Remembering Krishna…
Shilpi Boral
Jai Jagannath!
Parab bramha pida kubalayadalat phulla nayana
Nibasini niladrau nihita charana nanda sirasi
Rasa nandi radha sarasa gopura lingana sukha
Jagannatha swami nayana patha gami bhava tume
“He is the ornament on the head of Lord Brahma. His eyes are like blown petals of the Lotus. He resides on the Nilachala Hill. His lotus feet are placed on the heads of Anantadeva. Lord Jagannatha is overwhelmed by the mellows of Love and He becomes joyful in the embrace of Srimati Radharani, which is like a cool reservoir of nectar. May that image of Jagannatha Swami be the object of my vision.”
Does God really exist or is an imaginary element created by the mindsets of people? Who is He? Where does He reside? What does He like and what does He dislike? What is religion? Why do the philosophies of all religions conflict? Which is the greatest religion? …. Many such questions arise in the minds of people over ages. And many replies have been given by the wise men in volumes of work. Now these works also conflict many a times and create confusion, whom to follow and whom not. There have been many of the frauds in the disguise of wise men, sages and saints, who pompously preach about the Holy religion and God. And the innocent people get cheated by them repeatedly. One such example was Phalgu baba of Bengal, a tantric or black magician. This is the law of Kali Yuga.
Now what man should do? Among all the living species, it’s only the man who is given the intellectual power and wisdom to judge and decide the right path for him. And it’s also the man who is given the quality and opportunity to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Hence he should be thankful before the Almighty supreme for His mercy bestowed upon him for the human birth.
All religions show the same path and their ultimate goal is to reach the abode of the Supreme Personality. And of course God is a person, who can think, eat, speak, hear and talk. This is said in almost all the religious scriptures. No doubt that all religions are directed to promote the principles of humanity in the mankind. To promote peace, kindness, love, and all the aspects of humanity, different scholars and philosophers tried to know God and spread the message of God in different places in different ways. Hence it’s useless to fight in the name of religion. The people who blindly fight for religion and caste don’t know that they are simply utilized and misguided by the politicians in the name of religion, region, caste and creed and rest all discriminations for their selfish nature and vote-bank politics. Aren’t they fools?
The oldest of the cultures and religious faith that exists in the world is that of Sanatan Dharma. The word Sanatan means which exists from the ages. And Dharma means that which we carry within ourselves. The word Hindu is a gift of the Persian invaders in India in 17
th century, naming the people who lived across the river Sindhu (Indus), and now this word has taken the shape of a religious belief. A lot of discussions and debates are going on this topic. But what I intend is to put the clear picture of our belief which is preserved in the vedic sastras. There are endless discussions on these topics; however I would limit my topic of discussion up to the Vaishanvism cult.
“Brahmanas are considered to be the greatest among the men in material calculations. It is believed that due to their curse the ocean and sea water is salty. They are given the highest authority on vedic scriptures and what of kings, the demigods (devatas) also bow their heads before Brahmanas in their respect. However, in spiritual calculations, greater than brahmanas are the vaishnavas, who surrender at the Lotus feet of Lord Vishnu and are released from the cycles of birth and death. They have no boundations in their lives. They are free souls and enjoy their liberty. And anyone who ever surrenders before Lord Vishnu is a Vaishnava. Therefore, come and let us all surrender at the Lotus feet of Lord Vishnu and get released from the bondage of birth and death cycles.”---- Srila Bhakti Sidhhanta Saraswati Thakur spoke in a brahman sabha organized by the known brahman scholars of that age (20
th century before independence) to decide who is greater among Brahmanas and vaishnavas.
Lord Jagannath is none other than Krsna, the Supreme personality of Godhead. It’s believed that Krsna appears in this form in the age of Kali. It’s only Krsna who resides in each and every corner of His creation, and can show this in His
Vishwa Rupa. According to our shastras, a person can be God who has all these six qualities -
sarva srestha yodhha (most strengthful brave),
sarva srestha gyani (most knowledgeous),
sarva srestha saundarya (most beautiful),
sarva srestha vairagi (most unattached to the material world),
sarva srestha dhani (most rich person),
sarva srestha dayawan (most kind). And it’s only Krsna who qualifies these basic qualities of Supreme personality of Godhead. All of us have our eternal relationship with Krsna, on forgetting which we are send to this world of misery. Our ultimate aim of life is to reestablish this relationship with Krsna by serving Him honestly. Before that it’s important that we know Him perfectly with help of a qualified guru who knows Krsna, otherwise it would mean a blind guiding another blind and none reach the destination. H.G. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srilla Prabhupada, the Founder Acharya of ISKCON, comes from the direct guru-sishya parampara right from Krsna and Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as a succession; and was a disciple of Srilla Bhakti Sidhhanta Saraswati Thakur. The life stories of gurus of this parampara are quite inspiring for the man of every age, whether youth, child, or old.
The vaishnavas follow four rules: no fish and meat eating, no gambling, no intoxication and no illicit sex practice. Besides these rules they chant 16 rounds of the great Hare Krsna Mahamantra daily as an order of their guru. According to Srilla Prabhupada, Krsna bhakti is easy for all those devotees who are sincere and determined, or else it’s very difficult. Hence among some thousands of people there is one or two who are knowledgeous, and among thousands of such knowledgeous persons there is lucky one or two who is actually a Krsna devotee who can reach Krsna.
If Krsna is the Supreme Personality, then what’s the role of other demi gods? Why do they exist? The role of demigods can be compared to that of the ministers in the government. Like each of the ministers, including the prime minister is assigned a particular job, authority and power, each of the demigods is assigned a particular responsibility for the running of the system. And they are not permitted to interfere in the responsibility of other demigods. Krsna authorizes them to help the people who approaches them, thus Krsna is the ultimate donor.
How to serve Krsna? Krsna likes innocent and loving hearts. He searches for love. No material gift can satisfy Him, but however He is happy with a single leaf, a single flower, a single fruit and some water given with pure love and devotion (
bhakti and shradha). There are lot of examples spotted in Srimad Bhagwatam and other scriptures, whether it is of Vidur’s wife who fed her with the skin of banana throwing away the edible fruit, or it may be Draupadi’s single grain of rice, or it may be Sudama’s handful of broken rice grains, Sabri’s pre-tasted berries, the fruits of the Chandalini caste woman fruit seller, or the coconut fruit of Dasia (a low caste devotee)… such examples are in numerous. He accepts them with love and gifts heavily in return. The supreme personality, whom the sages mediate and take severe penance for ages long for His one glimpse, He plays and dances with the illiterate and innocent cowherd girls (gopis) of Vrindavan! So what’s the use of the heavy sastras if He is achieved so easily? Just by purifying our minds and hearts, just by surrendering before Him with true heart, just by loving Him, just leaving our sinful acts to please Him, He can be achieved. Salbeg, the reknowned bhakta poet of Orissa describes, “
Dhenu pache pache bachha dhayen jehin pari, bhakata pachare shyama dhayen sehi pari.. eka to bhakata jeebana…” As the calf runs after its mother cow, Shyama (krsna) runs after His devotees as they are His only life.
If one starts to describe Krsna and His qualities, it would be endless. However let’s be restricted up to the refreshing of our forgotten tradition and culture. In today’s date lot of political and social discussions arise on the topic of caste discrimination and reservations. Some people even use slangs for our rich heritage and tradition and claim that there were a lot of caste discrimination done by our ancestors and even our scriptures support it. But I would like to say that there are many of Krsna devotees who belonged to lowest of the known castes and He did never discriminate on the basis of caste. He took birth in the Yadava family, which is considered today to be OBC, and was brought up in Nanda Raya’s village, where there were a lot of His friends belonging to low caste, who were His most dear. Krsna doesn’t promote discrimination on the basis of caste and religion, not even He discriminate between a saintly person and a sinner. He only looks for pure love and that’s it. There are many examples of Krsna devotees who were Muslims or brought up by Muslim families, let it be Kabir, Ras Khan or Salbeg. Krsna’s doors are always open for all living entities irrespective of their species even, what to talk of human caste and creed! When He looks at any living entity, He sees His reflection in that entity, and a true vaishnava also sees His reflection in every living entity.
In this age of Kali all the ways to reach Him are involved with flaw. According to Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (incarnation of Krsna Himself), there is no difference in Krsna’s name and Krsna. Hence He recommends the chanting of the Holy name of Krsna.
“Harer naam harer naam harer naam eva kevalam
Kalyo nasteva nasteva nasteva gatir annyatha”
Let’s chant His Holy name and surrender ourselves and our sinful activities at the Lotus feet of Krsna. Hare Krsna!
The author is currently a Research Scholar at JNU, New Delhi, pursuing her Ph.D. in Physics. She is interested to work for the society and eradicate the hatred among the human beings and the dirty politics involving caste discrimination in the society.
Thank - Swamiji, Shilpi Boral, 2 Guests say Thanks
lly said to Lord Nityananda - "O, you are always restless and act in mischievous ways in Shrivase’s home. Please don’t act on such improper manner."
Dear Guest, Thanks for posting this news. Great service. All articles look nice. I humbly do not agree with the statement that Jagannatha is a secondary name of the Lord in the context of Puri Dhaam lila. Jagannatha is the most esoteric and primary Name of the Lord called by His most primary associates like Shrimati Radha and the Gopies, as a complaint to the Lord. It means: "Even though You (Krishna) are the master and protector (Naatha) of the whole creation (Jagat), You have left us in the ocean of separation. Thus You are actually not protecting all the residents of Your own creation by leaving us." As rightly pointed out, the real glories of Puri are not by calling it as Dvaraka or Vaikuntha since it is the most concealed and confidential Vraja and Nadia.
Daaso'smi, Bhaktiratna Sadhu Swami.