Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Krishna is real and at the same time inconceivable


In the Bible, there are many stories describing the miracles of Jesus Christ, how he healed the sick, raised people from the dead, multiplied one loaf of bread into many, walked on water etc. To none of these stories, one can find hard evidence as defined by modern science. In fact, there is no concrete evidence to prove even the existence of Jesus Christ. Yet, the modern day Christian community does not believe Jesus and his miracles to be myth. They do not believe it is mythology. They believe it to be true that Jesus Christ was sent by God and that he has the ability to perform such miracles.

However, when we talk about Krishna lifting the Govardhan Hill or Krishna showing His universal form or Krishna killing putana when he was less than one month old, etc we dub all these incidents as myth? The stories from the Mahabharata and Ramayana are considered mythology by modern day scholars and common man including the devout so called hindus? This reflects the amount of faith one has on Krishna and Rama. In fact by calling Krishna and Rama mythology is an indirect way of saying all this is not true and not very important. The only reason today Krishna or Rama is taken seriously in India is either from a historical/archeological standpoint or from a religious/sentimental standpoint. In both cases, the assumption is Krishna or Rama may or may not exist and more probably be mythological characters. But even if they are not a myth, people do not have faith that Krishna would have lifted a mountain? This sort of understanding is prevalent in modern day India, unfortunately.

There are many reasons attributed to such a lack of faith. One reason is that there is no systematic educational system that teaches the omnipotency of God Krishna from very young age. Another reason is that India became such sycophants to British culture that they believed anything the British said. So the early Indologists starting with Max Mueller successfully mythologized the pastimes of Krishna and Rama and has been institutionalized ever since. However, one of the main reasons I believe is the lack of interest towards spiritual life by so called Hindus and the lack of bonafide spiritual teachers (currently there are more fakes in the guise of sadhus – holy men) who can teach the siddhanta (philosophical conclusions) of Krishna. According to the pure spiritual masters (who live a life of devotion and service to Krishna) Krishna (or God) must be understood within the concept of achintya shakti. This is how we can rationalize such super human activities of Krishna. Achintya shakti means the power of inconceivability. In other words, Krishna is inconceivable beyond our mundane mind and thoughts. We cannot limit Krishna within the limits of our imagination because He is beyond our imagination. Therefore, Krishna can do anything at any place at any time.  He is smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest.

Here is another display of His inconceivable powers. Krishna descended to appear within His material creation some 5000 years ago. So despite the fact that Krishna is present inside His creation, still when He opened His mouth, Mother Yasoda saw the entire breadth and width of the material creation. So although Krishna is inside His own creation displaying pastimes, still the entire creation is within Him, how is this possible? If we try to analyze this story through the linear methods of modern science, we will become athesists or at best impersonalists. So the way the pure spiritual masters teach us is that Krishna is inconceivable and we have to leave it at that. But to accept the words of a spiritual master requires faith, humility and devotion.

But in this jet-paced world, who stops to cultivate faith in an otherwise faithless world. So Lord Chaitanya recommends the easiest method to cultivate that faith – that is –chant Hare Krishna and offer whatever you can as little as a leaf, flower or fruit to the picture of Krishna in devotional mood. In this way, when we cultivate faith, we will see how Krishna will reveal His inconceivable nature to us although our position is very insignificant.

Krishna is real, His activities are real, His names are real, and calling Him through His names will actually attract the attention of Krishna and eventually He will display His true inconceivable nature. Try it and you will not be disappointed.

Chant Hare Krishna

Hare Krishna

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