Sri Krishna Charanam Mama Part - I

An article by Sri S. Kannan :

Sri Krishna

Avatara means to descend.  The descent of the Divine in a human form is called Avataaram or incarnation.  There are many incarnations of the Supreme Being Sriman Narayana.  According to the Bagavatha purana, there are innumerable avataras of the Supreme Lord of which it lists out 22.  Most popular are the 10 avataras called Dasavatharam of Lord Vishnu.

Of these avatarams only three avatharams namely that of Nrishimha, Sri Rama and Sri Krishna are considered to be poorna avatharam while the rest are amsa roopa avatharams. Even though the avatharams are believed to have happened eons ago, with the first four of the dasavatharams happening in the Sathya yuga, Sri Rama avatharam in the Tretha yuga and Sri Krishna avtharam in the Dwapara yuga, going by archeological and literary evidences the dates of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna are believed to be about 10000 and 6000 years ago.  That divinity walked this earth in the forms of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna as borne out by the classics Ramayana and Maha Bharata composed by Sri Valmiki and Sri Vedha Vyasa whose dates could probably be estimated and the other archeological evidences in the form of the presence of various temples and monuments that adorn the sites related to the events captured by the epics.

Sri Krishna proclaims in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita that whenever there is a threat to dharma He incarnates Himself to protect the righteous and to bring to end the wrong doers.  So, what could possibly be the purpose of Sri Krishna’s advent as the 8^th child of Vasudeva and Devaki.  If it were to merely kill a tyrant king Kamsa and the demons sent by him, which could have been accomplished much more easily through amsa manifestations rather than the Supreme setting forth to live a full life among mortals, subjecting Himself to being chastened by his mother and other Gopis for his pranks and enduring with a smile the abuses of the likes of Sisupala and Jarasandha and taking on the reins of the chariot horses of Arjuna in the great war of Kurukshetra.

In the incarnation of Lord Sriman Narayana as Sri Rama, He always maintained the garb of a mortal human being to fulfill the vow of Ravana that he cannot be annihilated either by the celestial beings or beings of the nether world – “atmaanam manusham manye Ramam Dasarathaatmajam”. True to the human form He had taken the Lord had His own moments of vacillation like the killing of the Vanara king Vali and in the Agni Pravesam of Devi Sita, not once but twice. Very few like the sages Vashishta, Vishwamitra, Gautama and Agasthyar knew about the incarnation of Lord Vishnu as Sri Rama.

 In Krishna avataram the same Lord never hesitated to display his divinity right from the time of his birth.  When the time came for the Lord to manifest Himself as the eighth child of Vasudeva and Devaki in the dark chambers of the prison where they were confined on a dark and stormy night, the entire cellar began to glow with His radiance and He showed to both Devaki and Vasudeva His real form with four arms holding the divine weapons. “Tam Adbutam Balakam Ambujekshanam chaturbhujam …” Then came the instruction to Vasudeva to carry him across the river Yamuna to Vraja bhoomi to be left there in the care of Nanda and Yashoda, the encounters with the demons Puthana, Shakatasura, Bhakasura and finally the playful killing of Kamsa all within 8 years of age.  Now if the purpose of the advent of Sri Krishna was Kamsa vadham, then this was fulfilled and He could have ended His avataram.  To my little mind it occurs that the advent of the Supreme was to give to the world a treatise par excellence in the form of Srimad Bhaghavad Gita, which is the quintessence of all our vedic learning. 

We consider our Vedas to be anadhi in the sense that we cannot fix a date of origin for them.  It is believed that Vedic Mantras revealed themselves to the Rishis who propagated them by word of mouth through their disciples.  Sri Vedha Vyasa did a yeomen service to mankind by collecting the Vedic hymns that lay scattered and organized them into various branches (Shakas) for posterity. The Vedas as you know are very vast and it would definitely take a life time of study even if one had to master the hymns under his own shaka. Upanishads or Vedanta give in a nutshell the essence of the vedic teachings to which they belong.  Nevertheless they are quite abstract for a lay man to pursue and understand. If all the Upanishads can be likened to cows, the adept cow herd Gopal milks them for the benefit of the child Partha.

More in the next part.

OM TAT SAT