I am not too much of a religious person, spiritual, maybe, but I don't really understand religion, but mythology always mesmerizes me. (Thankfully today we can differentiate between religion and spiritualism.) I never fail to be awed by it's depth and immense scope, its ability of always surfacing and conveying something that is new, its paradoxical ability of being ancient, yet so contemporary and relevant. I'm going to express all that comes to my mind, so sparing the anachronism, I hope that you all will enjoy reading my thoughts as and when they spring up from my mind.
The first image that comes to my mind is quite obviously---
The Enigmatic KrishnaI always find Krishna to be too cute and mischievous in any one of his various roops and avatars. Though he is so friendly and approachable, more of an anthropic representation rather than a frightening God, he is also surrounded with controversy. There is much flak and criticism about many of his actions be it stealing the makhan, teasing the gopis, leaving the battlefield for he doesn't mind being called 'ranchod' (the one who fled from war). He's also been criticised about his raslilas and those 1000s of wives he had. Well, those who slur his purity and justify their own petty actions holding his tasks up as models do indeed have a very superficial understanding of his huge persona.
I can't be chronological, and am going to write whatever comes to my minds first of all. And what is finding way out of my fervid mind is ---
To feel and experience any of the symbolism embedded in any of the representations, if we ourselves become Krishna, we'd be able to understand the complex very easily. We all have many selves, and according to me, they are all real. We are selfish and mean at times and so humble, selfless and sublime at others. In other words, we have a higher self and a lower self. I liken Krishna to be my own higher self. Krishna represents me caught in this Mayajaal of reality. It's paradoxical, isn't it, but so true that what we believe is the harsh reality is actually ephemeral and transitory. It will fade away and what we perceive as unreal, will, maybe, remain, as it is eternal. The first picture that comes to my mind is the battlefield of Kurukshetra, with the heroic Arjuna sitting in his 'ratha' (chariot) of five horses and the Glorious Krishna in all his splendour as the charioteer. Each and every time I see this picture,either with my eyes or in my mind, it always emanates as a hugely symbolic representation of the human mind. Isn't the ratha a psycho physical representation of our mind, with Krishna residing as our higher self and the five horses as our grosser physical senses that pull us towards baser, animal instincts. If the Arjuna in us rules, we are dominated by our petty selves, restricting our minds to the self, becoming egocentric. Whereas, if we start looking at the larger picture of life, start attaching the others' happiness to our own, it implies that it is the Krishna in us who is driving our chariot.
The Raaslila, the Gopis and Radha
I am Krishna and each one of my thoughts is a Gopi. My mind is so vast, vivid and has the potential of thinking so many thoughts at the same time. So much so, that it is flooded with thoughts all the time. Even when we are sleeping, some of our thoughts sneak out from the conscious, unconscious or sub conscious minds in various forms such as somniloquism or more commonly as dreams. We don't get respite from our thoughts all our lives. It is the brain that consumes 90% of our blood, is what I have heard people say, and we need to concentrate, meditate and reduce the number of thoughts in our mind. If we do so, we are able to feel realize and use the immense potential hidden inside us... But we can't do it, that's what we feel. Well, not so easily of course. So, for the first time meditators, we have stages like the alpha, where we are able to reduce our active thoughts, then, we gradually start slipping into beta, where we slip into strong concentration and then we have the theta which is akin to deep meditation.
Krishna with gopis is such a magnificent allegory to illustrate how "I" the Krishna is with each and every "Gopi" thought of mine, I am with her because it is my thought, and I am so worldly wise attached to it, enjoying the entire Raaslila... I keep dancing and keep dancing and keep dancing to the tunes of this world till I start feeling detached and keep reducing my thoughts, mainly with the help of meditation, slipping into concentration and then into dhyaan and I meet my own real self, I meet my Radha. I see Radha and Krishna as symbols of the male and female energies inside each one of us. The Chinese call it Yin and Yang, we refer to it as purush and prakriti, Radha and Krishna never meet, yes never, not in this worldly representation. There is no place in this physical world where it is possible for Radha and Krishna to meet. And yet they are always together, so what is this mystery. They are together as they coexist in each being as complements, as components that complete each other.
The first image that comes to my mind is quite obviously---
The Enigmatic KrishnaI always find Krishna to be too cute and mischievous in any one of his various roops and avatars. Though he is so friendly and approachable, more of an anthropic representation rather than a frightening God, he is also surrounded with controversy. There is much flak and criticism about many of his actions be it stealing the makhan, teasing the gopis, leaving the battlefield for he doesn't mind being called 'ranchod' (the one who fled from war). He's also been criticised about his raslilas and those 1000s of wives he had. Well, those who slur his purity and justify their own petty actions holding his tasks up as models do indeed have a very superficial understanding of his huge persona.
I can't be chronological, and am going to write whatever comes to my minds first of all. And what is finding way out of my fervid mind is ---
To feel and experience any of the symbolism embedded in any of the representations, if we ourselves become Krishna, we'd be able to understand the complex very easily. We all have many selves, and according to me, they are all real. We are selfish and mean at times and so humble, selfless and sublime at others. In other words, we have a higher self and a lower self. I liken Krishna to be my own higher self. Krishna represents me caught in this Mayajaal of reality. It's paradoxical, isn't it, but so true that what we believe is the harsh reality is actually ephemeral and transitory. It will fade away and what we perceive as unreal, will, maybe, remain, as it is eternal. The first picture that comes to my mind is the battlefield of Kurukshetra, with the heroic Arjuna sitting in his 'ratha' (chariot) of five horses and the Glorious Krishna in all his splendour as the charioteer. Each and every time I see this picture,either with my eyes or in my mind, it always emanates as a hugely symbolic representation of the human mind. Isn't the ratha a psycho physical representation of our mind, with Krishna residing as our higher self and the five horses as our grosser physical senses that pull us towards baser, animal instincts. If the Arjuna in us rules, we are dominated by our petty selves, restricting our minds to the self, becoming egocentric. Whereas, if we start looking at the larger picture of life, start attaching the others' happiness to our own, it implies that it is the Krishna in us who is driving our chariot.
The Raaslila, the Gopis and Radha
I am Krishna and each one of my thoughts is a Gopi. My mind is so vast, vivid and has the potential of thinking so many thoughts at the same time. So much so, that it is flooded with thoughts all the time. Even when we are sleeping, some of our thoughts sneak out from the conscious, unconscious or sub conscious minds in various forms such as somniloquism or more commonly as dreams. We don't get respite from our thoughts all our lives. It is the brain that consumes 90% of our blood, is what I have heard people say, and we need to concentrate, meditate and reduce the number of thoughts in our mind. If we do so, we are able to feel realize and use the immense potential hidden inside us... But we can't do it, that's what we feel. Well, not so easily of course. So, for the first time meditators, we have stages like the alpha, where we are able to reduce our active thoughts, then, we gradually start slipping into beta, where we slip into strong concentration and then we have the theta which is akin to deep meditation.
Krishna with gopis is such a magnificent allegory to illustrate how "I" the Krishna is with each and every "Gopi" thought of mine, I am with her because it is my thought, and I am so worldly wise attached to it, enjoying the entire Raaslila... I keep dancing and keep dancing and keep dancing to the tunes of this world till I start feeling detached and keep reducing my thoughts, mainly with the help of meditation, slipping into concentration and then into dhyaan and I meet my own real self, I meet my Radha. I see Radha and Krishna as symbols of the male and female energies inside each one of us. The Chinese call it Yin and Yang, we refer to it as purush and prakriti, Radha and Krishna never meet, yes never, not in this worldly representation. There is no place in this physical world where it is possible for Radha and Krishna to meet. And yet they are always together, so what is this mystery. They are together as they coexist in each being as complements, as components that complete each other.
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