Aug 12, 2009, 12.00am IST
M N KUNDU.
The essence of Hindu spirituality has been elaborated in three scriptures. The Upanishads present the absolute wisdom revealed to seers. Reasoned wisdom has been elaborated in the Brahmasutras. The Bhagavad Gita elaborates on how to live in a way that is conducive to attaining salvation through wisdom.
Krishna’s advice to Arjuna at Kurukshetra -- on the battlefield -- encapsulates the essence of wise living that will enable one to remain balanced and peaceful while executing one’s responsibilities in this world and eventually help one to attain great spiritual heights. The miraculous life of Sri Krishna, the incarnation of the Absolute, embodies the joyful manifestation of the omnipotence and omniscience in human form. This significant dualism of the divine drama with human undertones creates a multilevel appeal and a grand spiritual metaphor of Krishna Leela, conveying spiritual truth with poetic beauty.
In the life of Krishna we find the consummation of our ideal for worldly life. He neither followed nor advocated life-negating renunciation. At the same time he did not show any attachment to mundane life. The dialectics of worldly life with happiness and sorrow was on his fingertips; so clinging to anything worldly was absolutely alien to his nature. He played perfectly the role of a naughty child, a playful youth, statesman par excellence, a benevolent king, an intimate friend, a beloved husband and above all as an embodiment of wisdom with utmost objectivity -- despite being anchored in his true being as an incarnation of the Absolute. That is why his prescription for the malady called life is to maintain non-attachment to anything and everything under all circumstances. He exemplified the practice of the same through his own life.
The birth and childhood stories of both Krishna and Jesus Christ are very similar. Knowing that the eighth son of his sister Devaki will vanquish him, King Kansa imprisons Krishna’s parents. Yet his sister (Krishna’s mother) Devaki conceives and when she delivers the child Kansa is unable to kill Baby Krishna. Through divine intervention, the baby is taken away and another is sent in its place, the Goddess Maya. The Rive Yamuna parts its waters and makes way for Vasudeva to carry Baby Krishna out to safety.
The dance of the interplay of spirit and nature manifested in annihilation of Putana, Bakasura or Kaliya by child Krishna heralds the victory of good over evil. In the same way mother Yashoda was shown the entire cosmos in the small mouth of the child. Yet the naughty playfulness of the child added an eternal human element to the manifestation of divine incarnation. This dualism has made Krishna so human and lovable and yet so divine and mysterious.
The irresistible attraction of the melody of his enchanting flute and the divine magnetism of cosmic vibration like centripetal power had maddening impact on all. Consciousness at the root of creation is all pervading and it attracts the diffused states of mind for ultimate peace and solace from the pangs of delusion.
That is precisely why in the Gita Krishna advises Arjuna to do his duty -- knowing fully well that the result will be in the hands of the Almighty. Practice of detachment to the world and maintenance of perfect equanimity under all circumstances with absolute surrender to the will of God are the best course. Thus he prescribed yoga, the art of right action as the way for unification with the eternal self.
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