A Jagath Guru With Guiles

AS Duryothana lies dying on the battlefield,,he enumerates
many of Krishna's misdeeds during the war.He accuses
" Aren't you ashamed for having me struck down unfairly?
Aren't you ashamed that you have had so many kings who were fighting fairly and valiantly yet being killed by crooked means?You killed Bhishma by placing SHIKANDI
before him.You behaved viciously in having the elephant of the same name,Ashwaththaama, killed and made our teacher cast down his armour.You struck my dear friend Karna when
he was in difficulty,trying to pull out the sunken wheel.
Had you fought fairly, you would never have won."

V. S. Sukthankar,editor of the Pune critical edition of Mahabharatha called Krishna ",a cynic,who preaches the highest morality,but stoops to practice the lowest tricks.An opportunist who teaches a God fearing man to tell a lie,the only lie to be told in all his life!;He is a charlatan who advises a hesitating
archer to strike down a foe,who is defenceless"

Krishnas defence is that the only way to defeat evil is with an evil.
It is extra ordinary that the epic manages to balance the worldly and the Divine identities of Krishna..It does not gloss over the contradictions nor does it try to idealize him.His flawas are there for all to see.
The mother queen Gandhari, who lost all her hundred sons,curses Krishna to have the meanest death.
A few days later,as Krishna lies resting in the forst,an ordinary hunter mistakes him for an animal,pierces the sole of his foot with an arrow.It kills him.He does not have the noble death of Mahabharatha war.Flowers do not sprinkle from heaven.He dies like an ordinary creature in the forest.It is the meanest
death in history.Is it the epic's way of condemning Krishna's mis deeds?

Vyasa, the author of Mahabharatha was well aware that
Krishna was Lord Himself.Had he desired he would have
depicted the cleanest and the most perfect picture of
Krishna without giving any room for anyone to pass
evil comments on Krishna.But he never tried to do that..
The epic manages to balance the worldly and divine
identities of Krishna.IT does neither gloss over the
contradictions nor tries to idealize him.His flawas are
there for all to see and learn
Yet with all these guiles,we see Krishna as the best teacher as seen in Bhagavathgita
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 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 alone does not turn his face from war. He is full of love and compassion, and yet he has the courage to accept 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.
Nature is manifest God, and God is manifest nature and
that is what Advaitha means,. We can understand Krishna only if we clearly understand this concept of Advaitham , that only One is .
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.

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.

3. 3rd principle is that every answer should be validated
by reasoning. Throughout 18 counselling sessions
between Arjuna and Krishna incorporating 700 questions and answers, Arjuna was given proper reasoning, either experiential 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.

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..
Flaws apart, Bhagavath gita has a sound welcome not only among common man, but also among all world
leaders,politicians, historians, philosophers,psychologists
medicos and great economists and Acharyas
There cannot be a better teacher than Krishna.
Krishnam Vande Jagath gurum
JAYASALA 42

 

IT is normally stated that good karmas and bad karmas will never get compensated against each other.Good

karmas have good fruits to be enjoyed separately and bad karma phalas have to be experienced separately.

That is why in Jyothisha sastra no parihaaram is suggested for any bad karma and the sufferings have to be

experieced separately.THe pariharama are for mental

satisfaction only.Even in case of Dhritharashtra all his good deeds had different phalas and

the effect of his killing of hundred birds was not at all compensated and all his 100 sons died in Mahabharatha war.

There seems to be no plus,minus business as far as karma is concerned.The fruits are ordianed separately.

Jayasala 42