Krishna Janmashtami the message from Lord Krishna

August 20, 2011 Social Health Community 636 Comments

Reading about Lord Krishna one understands the way of acquiring inner happiness. It can be understood by the four cycles of Krishna described in the Vedic literature: Krishna the Child, Krishna the Husband and Friend, Krishna the Preacher and Krishna the Sanyasi.

The childhood of Krishna describes the methodology and components of a child education. Krishna, pure consciousness, was born as the eight child of Devki representing that during pregnancy one needs to follow the eight limbs of yoga to get a child with no disease.

A new born and during initial childhood, the child is full of pure consciousness that spreads love to everyone without any discrimination. The only thing the child during this period does is to steal and spread love and that is what Krishna as Makhan Chor depicts.

With time the child’s mental faculty starts developing distracting the child’s mind. During this phase of life the child needs to be taught to control the thoughts and mind by learning viveka (discrimination between good and bad) and doing abhyas or hard work. The episode of Krishna entering into the pond (thoughts) fighting with Kaliya (duality of mind) and controlling it represents the same. This also coincides with the time a child should be sent to the school.

The next phase of childhood is activation of intellect which in Krishna’s life is depicted as the questions in his mind “Radha kyun gori, main kyun kala?” The incident is during Krishna playing Holi with Gopis and Radha. This happens when the child gets an exposure to the worldly atmosphere and starts getting attached to it. This is the time for the child to be taught control of mind and intellect by one point concentration on the object of concentration. This is also the time when the child should be taught the purpose of life, and the aim for which he has to live in future (usually adolescent by this time).

Krishna controls the intellect by winning over Indra (intellect) and raising Govardhan Parvat (turmoil of the mind) by one finger and saves the public from the rainy storm (wavering thoughts). One finger here indicates one point concentration on the object of concentration. Once the child is taught how to control the intellect, he or she complete spiritual education and learns about the true self. Control of mind (Kalia) and intellect (Indra) leads the chilod to the next phase of life. In Krishna’s life it coincides with Ras Leela where Krishna is seen dancing with Radha and every Gopi. This also reflects the time for the internal ego to get killed and one acquires the qualities of humility. Killing of Kansa depicts the killing of ego. Once the ego is killed and humility is acquired Radha and flute are no more required and Krishna is now a perfect man and is ready to enter the next ashram of life called Grahasthashram. Radha (body) gets merged with consciousness and flute (humility) is a part of the nature. One now acquires a sudershan chakra or a weapon to take decisions and adopt the good and kill the evil.

Krishna is always depicted with a blue colour God with yellow clothes and a flute in his hands. Blue colour indicates everything is possible and yellow clothes indicate that one can acquire it provided one has the flute which is a hollow wood representing egoless nature.

Whenever Krishna is shown with a flute, the lady with him is Radha with blue sari and yellow colour, along with gopis (thoughts) dancing around them indicating that the thoughts of the mind are in symphony with each other and there is a union of mind, body and soul. Here the soul is represented by Krishna, mind by the flute, thoughts with the gopis and body with the Radha.

The second phase of Krishna’s life is shown as a perfect achiever and friend, which is evident from the story of Sudhama.

The third phase of Krishna’s life represent Krishna as an advisor, which shows his role in Mahabharata and his preaching in Bhagavad Gita. He teaches the message of Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Gnana Yoga and Raja Yoga for acquiring excellence in life and inner happiness.

The last role of Krishna as a sanyasi is the end of Krishna’s life. The four cycles also coincide with the four ashrams of life.

To achieve inner happiness the message from Krishna’s life is to learn to make efforts to control the mind, to win over the intellect by one point concentration and to acquire qualities of humility and killing internal ego. With this only one can become a perfect man like Krishna.

Subhadra in Hindu Mythology

July 1, 2011 Health Care 538 Comments

Why Subhadra is worshipped along with Lord Krishna in Jagannath Yatra

In 2011 Jagannath Rath Yatra starts July 2nd and this yatra has a special significance when it comes to the relationship between brother s and sisters.

 The value of relation between brother and sister has been shown in many festivals and rituals in our country.

 Raksha Bandhan and Bhai Dooj are two major festivals devoted to this sacred relationship. In Raksha Bandhan, the brother vows for the safety of his sister and sister prays for the long life of the brother. The Raksha Bandhan rakhi or the red thread ‘moli’ works as a reminder and is removed on the date of Janmashtami falling after Raksha Bandhan. When Bahadur Shah of Gujarat attacked Chittor, Rani Karnavati sent a Rakhi to Emperor Humayun, calling him a brother and requested for his help. Humayun did come to his Rakhi sister’s help.

 In the ritual of Bhai Duj, the sister anoints her brother’s forehead with vermilion and performs aarti. This festival is similar to that of Raksha Bandhan. Only the ritual of tying Rakhi has been replaced with tikka (vermilion spot on forehead).

In terms of symbolism, the brother-sister relationship is depicted in Jagannath Mandir in Puri and is one of the temples in the country where Gods and Goddesses are not worshiped in the form of husband and wife.

The other example is Ganesha and Lakshmi worshipped together as brother and sister. Goddess Lakshmi is symbolic of good fortune and wealth and Lord Ganesh is symbolic of the intelligence required to utilize the wealth that we have.

At the Jagannath temple, Subhadra, the sister, is depicted in the center and Krishna and Balram (Lord Balabhadra) are shown on the left and right side of Subhadra. Here, Krishna is worshipped along with his brother and sister. Subhadra was married to Arjuna and a brave boy Abhimanyu was born to them.

A synonym of Purushottam is Jagannath and his abode. Puri is known as Purushottam Kshetra, which is one of the four most sacred places in India for the Hindus. The famous festival related to the Jagannath temple is the Ratha Yatra, or chariot festival, which occurs yearly in June or July. During this festival, the three deities are taken from the temple and placed in large chariots which are then drawn along Grand Road to the Gundecha temple, a few kilometers away. After they have stayed in that temple for seven days, the deities again ride the chariots back to their home temple. Then three idols are made of margosa (neem) wood.

Brother-sister relationship is always a sacred relationship in Indian law. Marriages or illicit relationship between brothers and sisters are prohibited. Consanguineous marriages are also known to end up with diseases. While in some religions, a marriage of the daughter with maternal uncle is allowed, but in no religion, a marriage between a brother and sister is allowed.  

Devaki and Kansa depict the extreme opposite of brother-sister relationship. Kansa was the maternal uncle of Lord Krishna and brother of Devaki. There was a prediction that the eighth child of Devaki would kill him. When Kansa came to know about that prediction he decided to kill all children born to his sister.

 All three festivals Jagannath Yatra, Raksha Bandhan and Bhai Dooj are observed in the last six months of a year in the period of dakshinayana, which is the period with darker or the negative side of the mind. In Chaturmas the mind is more negative, violent, irritable and with more non fulfillment of desires. All festivals which relates to purity of relationship are thus observed in this period.