Krishna: The Super Soul

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

On the day called ‘krishna-janmastami’, all Hindus celebrate the birthday of Krishna who descended on earth to keep the people on the right path so that all humans could live happily and peacefully in this world of turbulence and sufferings. The super soul comes to this world in one form or another once in a millennium to weed out demons when they exhibit their supremacy over the divinities, and when they rein this world. Krishna was one such incarnation of the super soul. He was born to a royal couple imprisoned by the demonic king called Kamsa on the eighth day of dark fortnight of Shravon. Krishna’s mission was to eliminate all sorts of disorders set by the demons born of evil parents.

While Kamsa: the king of Mathura was taking his newly wed sister Devaki with her husband Basudev to a pleasure ride, on the way an ascetic person stopped the carriage and said to Kamsa, “you are taking your sister and her husband to a pleasure ride but you have no idea of the eighth male child of this couple will be the cause of your death.”

Believing in the prophecy of the ascetic, Kamsa locked up his sister Devaki with her husband Basudev in the prison cell, and kept them under round-the-clock surveillance so that none of the children born of them escaped from him. He posted the men the most loyal to him to guard the prison cell and to report him as soon as a child was born.

As soon as a child was born, the prison guards immediately reported Kamsa who in turn mercilessly killed every newborn infant. He personally went to the prison cell to see whether the child was a girl or a boy. Then he snatched the baby from the mother no matter whether it was a boy or a girl although the ascetic had predicted only the eighth baby boy would be the cause of his death. He slammed every baby on the rock wall splattering blood all over the cell and killing the baby instantly.

To be on the safe side, Kamsa killed one child after another born of the couple until the sixth one. Basudev and his wife Devaki transferred the seventh baby from her womb to the womb of Rohini: the first wife of Basudev transcendentally. Kamsa was very surprised to know that the seventh child was not born. He then enforced strict security in the prison cell so that no child born or not born could escape from there. When Devaki was about to deliver the eighth child a voice from the sky said to Basudev, “Take the eighth child to Gokul and swap the baby boy with a girl child born to Yasoda.” Basudev asked, “How could it possible when we are chained and we are in the cell locked by seven doors arranged in the series, and every door is guarded?” The voice said, “ You do not need to worry about it; you just take the baby boy to Gokul.”

When the seventh child was born, Basudev: the father took the child put it in a bamboo basket and carried it on his head, and walked to one door after another which mystically opened while the men guarding one door after another slept unconsciously. Thus, Basudev walked out of the prison cell with the baby boy in a basket on his head and went straight to Gokul and swapped him with the girl child just born there, and he brought the baby girl back to the prison cell in Mathura.

Next morning, the prison guards immediately reported to Kamsa that a baby girl was born. Kamsa could not believe it but it was fact. According to the prophesy of the ascetic, the eighth child should be a boy not a girl. However, Kamsa did not like to let live the girl child. So, he took the baby from her mother’s lap and was about to slam her on the wall, she escaped from his hand, and flew over Kamsa, and said, “Kamsa, you have enjoyed killing innocent infants, now it is your turn to get killed; a boy has already born in Gokul to finish you off.”

Kamsa was upset very much. He went back to his palace. He called the courtiers to assembly at his court immediately to discuss the most important matter of the state. He told the assembly of the courtiers what he had heard from the flying baby girl out of the prison cell. Courtiers have put forward various plans on tackling the baby boy in Gokul. However, none of those plans have satisfied him except for one plan on killing all children born within the last two years. He was happy again.

Kamsa called on demon mercenaries. He sent one mercenary after another to Gokul. They killed many innocent children in Gokul but they were not on target. However, whenever they reached Krishna and attempted on his life, Krishna did not leave them alive. Krishna has killed one mercenary after another making the plan of Kamsa on killing him through the mercenaries a failure.

Krishna came to earth in the human guise and had lived with his adopted mother Yasoda until he became a teenager. Even as a child he killed so many mercenaries sent by his maternal uncle Kamsa to kill him. However, he never boasted his super natural power except for once. His mother saw him putting soil in his mouth when he was crawling around her house. She came running after him and forced him to open his mouth. Yasoda: the mother saw the universe in his mouth. Thereafter, he was a normal child playing with his childhood friends.

Krishna grew up against all the odds created by his jealous maternal uncle Kamsa. Finally, finding no possibility of killing Krishna through mercenaries, Kamsa made a plan on killing him through wrestlers. Kamsa invited teenage Krishna to be a guest of honor at his palace in Mathura; but the evil-minded Kamsa secretly hired the most powerful wrestlers to wrestle Krishna and then killed him in the ring.

Krishna is the super soul with ‘bramhajyoiti’ means transcendental knowledge. So, he knew everything going on in the palace of Kamsa. However, pretending to be unsuspecting, he arrived at the Kamsa’ kingdom. Instead of a welcome ceremony, Kamsa has held a wrestling show in the ring hastily made for it. Krishna did not want to take part in the wrestling saying he was not a match to the wrestlers. However, Kamsa insisted on Krishna fighting with the wrestlers with an unequal strength. Krishna killed one wrestler after another. Ultimately, Kamsa himself came upon Krishna. Thus, Krishna has no choice but to finish off Kamsa, as it was destined.

Then, he restored order in the kingdom relieving the people from the injustice inflicted on them by the demon king Kamsa. First, he went to the prison cell where his parents: Basudev and Devaki have been living and have given the birth of eight children, and freed them from the shackles. Then, he went to the prison cell where his maternal grandfather has been living since his son Kamsa has usurped the state power from him and imprisoned him for a life. Krishna freed his grandfather from the prison and returned him the kingdom he has lost to his son Kamsa.

His last mission was to clean up the unholy spirits prevailing in Hastinapur where King Dhrittarastra was reigning at that time. His son Duryodhan was a de-facto ruler. Duryodhan was jealous of his cousins: the Pandav brothers, and he had tried a number of times to get rid of them because they were the legitimate heirs to the throne of Hastinapur. That bred a conflict, which culminated into a war. Both sides prepared for a war and were ready to fight against each other in the battlefield called Kuruchhetra.

Seeing the relatives, cousins and a grandfather standing as the opponents in the battlefield, Arjun: one of the five Pandav-warrior brothers refused to target his arrows at them at any cost. So, Lord Krishna narrated the Bhagbat Gita to Arjun at the Kuruchhetra battlefield to persuade him to fight against them, and liberate the souls from their evil-haunted physical bodies. The lord explained to Arjun that every living being has a soul, which is a part of the super soul. Such a soul moves from one material body to another until it completes the life cycle of all living beings on earth, and then merges with the super soul. Hence, the body is not as important as the soul is because the physical body may become extinct at any time if the soul leaves the body. Thus, the soul remains constant in the ever-changing physical body. The war was inevitable because many weeds have grown among the holy plants. So, his mission was to weed out the unholy plants that have grown strong. The battle was one such means of eliminating all the weeds.

To persuade Arjun to a war, Krishna revealed his true nature to Arjun in the battlefield, releasing brilliant rays called ‘brahamajyoti’ from his transcendental body, which contained the whole Hindu universe. Thereafter, Krishna explained to Arjun that the rays ‘jyoti’ are the illusion called ‘Maya’ means the sense gratification in the material world, which was unreal, and only shadow. The real world is a spiritual one, which can be reached by Krishna consciousness means attachment to Krishna.

You can be attached to Krishna and reach the spiritual life only when you control the senses of the body. As long as the soul is in your body, consciousness prevails when the soul departs from the body; consciousness ceases to be in the body. If you can see the combination of the soul with material elements, and can identify the super soul, then you become eligible for entering the spiritual world.

 When you begin the cultivation of spiritual knowledge, you elevate yourselves from the material existence, and gradually rise up to the ‘brahman’ conception of the super soul. This ’brahman’ conception is the first stage of self-realization. The self-realized person is not affected by the false identification of the body with the true self, but understands well that s/he is not the body alone, but a part of the super soul. So, the person becomes indifferent to the achievement s/he has made. So, s/he will neither repent for a failure nor be happy for a success. This knowledge will gradually lead the person to the absolute truth means the super soul namely brahman, paramatma and bhagavan. Thus, s/he gets liberated from the material world, and reaches the spiritual world means the world of Krishna, and gains the eternal peace.

After the revelation of the absolute truth, Arjun understood the need for a war. He gained the inner strength to fight with his grandfather Bhisma: the person with immense power and having the boon of death by his own will. Arjun and his brothers succeeded in eliminating all unholy physical bodies liberating their souls from the bodies, and thus, cleaned of the human society of that time. Krishna’s mission in this world was completed after the war; and he returned to his eternal spiritual world.

Krishna’s adulthood activities were depicted as amorous. There are many amorous cultural activities that people emulate Krishna even today, claiming that these have been continued from the time of Krishna. However, the real meaning of these activities are that the super soul in the human guise namely Krishna is everywhere. So, Krishna is seen with his one thousand and six hundred girl friends called ‘gopinis’ in the room of every ‘gopini’. This explains that Krishna is omnipresent and omnipotent means everywhere with everyone and all-powerful.

August 14, 2009.

Note: the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna is on August 14, 2009.