Krishnavatar

In the following discourse, Swami describes the birth of Lord Krishna. He throws light on various symbolisms, such as why Krishna was the eighth child. This year Krishnashtami [the day His birth is celebrated] is on August 30th. 

This day is being celebrated as the birthday of Krishna, not because Krishna is being born every year, but because the hour, the month, and the season during which He was born ages ago recur every year. On this day, we have the same conjunction as happened when He was born millennia ago.

Krishna was born in prison! This teaches us that God has to incarnate or present Himself in the dark and narrow prison-house of our hearts, so that we may derive light and earn freedom. Maya is the delusion that hides the truth of being; it makes us identify our truth as the physical body with its appurtenances and prompts us to cater to the cravings of the flesh. Man forgets the Divine in him. He listens to the call of the animal in him, and he falls from his high destiny. But when Krishna is born in the cellar of the mind, man is saved. He must become aware of God within the cavity of his heart. While returning from Ooty [an Indian resort] once, we halted at the Bandipur Wild Life Sanctuary. Riding on a tame elephant, we moved into the forest to catch a glimpse of wild elephants. Imagine, sitting on an elephant, we were seeking elephants! When we caught a glimpse of a trunk in a bush, we were overcome with delight. Sitting on a tame, domesticated elephant, we were eagerly searching for an elephant in its natural surroundings, unaffected by artificial habits and skills. Man, too, is ignoring the atma [divine spirit] within him, in its natural environment, and trying to seek the shadows that attract him.

Sri Krishna was born as the eighth child of Devaki. This is significant because samadhi [enlightenment] is the eighth and final stage of spiritual effort—Ashtanga yoga, the eightfold discipline. The Lord can be visualized only after the seven steps are successfully negotiated and the mind purified in the process. The term, samadhi, is generally identified with a temporary loss of consciousness, or even more, a temporary heightening of the consciousness. But we have to judge the state by the effect it has on the person and his attitude towards himself and others. Samadhi means sama (equal) plus dhi (intelligence), that is to say, intelligence that grasps the (fundamental) equality of every being. Not only will all ideas of difference and distinction disappear, but even the idea of duality—heat and cold, grief and joy, good and bad—disappears. And when man reaches that state, the Lord is automatically born in his consciousness.

The moment Krishna was born, the chains that bound his father [Vasudev] fell off, and the doors that had been bolted flew open. The prison guards were immersed in the ocean of bliss, so they could not recognize any event or thing in the material world. The fire of hatred that was burning in them was cooled; darkness gave place to the dawn of wisdom. The sky showered raindrops to soften the earth and suppress the dust. How can the elements operate against Divine will? Sound, touch, sight, taste, and smell—all became sublime to celebrate the new era of peace and plenty. Just when Vasudev emerged from the prison, a donkey brayed to indicate a good omen! But Vasudev was afraid it would waken the guards, so he held the donkey’s feet with both his hands and prayed that it keep silent. That was the depth of his devotion to the Lord, whom he was transporting as per His directions.

As instructed by the Divine voice, Vasudev placed the child in a basket and carried it on his head across the Yamuna River (which parted to allow him passage) to Gokul. There, at the same time, Yashoda (Nanda’s wife) had given birth to a female child. When Vasudev went to Nanda’s house and entered the lying-in-room, there was no one there except Radha, Nanda’s sister, who was nine years old at that time. Vasudev took Yashoda’s baby and placed Lord Krishna by Yashoda’s side. The female child is Mayashakti [the power of delusion], for she ushers the avatar [incarnation] of the Lord. Yogashakti [the energy of union with God], too, has to be ever with the avatar, and it, too, had come as Balarama, born to Rohini (another wife of Vasudev). Mayashakti played her ruse as soon as she was placed in Devaki’s bed. She cried aloud, awakening the guards. They reported the child’s arrival to Kamsa. He expected that the eighth child [predicted to kill him] would be a boy. Nevertheless, he took hold of the girl and smashed her body upon a rock. Mayashakti flew up into the air, declaring that the person who was to kill Kamsa was growing up safe in Gokulam.

Though Kamsa slaughtered a number of babies from Gokulam, Krishna escaped his eye. Krishna systematically overpowered and killed various emissaries that Kamsa sent to Gokulam under various pretexts. Putana, a demoness, assumed a charming human form and came to Nanda’s house, offering to breast-feed the child. She said (to Yashoda), “Mother! You have lost a number of newborn kids. Perhaps my breast milk might save this one,” and Yasoda believed that she was a woman of true compassion and that her milk might have the holy effect she claimed it had. She handed the baby Krishna over to Putana. But Krishna knew her intentions, and He drew out her breath itself and left her dead.

But let us pay more attention to the boy Krishna than to His exploits. All these feats reveal that Krishna being Divine, no one could harm Him or suppress Him. As per local custom, Krishna’s nose and ears were pierced to ward off the death that had carried away many children from the family. On his nose they put a nose ring, a golden wire. The nose-ring had a small pearl. A pearl is won by diving into the depths of the sea; so it symbolizes viveka or discrimination that is won after diving into the secrets of the objective world. And since it marked the tip of the nose, it also sought to emphasize the need to concentrate, to meditate on the tip of the nose. The eyes should not be fully open, for that will distract the attention, nor should they be closed, for sleep would intervene and put an end to the process of meditation. They should be half-open, the sight of both eyes being directed to the tip of the nose, where Krishna wore the pearl.

Krishna’s complexion was neither fair nor dark: it was three parts dark and one part fair, an amalgam of both. Since the parents were Vaishnavas [followers of Vishnu], the parents placed a line of musk on the center of Krishna’s brow. He wore silver bangles on His wrists, such as cowherd boys wore those days in that part of the country. But, the kankans (bracelets) that Krishna wore were not mere bangles. They had profound implications. One rite that every Hindu has to honor before entering into any sacred enterprise—like performing a yajna [sacrificial rite], undertaking a vow, or taking on a new stage of life— is tying a kankan to the wrist to mark his determination to fulfill that vow or carry out the duties of that stage of life. Krishna had taken three vows, and the kankans were symbolic of his determination to fulfill them. They were as mentioned by Him in the Gita [Hindu scripture]: (1) I shall incarnate myself in every age to revive and resurrect dharma [righteousness], (2) I shall bear the burden of ensuring the peace and prosperity of all who rely on Me, and (3) I shall save all those who surrender wholeheartedly to Me, and I shall liberate them from the cycle of birth and death. Therefore, Krishna has assured man that He would save him from penury and grief, from sin and its terrible consequences, provided he holds on to Him and adores Him. He has also assured the world that He would come in human form and lead mankind into the dharmic path, thus liberating them from grief and the succession of births and deaths.

He says that all who adore Him with no other thought will receive His grace. There is no restriction of caste, creed, color, or country of origin. No one receives special favor as a result of erudition, age, or caste. Krishna was the embodiment of love. His love had no bounds. How fortunate you are that you have today the same Krishna, the full prema-avatar, moving among you! I shall show you the very kaustubha that I was wearing at that time. (Here, Baba waved His hand and, in a trice, a brilliant flash of light revealed a unique jewel in His palm—the kaustubha, famed in the Bhagavatha and the Puranas [both are ancient scriptures]. A big emerald in unexcelled green-blue, rectangular in shape, bordered by splendorous diamonds, hung on a gold chain. Baba moved among the students, teachers, and others in the audience and graciously allowed every one of them to see the sacred jewel very close.)

Krishna moved among men as an ordinary person. And by means of His Divine love, he drew them to observe His prescriptions. He refrained from parading His Divine insignia, the conch, the wheel, the mace, and the lotus. He did not wear even a crown. While a boy, He followed the cows into the pastures with just a towel bound around His head. (Here, Baba called for a longish towel and wound it around His head to show how Krishna appeared at that time. He announced that in those days, as now, there were plenty of peacocks in and around Brindavan and Gokul. So when Krishna came across a feather fallen from its wing, He stuck it between the folds of the towel. It was a moment of rarest and finest delight, when Baba stood revealed as the boy Gopala before hundreds of awestruck but adoring devotees.)

When the Pandavas celebrated the Aswamedha yajna [the horse sacrifice] and the Rajasuya yajna [sacrificial ritual for paramountcy], Krishna asked for some assignment so that He might be of service. Though He could destroy the entire Kaurava brood, He tried His best to instill good sense into them in order to save them. Then, as well as now, the teaching and the message are the same: Know thyself, that is the only right way to know Me. The task then as well as now is: by being keenly associated with men, winning their love through love and through a process of correcting their vision and purifying their consciousness, and leading them to the realization of the God that is their core. Unless the human form is assumed, no one will come near; if the appearance is superhuman, people will keep away. So, as the sastras [ancient scriptures] say, Divine has to come in the form of man to save mankind.

The five elements are the products of the Lord’s will, so they obey the will of Krishna. Whatever Krishna said came true. The only correct definition of truth is, ‘that which Krishna speaks.’ Believe in that. Be firm in that belief. One day, when Krishna went on a stroll with Arjuna, He pointed to a bird perched on the branch of a tree and asked Arjuna, “Do you see that peacock?”  Arjuna answered, “Sure. I do.” “Oh Arjuna, it is not a peacock. It is an eagle,” said Krishna, and Arjuna promptly agreed that it was an eagle. Soon Krishna corrected Himself and, pointing to the same bird, said, “I am sorry. It is a dove.” Arjuna, too, corrected himself and said, “Yes. I see now it is a dove, all right.” Krishna laughed at Arjuna and said, “It is not a dove at all; it is a crow,” and Arjuna agreed without demur. “Undoubtedly it is a crow,” he said. Krishna then accused Arjuna of stupidity because he was saying ‘yes’ to whatever Krishna said—that the bird was peacock, eagle, dove, and crow. Arjuna said, “What You say is the truth for me. You can make a crow a dove, a peacock, or an eagle. Why should I differ from whatever you declare? Your word is the truth I go by.”

You, too, must develop that faith and not be turned away by your egoism or others’ cynicism. Develop viveka and vairagya [detachment], and then your hearts will bloom into fragrant beauty. You have here a picture of Sai standing on a lotus. Sai Krishna will install Himself in the lotus of your heart. He will be ever with you as guard and guide, and He will shower grace on you. He will be the mother, father, preceptor, and God. He will be the nearest kinsman. He will be your all.

Source: Sanathana Sarathi, February 1978