BIRTH OF THE BLUE GOD: KRISHNA

  It was midnight and pitch dark on the 8^th day of the Lunar month and the 8^th month of the        solar     year. The Star Rohini was in the ascendant. All the other stars were in their respective auspicious positions. This was about 5000 years ago. It was stormy and raining. The wind was howling furiously. Lightning flashed across the sky. This was the situation described at the time of the birth of Krishna, the most important character of Mahabharata. If there were no Krishna there would not have been Mahabharata.

      Devaki, Krishna’s mother was in labour pain. Devaki and her husband Vasudeva were put in a jail by Kamsa, the wicket brother of Devaki for the fear that the son born to his sister would kill him. Both Devaki and Vasudeva intensely prayed that the baby should not be born to be butchered like the 7 babies previously. Then an unseen divine voice was heard and assured them that the wicked Kamsa would be killed. The voice guided them to take the new born baby to Vasudeva’s friend Nanda’s house in Gokula, as Nanda’s wife has also just given birth to a daughter and to place the new born male child there and bring Nanda’s daughter back here. This was the way wicked Kamsa would be misguided because he only kills the boy baby.   ‘’The path is open to you’’. The divine voice had said. When Devaki gave birth to a boy baby (Krishna), Vasudeva tenderly took the baby in his hand. The heavy doors of the jail gently opened.  It was still raining heavily. The gate keepers were sleeping. Vasudeva started to move towards Gokula, the other side of the river Yamuna. Shesha, the divine serpent protected the father and the child against the rain and wind. 

    Vasudeva holding the baby tenderly, reached his friend Nanda’s house.  Even there all the doors were wide open as if to invite Vasudeva and the divine child. He went into the room of Yashoda. Yashoda and her maid companions were fast asleep influenced by Maya.  In no time, Vasudeva placed the male child (Krishna) on Yashoda’s lap and took the female child and started returning back.  The return journey was also a success.  He returned to prison.  Heavy doors which were opened automatically closed again.

          All babies cry soon after the birth.  But Krishna, the divine child came into the world not crying but smiling.

(Next week discussion: - Vishwaroopa Darshana (Cosmic form)

Gayathri Mantra: The Universal Prayer

Depressed mind longs for liberation and invokes Gayathri, the sun deity for inspiration. Gayathri Mantra is the mystical utterances and in the mantra we invoke Gayathri, the sun deity, who illuminates all, recreates all, from whom all proceeds, to whom all must return for inspiration. Gayathri mantra forms a universal prayer and is dedicated to the sun deity. It manifests as the totality of existence from the external most physical to the internal most spiritual being. This is a prayer to the supreme infinite Divine Reality for the enlightenment of all human beings to enable them to realise the supreme truth. One of the most venerated rishis (sages) Vishwamitra is credited as the author of the Gayathri mantra. The recitation of the Gayathri mantra is proceeded with the syllable OM.

Kshatriya king Vishwamitra also known as Koushika becoming Brahmarshi (super sage) is spiritually a highly inspiring story. Once Koushika and his soldiers took rest in  sage Vasishta’s ashram (hermitage).  The whole army was well fed and taken care of by Brahmarshi Vasishta. The king Koushika doubted the possibilities and expressed his surprise to Vasishta as to how he was able to take care of the entire army.  Vasishta replied that he was gifted the calf Nandini (the daughter of the cow Kamadhenu) by Indra and Nandini takes care of everything he needs.

Koushika was surprised and he thought that such a rare and invaluable cow should be with the king rather than with the rishi. He expressed his desire to Vasishta. Vasishta politely refused to give the cow to the king, then Koushika got angry and ordered his soldiers to drive the cow to his kingdom. Vasishta saved the cow by destroying the army with his super human spiritual powers. Koushika went away in anger and vowed to return to get the cow.  After this, there were several encounters and Vasishta won all the encounters.  In the final encounter, Vasishta brings out his brahma danda  a wooden stick imbued with powers of Brahman.  Brahma danda consumed all of koushika’s most powerful weapon including brahmastra.  Koushika then realisedthat he should also become Brahmarshi to possess such spiritual powers and did intense Tapas.  He was called Rajarshi.  But Rajarshi is not same as Brahmarshi.  Koushika renounced the kingdom and began his quest to become Brahmarshi and attain the same spiritual powers as Vasishta.

Koushika faced many challenges on his journey to attain  the position of  Brahmarshi and eventually gave up his greed to possess Nandini, the holy cow. Koushika at last obtained the title of Brahmarshi from Vasishta himself.

The Gayathri mantra helps us to know our true selves and to become one with supreme reality.

                                                                   (  Next discussion on Krishna, The Blue God)

AN ENIGMA CALLED "KAFKA"

Among all the novelists, Kafka, perhaps was the most difficult writer to understand.  Kafka was an enigma.  His novels (The Trail, The Castle) too were as difficult as the author to understand.  His novels were an experiment to explore human understandings.  The Trail, his unfinished novel pushes its readers to think.  The Trail gathered highest critical interpretations.  His description of faceless organisations make a suffocating reading and utterly difficult to digest.

Kafka (1883-1924) comes from a Jewish family.  Kafka had a difficult relationship with his parents.  Kafka’s father was a forceful personality, a tyrant of sorts had a profound impact on Kafka’s life and writings.  His characters were simple men and women, who often come up against the ruthless rulers who breaks the will of man and makes them spineless.

The storyline of The Trail is very simple.  Hero (for name sake) “K” was arrested by the authority on his 30^th birthday although he had done nothing wrong.  One year later “K” was arrested again on his 31^st birthday and was driven  outside the town and was killed  in the name of law.  The Trial is a satirical plot during Hungarian tyrant rule of Kafka’s day,  a mirror for any tyrant ruler of that time. 

K’s struggle with Invisible law is ultimately ends with self’s destruction.  Meaning is far from clear.  Author uses this psychological weapon to make readers to think in which “Kafta” certainly succeeds.  This was the author’s way of fighting injustice in the society and the Government.  Strangely Kafka also succeeds in making his readers feel as if they were too on “The Trial”.

DON QUIXOTE

Man has landed on moon and visited Mars but has not learnt how to live on earth. It is always ‘I to I’ and ‘I for I’ attitude. Greed, selfishness, violence and terror has turned earth into a virtual hell. Great souls Jesus Christ, Buddha and Sankara took birth on earth to persuade man to tread the right path. There is another tribe, novelist who have taken a similar path in a different way. They create another world similar to ours and show us our real face. They mock us in their novels. Jonathan swift, in Gulliver’s Travels has turned man into Lilliputians (six inch height). Another writer Cervantes in his novel ‘Don Quixote’ creates a character called Quixote who does not see the world for what it is. Don Quixote is a great novel from Spain.

Read on….

The novel ‘Don Quixote’ is an imaginary adventure story of Quixote who always reads chivalric romances and loses his sanity and sets out to revive chivalry to undo wrongs. He recruits a simple villager Sancho Panza as his squire. Quixote wants to bring justice to the world. Sancho panza very wisely uses earthly wit in dealing with Quixote’s rhetorical orations in antiquated knighthood. Quixote once imagined a non-existent enemy in the air and fights with that enemy with his sword.

Don Quixote is a great Spanish novel which had a major influence on the literary community. Throughout the novel, Cervantes uses literary techniques to make Quixote that he is living a knightly life. Any unreasonable idea man may have is commonly called as quixotic ideas. The novel had a direct reference in Alexander Dumas (The Three Musketeers) and Mark Twain (well-known American writer) philosopher and writer Arthur Schopenhauer said Don Quixote is one of the greatest novels.

It is time to pause and reflect. Should the world go in the same old ways? Or will man rid himself from the image of ‘Lilliputians and Quixotes’?