Venu, Murali And Vamsi - Lord Krishna

@Thyagarajan Happy Janmashtami to you.True Bamboo was cut to make flute and it suffered with pain .But KRISHNA SUFFERS A LOT TO GIVE A SWEET MUSIC AS THE NADHAM COME ACCORDING TO THE SPEED OF HIS BREATH.The same way HE tries HIS best to tune Human we fail to know HIS existence when we are happy but never fail to blame HIM for our sufferings.
SARVAM KRISHNARPPANAM

 

Dear Shri Thyagarajan Sir,
What a great analytical article on Janmashtami day. While thinking of Krishna, he is always mysterious, not as innocent a baby he looks biting his toe, floating on a banian leaf.
Interesting take on flute,which I have heard in many upanyasams.

While Rama's glory is everywhere to see except on a few occasions like vali vadham, Agni Pravesam etc, Krishna is always questionable.

No doubt it is Lord Krishna's plan everywhere right from starting the day of war,
falsely declaring the previous day as Amavasya by doing Pitru Tharpan on a wrong day.He planned to be on Pandavas' side, by making Duryothana choose his retinue.
When Bhima and Duryothana were fighting,Krishna told Arjuna to remind Bhima to break Duryothana's thighs..
Actually many kings who were fighting fairly and valiantly were killed by Krishna by crooked means.
Bhishma was killed by placing Shikandi before Arjuna.
It is Krishna's strategy in having Aswaththama,the elephant killed and using the incident
to make yuthishtira tell a lie;While Drona cast down his armour hearing Aswaththama, his son, dead,Krishna didn't stop Dhrishtadyuma killing Drona out of revenge;
Karna was struck when he was in difficulty,trying to pull out the sunken wheel.
Krishna seems to preach that untruth may be better than truth and a lie is permissible if it is for greater good.
Many critics of Mahabharatha called Krishna a
" Cynic who preaches the highest morality and stoops to practise the lowest tricks.An opportunist who teaches God fearing men to tell a lie, the only lie he told in all his life!He advised a hesitating archer to strike down a foe, who is defenceless and crying for mercy"
Mahabharatha centres around Krishna's strategy everywhere.It manages to balance
the worldly and divine identities of Krishna.Vyasa neither glosses over his contradictions,nor tries to idealize Krishna.His flaws, otherwise called strategies are there for every one to see.

Though it is a seeming victory to Pandavas,it is almost a loss.Ultimately Krishna is determined to destroy his own clan.When Satyakai and Krishna's son pradyumna are killed,Krishna remains a silent spectator.He picks up a blade of grass and makes it
as a weapon to wreak devastation.As the sea crosses its shore,and engulfs Dwaraka, the entire Yadava clan vanish.Krishna is vary calm and unmoved.

A few days later Krishna lies resting in the forest.An ordinary hunter mistakes him for an animal and pierces the sole of his feet with an arrow and kills Krishna.
As a punishment to all his guiles portrayed as strategies, Krishna is made to have the meanest death in the epic, and not to have a noble death.Flowers are not showered from
above as in Karna's death.He lies dead as an ordinary creature in the forest.
Perhaps this is the way that the epic shows its disapproval for Krishna's so called strategies, Krishna's willingness to accept punishment and a great lesson that no one,including the divine head is free from Kaarmic effect..

Amidst all these criticisms,

We find that Krishna alone accepts the whole of life. And he accepts it, not in any selected dimension, but in all its dimensions.
Krishna is against repression. He alone does not choose he accepts life unconditionally. He does not shun love; being a man he does not run away from women. As one who has known and experienced God, he does not turn his face from war. He is full of love and compassion, and yet he has the courage to accepts and fight a war. His heart is utterly non-violent, yet he plunges into the fire and fury of violence when it becomes unavoidable. He accepts the nectar, and yet he is not afraid of the poison.
There is no such point in the cosmos where nature ends and God begins. It is nature itself that, through a subtle process of dissolution, turns into God, and it is God Himself Who, through a subtle process of manifestation, turns into nature. Nature is manifest God, and God is unmanifest nature and that is what adwait means, what the principle of One without the other means. We can understand Krishna only if we clearly understand this concept of adwait.

There are basic principles which one must learn from teachings of Bhagavad Gita to get, if one wants, to the right state of mental and physical strength.
1. The 1st principle is listen, listen and listen. In the first chapter of Bhagavad Gita, Krishna only listened to Arjuna. One must learn to listen to others. Out of 18 counselling sessions which Krishna took with Arjuna, one full session was devoted only to listening to Arjuna. Fifty percent of the emotion of a person is out once he has spoken to the Healer about his or her problems.
2. 2nd principle is to remain non-judgmental while listening. This is beautifully described in Chapter 2 shloka 10. While listening, Krishna did not show any signs of anger to Arjuna even at those extremely difficult moments. On the contrary, Krishna kept on smiling and listened patiently. This is another avenue where most of the healthcare workers fail in their relationship with the patients. We (doctors) sometimes become annoyed with the patients because they narrate unrelated details of their health problems. We need to understand and appreciate their predicaments.
3. 3rd principle is that every answer should be validated by reasoning. Throughout 18 counselling sessions between Arjuna and Krishna incorporating 700 question and answers, Arjuna was given proper reasoning, either based on experience or based on sound logic. Krishna never forced Arjuna to believe in what He was saying without getting convinced about it.
4. 4th principle is that of reassurance. Krishna re-assures Arjuna on two occasions. Firstly, when he said that “I’ll appear whenever there is adharma” meaning thereby that whenever there is injustice someone will come and set it right. In terms of a Healer the doctor should convincingly say that wherever there is a disease I will be there”.
Again in Chapter 18 shloka 65, Krishna says that anyone who takes conscious decision and interprets things with full devotion, there is no reason why he or she should not become happy or healthy. He again assures Arjuna that he is going to be successful.
5. 5th principle is depicted in the last shloka of Gita (18.78) which summarizes the importance of a good doctor-patient (teacher-student) relationship where Sanjay says to Dhriharashtra that when there is a Healer like Krishna and a patient like Arjuna, there is no reason why there will not be a victory..
There cannot be a better teacher than Krishna.
Krishnam vandhe jagat Gurum.

Dear Thyagarajan Sir,
I think I have gone too far from your snippet.Sorry.
jayasala42

 

Dear Thyagarajan Sir,

Wish you and family a wonderful Janmastami celebrations With Uppu Seedai, Vella Seedai, Uppam, Naval pazham, Vennai, etc. Gopikas themselves are souls that are enviable for their bhakthi to Lord Krishna and them envying the flute of the Lord only indicates that there is always potential to grow in our effort to do Atmanivedhanam.

Isn't it real in life that we need to unlearn as much as we need to learn things in life? Sometimes, cleaning up inside of us results in purity, helping the fellow beings around us leads us to unity and inquiring who we really are leads us to divinity.

Life is like a river and the two banks are like pleasure and pain. As long as the river doesn't indulge in either side of the banks and keep its focus on its route with a goal to achieve the ocean of love, one can achieve immortality.

Viswa

 

Dear Thyagarajan Sir,

Sorry for intervention.

Dear Viswa,
It was so nice of you to have referred to unlearning. We need not struggle to unlearn.Nature itself has provided us with a special software which acts as a sieve to filter unnecessary thoughts and memories and keep only what is essential. Otherwise we would be lamenting about deaths that happened long back and losses that sustained long ago.This is called'forgetting' in common man's language.
It is tragic that even with this gift of nature, we lack the real spirit.

Regarding rivers, the river is one of the important symbols of Hinduism,not because it is holy and people whoever take bath in it attains salvation.
The strength of the river is in its commitment to move towards the ocean.The river does not know that it is going towards the ocean,but intuitively there is a certain commitment called 'strength' to move forwards, notwithstanding the obstacles.From the Himalayas the Ganges flows all the way to Bay of Bengal,.If it finds an obstacle like a rock, the river becomes very flexible,goes round the rock and keeps going.When you bow down to take bath, it seems to convey the truth that in life you need both flexibility and strength.It is for the same reason perhaps that Indian Gurus settled on the banks of rivers.
We should be like a bamboo and not like a tree.A tree,will fall down while facing a strong gale. But the bamboo bends a little but hits back with a tremendous force.
Flexibility seems to produce temporary losses but lasting gains.
This in effect is the essence of Gita. The acceptance of realities is the'flexibility'.The commitment gives the needed strength and we march towards the desired goal.
Real victory does not consist in being too rigid but in realising that "there is strength in flexibility and flexibility in strength".
Your response that made its beginning with vella seedai and uppu seedai has culminated in a great philosophy of commitment, flexibility and strength enshrined in Gita.
Happy Sri jayanthi.
jayasala42

 

Thyagu sir Krishna was said to have been born in Mathura, not Dwarka.The idea of Kalki avataar was was cooked up during times when none had heard of bikes, cars, tanks or guns. That is why Kalki is always depicted as astride a horse with a sword. According to Bhagavata Purana Kalki will appear when rulers become thieves. We are bang in the middle of the time when rulers are thieves. So Kalki if he appears at all to punish them it will most probably astride a bike carrying an AK 47 and a rocket launcher!. to be promptly declared a terrorist!

The Janmashtami of my childhood has always been a gluttonous celebration of everything buttery. Butter murukku, seedai,nei appam just plain sweetened butter and what not. In these diet conscious days, such celebrations seem outdated. After all, it is not Krishna whoi will get a heart attack but us.

 

Dear Balajee,

Unless the Lord decided to kill Adharma using his choice of words in which Kalki Avatar might be a politician. The Adharmis may bleed from the ears and die. The amount of running we did those days, we could afford any amount of gluttonous food but now with the gadget days, we will be raising obese children we celebrate Janmastami with such dishes. Patram, Palam, Pushpam and Thoyam should be adequate.

Viswa