Zitat von Vedanta am 14. August 2017, 23:01 Uhr

Shri Krishna Janmashtami
15^th August 2017

On Tuesday we celebrate the most important festival - Shri Krishna's birthday! Basically, the term birthday is not quite appropriate, because it is not a birth in the conventional sense. Most devotees say Shri Krishna's appearance day. But because birthday simply sounds more familiar and heartwarming, of course this term is „allowed“ too.

It is a very rare event that Shri Krishna appears on the earth, that is, only once in a day of Brahma. To illustrate: during one day on Brahma's planet, 4,320,000,000 years are passing on earth. In addition, there is Brahma's night, which lasts just as long. In other words, Shri Krishna appears on earth only about every 9 billion years. The same is also true of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's manifestation cycle. When we compare these astronomical time periods with the fact that Shri Krishna's last appearance was „just recently“ 5,129 years ago (--> Dr. Manish Pandit, UK; Dr. Narhari Achar, US), this should be an impetus for the greatest joy!

***

1. The Plight of the Earth

According to the Vedas, earth, Bhumidevi, is a living being (Jīva) like us, with consciousness, feelings and desires. The earth is therefore happy when its inhabitants are situated in happiness and harmony with the divine order by doing yajnas, cooperating peacefully and, ideally, worshiping Krishna with all their love. His Holiness Babaj Maharaja recently explained in a lecture that only man tends to disrupt the divine order of nature. The animals, however, take only as much as they need. But humans collect. This acquisitiveness sometimes knows no limits. For this reason, according to Babaji Maharaja, Krishna already pointed out in the third chapter of Bhagavad Gita that, parallel to the creation of this world, yajnas were created (which, however, are quite different in each yuga):

saha-yajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā purovāca prajāpatiḥ
anena prasaviṣyadhvam eṣa vo ‘stv iṣṭa-kāmadhuk

In the beginning of creation, after Brahmā brought forth humankind along with the performance of yajña, he said, „You shall prosper by this yajña. May it become that which fulfills all objects of longing desired by you.“

- Bhagavad Gita 3.10

According to Babaji Maharaja, yajna means three things:

1. Worship,

2. Charity,

3. Discussion of philosophy.

Babaji Maharaja further elaborates that:

Worship means acknowledging the help we are getting from nature, who is a living being, not some dead entity. And nature [earth] is supplying our needs, and we have to acknowledge that. That is the meaning of worship. Then we do some charity, some objects like food, cloth or even knowledge we can give. The next is education. Yajna is also a means for education, for discussion, for dialogue about life principles.

It is therefore no wonder that in this Vedic culture of worship and gratitude, the principle of ahimsa comes first. Ahimsa means to avoid violence as far as possible. This applies not only to humans but also to animals. It is unfortunately a widespread, because massively propagated, myth that animal slaughter and meat eating were popular in Vedic times. Nothing could be further from the truth. According to His Holiness Shri Haridas Shastri Maharaj ji, the original Vedic period was characterized by pure vegetarianism. It was only later that there might have been certain concessions for people with extreme meat-cravings to fulfill these within the framework of a modified yajna. At no time, however, not even within the context of yajnas, cow-killing was allowed. The term „go-medha“, which in this regard has been misinterpreted by some Sanskrit scholars and indologists (sometimes apparently in bad faith), basically has three etymological meanings:

a) increasing cows,

b) attending or accompanying cows,

c) killing cows.

Considering that in the entire Vedas the cow is regarded as completely inviolable and sacred (not to mention that she is Krishna's absolute favorite animal!), the unbiased, expert Sanskrit scholar or Brahmana will, of course, for translation purposes exclusively choose options a) or b) (see His Holiness Shri Haridas Shastri Maharaj ji, „A Review of Beef in Ancient India“, page 168, under the heading „Synonymms of Yajna“, center of the paragraph). However, I may elaborate on this in a possible later essay. For today, I would like to end this excursion by kindly drawing your attention to the following well-researched cow-documentary by Karolina Goswamini, a Krishna-devotee from Poland:

Why is the Cow Holy?

In any case, earth or Bhumidevi along with humanity suffered greatly due to the wicked and tyrannical leaders of state who were inhibiting all yajnas and harrassing innocent people so much so that she turned in desperation to Brahma, the chief administrator of the universe. She sought Shri Brahma at Mount Meru, expressing to him her deep sorrow and lamentation, taking the form of a cow with tears in her eyes. Shri Brahma listened attentively and took her report very seriously, but understood that to solve the matter he himself needed help. He immediately set off on a journey to the Milk Ocean, together with leading universal administrators such as Shiva and Indra, to consult Shri Vishnu. Shri Vishnu of course knew about everything in advance and informed Brahma telepathically that He personally would take care of it by appearing as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki on earth. He also ordered all Devas to immediately get ready to incarnate on earth in the Yadu dynasty as sons and grandsons, to assist Him in His extensive mission.

2. Shri Krishna Arrives

Shri Krishna is known to have been born in Mathura, within Kamsa's prison. This place, called „Krishna Janambhoomi“, is still one of India's most popular pilgrimage sites: http://mathuravisit.com/mathura/krishna-janambhoomi.html

My wife and I got the fortunate opportunity to visit this temple once and it was very impressive. The inside of the building indeed feels like an extensive dungeon system due to the old walls and the lighting that is deliberately rather spartan. It contains a kind of art exhibition with partial plastic depictions of different lilas of Krishna, which are connected with this place, for example, His midnight flight from the prison, as can be recognized in the following video right at the beginning (the brave filmmaker seems to somehow have had managed to circumvent the strict security controls, because cameras and even mobile phones are prohibited there due to large concerns for criminal attacks): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO6YjjgI3V4

But now, further in the story:

As soon as Shri Krishna appeared in prison, first in His four-armed Baby-Vishnu form (bālakam ambujekṣanam catur-bhujam, SB 10.3.9), Vasudeva offered Him reverential and joyful prayers, followed by his wife Devaki offering her prayers. Both Vasudeva and Devaki were suddenly no longer afraid of Kamsa (who was only waiting to assassinate Krishna immediately after his birth), because due to the radiant, four-armed appearance of Shri Vishnu, there was, of course, no doubt that God personally was present in front of them. Shri Krishna accepted both of their prayers, thereafter explaining why He had come to Vasudeva and Devaki at all, and that He had been their child also in previous lifetimes, because it had been both their heart‘s desire and longing to get Him as their son. For this, in their former life, they willingly undertook thousands of heavenly years of austerities, like rigorous fasting and undergoing perfect breath control (pranayama) while focussing their minds intensely and with love towards their common goal - Shri Krishna.

Shri Krishna then turned into a two-armed baby, still wrapped in glowing gold-yellow clothes, adorned with luxuriant black hair and glittering jewels and precious stones.

At the same time in Gokula, Yogamaya, Krishna's inner energy, was born as the daughter of Yashoda and Nanda Maharaja. Vasudeva was then instructed from inside by Shri Krishna to exchange the two newborn babies, Krishna and Yogamaya. The following spectacular escape from prison I would like to reproduce in the original wording hereinafter:

tayā hṛta-pratyaya-sarva-vṛttiṣu dvāḥ-stheṣu paureṣv api śāyiteṣv atha
dvāraś ca sarvāḥ pihitā duratyayā bṛhat-kapāṭāyasa-kīla-śṛṅkhalaiḥ

tāḥ kṛṣṇa-vāhe vasudeva āgate svayam vyavaryanta yathā tamo raveḥ
vavarṣa parjanya upāmśu-garjitaḥ śeṣo ‘nvagād vāri nivārayan phaṇaiḥ

Due to Yogamāyā‘s influence, all the guards as well as the other inhabitants of the house fell deeply asleep. As darkness is dissipated by the appearance of the rising sun, similarly the closed doors, reinforced with iron and locked with iron chains, opened automatically when Vasudeva appeared. The clouds were mildly thundering and showering and thus, for the sake of protection, Ananta-śeṣa [the transcendental snake, an expansion of Shri Balarama] followed Vasudeva and Krishna with expanded hoods.

- SB 10.3.48-49

Thus Vasudeva could carry little Krishna without any obstacles to Yamuna. Yamuna had meanwhile turned into a rushing stream due to flood (Indra continually sent heavy rain). But even that was no hindrance. As soon as Vasudeva appeared before the Yamuna carrying Krishna on his head, she parted her waters thus creating a ford. In this way, Vasudeva with Baby-Krishna could safely cross over Yamuna. On the other bank, he continued the flight and took little Krishna to Gokula, which was 15 kilometers from Mathura. The following map may assist in a a better visual understanding of the localities:

Vasudeva finally reached the house of Nanda Maharaja. There, too, all the house‘s inhabitants slept deeply. True to his mission, Vasudeva exchanged Yashoda‘s baby (Yogamaya) with Baby-Krishna. Yashoda, by the way, did not notice the baby exchange the next morning because, due to her exhaustion after having given birth, she could not remember whether she had given birth to a girl or boy. Then Vasudeva, together with little Yogamaya, hurried back to Mathura, put Baby-Yogamaya on Devaki's bed, and chained himself again so that Kamsa would not become suspicious.

How did Kamsa react to the apparent birth of a girl by Devaki? Well, this is another, very exciting story! At this point, only that much shall be said: first, with blind rage, he also wanted to assassinate the girl and grabbed her by the legs to crush her on a stone. But the girl slipped out of his hand, hovered and turned into the eight-armed, heavily armed and garlanded Durgadevi! Even for the cunning, unscrupulous Kamsa, this was such a shocking and fearsome experience that he fell immediately to the knees and at least temporarily became truly humble and remorseful. After all, he finally released Vasudeva and Devaki after many years of imprisonment.

Shri Krishna, on the other hand, from now onwards spent his childhood days in Gokula, under the care of his foster parents Yashoda and Nanda Maharaja. Gokula looks like this today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQPWQ-FTgqw

3. Krishna's Mission

Krishna's missions are very diverse and complex. His official principal mission is, as explained above, to free Mother Earth, Bhumidevi, from the demonic forces that were prevalent at that time, and which severely troubled people in their peaceful life and the execution of yajnas. Krishna is very concerned about that people can perform without disturbance their elevating and liberating yajnas. In fact, this is the intrinsic reason for this creation.

Already in Gokula, Krishna started this mission in a playful manner by killing various attacking demons, thus protecting his companions and all villagers. Eradicating demons continued to be part of His activities. Eventually, this part of His mission culminated in the the Great Battle of Kurukshetra, in which all the demonic kings along with their armies were destroyed. Afterwards, Maharaja Yudhisthira was crowned as a righteous King of the world. Bhumidevi felt very much relieved, and from now onwards all people could again breath freely, live happily and peacefully perform their yajnas.

We want to end here with this year's Janmashtami speech by Shrimati Tulsi Gabbard, the well-known US Congresswoman from Hawaii, who obviously herself is a devotee of Shri Krishna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNTR53Nfmog

Jai Shri Krishna Janmashtami !!