#Janmasthami – The Birthday of Lord Krishna
Brig. K.G. Behl (Retd.)
President, All India Consumer’s Council, Uttarakhand
Janmasthami is the birthday of Lord Krishna who propounded the philosophy of life, eulogizing, what life is and how it’s spiritual purification can be achieved by performing one’s duty with dedication and devotion, selfless service to the poor and needy and by egoless adoration and reverence to divine power, one believes in.
Lord Krishna is known for the variety of actions right from his childhood where he destroyed number of demons and attracted with the melody of his flute different followers creating raas leela and spreading the message of love, affection and service to the humanity.
Krishna is often described and portrayed as an infant being carried on head by his father crossing holy river Jamuna, playing with as a child and showing Universe in his mouth while eating earth, stealing butter from matkies (earthen pots) and sharing with friends, as a young boy playing flute, grazing cows with his friends, as a young flute player teasing gopies and raas leela and enticing his beloved Radha and swinging with her under the trees, killing demon and kalia naag, overpowering huge powerful beasts and killing King Kansa his maternal uncle and releasing his parents from prison. His activities at Mathura are well known and saving people under the Govardhan Parvat is unique.
His establishment of Kingdom in Dwarka and his episode with Sudama are well known. He was a living God and was the 8th incarnation of Lord Vishnu. There is no sphere in which he has not shown his acumen as a human being as well as a God.
Bhagvad Gita is the gospel of truth – a discourse given to Arjuna the Great Warrior and the renowned Archer, in the great Indian Epic ‘Mahabharat’ by Lord Krishna. It covers all aspects of life and deals with all paths which lead to reach the ultimate – the God, by purifying the indestructible soul, which is present in every living being. The body of the human and other living beings, in which the soul lives, is just a cover, which grows with the age wears out as per its life or gets damaged due to disease, accident or other such causes and gets transformed into dust by a variety of ways followed by different religions. Of course all this happens as per ones karma (actions) where one has the freedom to chose the path and act. God ensures that one moves from one mile stone to another but leaves choice of path, the conveyance and other facilities to the individual. This is the point from which Karma starts as choice is entirely of the individual and on the selection made start Karmas on which depends one’s future transformation of the Soul and correspondingly the next body.
Gita is the essence of Spiritual Knowledge.. It is a mosaic of Gyan Yoga (Spiritual Knowledge of the Supreme), Karma Yoga (Attainment of Supreme through Action), and Bhagti Yoga (Attainment of Supreme through Prayers).
Bhagwat Gita does not belong to any religion and is probably the only book which is not worshipped as it portrays the true values and philosophy of life which is Universal. It shows the path to Salvation(Moksha) and emancipation from the process of birth and rebirth. To attain this state one need not do Tapasya(Single minded Prayers in solitude) or take Sanyas(go to jungles to pray in solitude) as one can attain salvation even while carrying out one’s Karma with devotion at home. The yoga here too is not Rishi Patanjali’s physical exercises but is Dhyan( concentration of mind).
The soul in the body guides the human mind to a certain extent and leaves rest to the individual to maneuver according to worldly attractions and power of thinking given to the body. The moment the soul leaves the body ,the person is declared dead and is disposed off in different ways as per religious rituals .
It is the soul which takes all credits and debits for the action done during one’s life span. The body, which covers the Soul, keeps on growing after birth and start wearing out after certain age depending upon the environment it gets. Strangely enough, the body adjusts itself to all conditions it confronts irrespective of terrain, weather, eating habits or any other criteria but still wears out slowly till end leaving to soul to bear credits/ debits and consequent transformations into new realm.
Yada Yada hi Dharmasya Glanir Bhavati Bharatah
Abhyuthanam, Dharmasya Tadatamanam srajamayham Chapter-IV-7
Which means that as and when there is decline of Dharma and decay of righteousness, God creates himself into a human body to come to earth and destroy the wicked. It is appears very true because as and when there was some decay of spiritualism / dharma and the rise of adharma God has appeared in different human forms there, to whom the followers of those religions profess as their God in that human form. But after performing His acts for which He took birth as a human He disappears leaving his ideas and philosophy for the followers to practice and create righteousness in the whole community and mankind performing selfless service to the poor and needy by egoless devotion.
Paritrarnaaye sadhunam, vinshaye cha dushkritam
Dharma Sansthapnarthaaye, sambhavami yuge yuge
For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked and for the establishment of Dharma I am born age after age. God is born in human form in different parts of the World in different forms and religions.
Every religion so propounded contains and advocates righteousness as a system of morality and duty and lays down certain essentials which imbibe in him the spirit of working with other humans with love and care. Thus in every religion the basics are the same which they practice and preach within the norms laid down by the religion. This is called Manav Dharma which is almost same in every religion and is followed by all.
Bhagwadgita defines what is a human body and what is real in it. Real is that which exists at all times and is indestructible and incomprehensive. The body keeps on changing every moment since the mind in it evolves and the intellect grows which keep on changing and as such is not real. The soul in a body is perfect and changeless and needs no evolution. Weapons cannot cleave it, fire cannot burn it, water cannot moisten it and wind cannot dry it.
Na ainam Chindanti Shastrani, Na ainam dahati pavakah
Na Chainam Klaidyanti aap, Na shoshyati marootah Chapter-II-23
Geeta is a spiritual book and perhaps the only book , which is not worshipped any where, thought it contains the gist of life .
On this day we celebrate the birth of Lord Krishna who appeared in the human form but did Godly acts to destroy demons and created an atmosphere or love, affection and services to the humanity. Let us vow to follow his spiritual teachings and the philosophy he laid down regarding karma, yoga and bhagti.
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