Thursday, August 9, 2012

Understanding Krishna


I don't really understand Krishna as a philanderer!
What could be social atmosphere that time accepting this act of Krishna.
 And how conservative Hindus later accepted it. It's a wonderful issue of research.

Hrushikesha
On 2012 Janmasthami

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,
This has nothing to do with Social atmosphere of any specific period. We have Krisha, Arjuna ,Duryodhana, in every society. We also should not be surprised of the fact that we always try to give importance to successful people with unusual qualities because common man dpi not dare to attempt those.
Pkm

Anonymous said...

Dear Rushi,

I understand Krishna as a powerful diplomat as well as a lover.
His accepting more than one wife and even doing elopement were never an issue, neither at that time nor now. Because, he was not pioneer in this field, many others have done this long before him. But for me, it is still an issue and I don't support such polygamy whether in case of Krishna or any other person. Here I should tell you something interesting that whenever we site example for polygamy, we immediately refer to Muhammad having 4 wives, but never we say about Lord Krishna. How funny, you see.

Now I am coming to the other point of his love beyond his married wives.
It was for Radha. I feel like nowadays, at that time also "big' people had such extra marital chapters in their lives. But following were the reasons which made it different in case of Radha & Krishna;
1. Radha was a married lady ( and not a keep-woman)
2. Radha did not keep it secret as others did and do.
For both these reasons, there was issue at that time and Radha was defamed & blamed. Here also you see that Radha was blamed and never was Krishna. At that time, Krishna was a powerful man and a great diplomat. But thereafter, in passage of time, godliness was imposed on him and then many " justifications" also people (mainly Brahmins who used to "sell" god and god-related things for their livelihood) started giving. Like, in earlier time, Krishna, Radha & Radha's husband were Rama, Sita & Hanuman, Their love was not physical etc. Because society was unable to give a logical shape to it as it was violating social norms. Had Radha been an unmarried one then it would have been simpler for many to justify it.
But for me it was a very strong extra-marital relation and Radha was not scared of admitting that she never loved her husband and Krishna was her only love. Probably she was the first recoded- woman who had the strength to voice that marriage may be a very strong institution but it also sometimes fails and no compulsion of society works in case of love.
Rushi, sometimes our thinking is not sensible or cultured enough to accept truth and then we conveniently prefer to close our eyes and accept even fantasy in the name of religion and godliness. But excuse me for asking you something. Rushi, when you say"I don't really understand Krishna as a philanderer" what do you mean by that? Do you think that Krishna was "God" so he could not be a lover? But if you refer all the mythologies of the whole world you would find that all the three categories, I mean Gods, Men and Asuras all had legitimate and extra-marital relationships in their life and many wars were fought for that. So why won't you accept the love-chapter of Krishna, my dear brother?

Apa

Anonymous said...

Hrushikesha Babu,

Love has nothing to do with Philandery. Radha was indeed older than Shri Krishna. Love comes in many form and Philandery may occur only when there is lust involved. I read the comment on your blogspot. Krishna's message on Love was very powerful. He demonstrated that Love could come in many form and it could still be very pure. We often mix Love with Lust and we always think that there is no other form of Love between a man and a woman. But the Love between a bhakta and her bhagabaan is beyond any Philandery and has been aptly proven by Meerabai.

Geeta Gobinda has described this form of Love so nicely that there is no other script that is comparable to it.

Namaskar,

Anonymous said...

Radha's love and Mira's love for Krishna was altogether different. In Mira's case it was a complete surrender to God as His desciple, but Radha's love was a woman's love for man and never for God. Godliness was imposed afterwards, when both Krishna and Radha were no more in this world.

Anonymous said...

Hope, you have not forgotten the character Kissinger, the greatest diplomat of the last century. His contribution was the largest in USA's present Dadagiri in Global - policy. You know what a shrewd diplomat he was and probably you also know his personal life. Some people can manage both. Nothing to be surprised.

Gita is the highest knowledge that was given by Krishna. But that knowledge can not be a "limitation" for his other self in being a grand lover.

Hrushikesha Mohanty said...

So, Kissinger is modern Krishna!

Anonymous said...

Is it a wonderful (crafted myth) in human history? Sustainable myth ...

Anonymous said...

Namaskar, Happy janmastami. It is truly an enigma how Krishna, the Yogi, was depicted as a cowherd luring gopis in his early life. The two Krishnas are really one. The Gopi Krishna is supposed to be a Divine person. But the Bhagavat immortalized the Gopi (Radha) Krishna, while Gita immortalized the Yogi Krishna. The transformation is truly amazing, fit for research.
regards,

Anonymous said...

Namaskar,
Thank you very much for the comments. Krishna is really a very powerful figure in Indian imagination. We will talk more about it when we meet.
Regards