, to perfection. He was ever an actor on the stage of life, participating in everything with great enthusiasm but always aware of the fact that he was only playing a part!

Krishna lived in this world of dualities as the lotus leaf in the pond, totally unaffected by the mud from which it has come. This is one of the beautiful illustrations he gives about the state of the enlightened soul in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita.

He is the divine charioteer seated in the heart of everyone – the Supreme Guru. In and through the redundant details which have woven themselves round his story, it has retained its breath-taking beauty through the centuries for it is dominated by the brilliance of his enchanting personality in which the wisdom of the seer is mingled with the charm and simplicity of a child through which the glory of the divine gushes forth in an inexhaustible fountain of divine love and wisdom.

Jai Sri Krishna!