Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Story 46 - Story of Bala Krishna's plays - 01
Introduction
Before entering into the next story of Srimad Bhagavatham, let us once again remind ourselves to focus on the ultimate reality of Lord who alone exists here, one without a second. The moment we forget this, we will be ending up in the ocean of samsaara thereby suffering in sorrow and pain. The one and only way to get eternal bliss is to constantly remember the ultimate reality of Lord and that the Lord alone exists.
The avatar of Vishnu as Krishna is one of the beautiful and most popular one. This is mainly because of the bliss that emanates from each scene of the life of Sri Krishna. This is also the reason why Bhagavatham speaks about Krishna as a poorna avatar of Vishnu. After the advent of Krishna, next is the childhood of Krishna. Krishna avatar has been given very great importance in Bhagavatham as each and every moment of Krishna's life has something or the other to show to the various seekers of the world. Thus we are now entering into the childhood plays of Krishna. This Krishna who is in childhood or a boy is quite famous and popular as Baala Krishna. Again though we all are familiar with the story but still here we are trying to view it from a Vedantic perspective and focusing on the ultimate reality of Lord rather than the story in itself.
There is a very famous Bala Mukunda ashtakam attributed to Madhusudana Saraswathi which speaks about Bala Krishna as nothing but the ultimate reality of Brahman.
We have to remember while learning the plays or miracles of Krishna that any miracle is also an illusion in the reality of Lord. The miracles of Krishna unlike other miracles of the world are meant to point out the import of the ultimate reality of Lord. If we tend to emphasize and remember the miracles, then we will be lead into a miraculous world which has no beginning and no end. This will only lead us to sorrow and sufferings. But if we remember the import of the ultimate reality of Lord and the way to realize the Lord, then we will end with bliss - that which we have been seeking all our lives.
When Kamsa came to know that Devaki had given birth to a child, he came running to the jail. Though he saw that it was a baby girl, he didn't stop. He took the child and tried to kill it by hitting it on the stone. But the girl slipped from his hand and vanished into space. The girl said through sound that his killer was born in some other place and would kill him. Kamsa then released Devaki and Vasudeva from jail - he become very afraid and deluded.
Explanation
It is well known that the girl that was born in place of Krishna or rather was present there was none other than Maya devi. Man like Kamsa tries to overcome death through all means. But what man doesn't know is that he cannot outsmart death as that which is born will always die. Death is inevitable for that which is born. The body that is born will die - that which dies will be born again. Birth and death is a vicious never-ending cycle. The one and only way to come out of this cycle of birth and death is to know that I am the unborn Lord. Birth and death of the body is only an illusion in the Lord as body itself is only an illusion and not real. There is only one thing which is real - that is the ultimate reality of Lord of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute.
Everything else that is seen as distinct and apart from the ultimate reality of Lord is only an illusion of names and forms in the Lord. Even as various gold ornaments are mere illusions of names and forms in gold, similarly the names and forms of the world is only an illusion in the reality of Lord. The Lord alone really exists. The Lord is the indwelling Self in all beings that pulsates each moment as "I-exist, I-exist".
When we forget our very nature of Lord, we enter into the illusory world of names and forms. Thereby we consider ourselves as having a body, name, parents etc. This illusion leads us to nowhere except sorrow. The delusion of Maya is so strong that Maya makes thing appear as if real. If a normal person is told that the duality that is seen in the world is an illusion in non-dual Lord, he will consider the words as crazy.Instead what the person is believing is really crazy. Thus Maya makes thing seem real and possible. It is this Maya which is the power of the Lord that makes people delude into thinking that they are different from the Lord and are associated with the body-mind-intellect complex.
As long as a person is deluded into thinking that he is the body-mind-intellect complex, he will consider the birth and death of the body as his birth and death. Thus a deluded person seeks all means to get rid of death as death as per his definition is a state of non-existence - a state where he will cease to exist. What he person doesn't know is that he is eternal and ever-present; it is the body that alone ceases to exist. The person forgets that he has taken innumerous bodies entering into a long chain of births and deaths. This forgetting of one's nature of Lord as distinct from the body-mind-intellect complex makes a person to try to outsmart the laws of Maya.
A person thereby tries all means to overcome the law of birth and death - the law that whatever is born will die one day or the other. It is thus that we find Kamsa trying to outsmart the divine by putting devaki-vasudeva in jail and killing all of their children. The divine play of Lord through Maya is beyond all outsmarting and beyond any mistakes. There can be mistakes in coding or in management of things in life but there cannot be any mistake in the law governed by Maya. Thus we find the baby Krishna escaping from the jail and Maya devi taking his place. When Kamsa tried to kill the baby girl, the baby girl escaped. This is what happens when we try to break the laws of Maya. We can never break the laws because Maya itself is an illusion. Trying to break the laws of Maya is like trying to swim through the water seen in desert; there is no water at all and hence we can never even think of swimming.
But a wise person will understand that the Lord alone is real and Maya is just an illusion in the Lord. Thereby he will completely surrender unto the Lord - thus he will easily overcome Maya as he is contemplating on the substratum of Maya.
We will continue with the story in the next day.
Before entering into the next story of Srimad Bhagavatham, let us once again remind ourselves to focus on the ultimate reality of Lord who alone exists here, one without a second. The moment we forget this, we will be ending up in the ocean of samsaara thereby suffering in sorrow and pain. The one and only way to get eternal bliss is to constantly remember the ultimate reality of Lord and that the Lord alone exists.
The avatar of Vishnu as Krishna is one of the beautiful and most popular one. This is mainly because of the bliss that emanates from each scene of the life of Sri Krishna. This is also the reason why Bhagavatham speaks about Krishna as a poorna avatar of Vishnu. After the advent of Krishna, next is the childhood of Krishna. Krishna avatar has been given very great importance in Bhagavatham as each and every moment of Krishna's life has something or the other to show to the various seekers of the world. Thus we are now entering into the childhood plays of Krishna. This Krishna who is in childhood or a boy is quite famous and popular as Baala Krishna. Again though we all are familiar with the story but still here we are trying to view it from a Vedantic perspective and focusing on the ultimate reality of Lord rather than the story in itself.
There is a very famous Bala Mukunda ashtakam attributed to Madhusudana Saraswathi which speaks about Bala Krishna as nothing but the ultimate reality of Brahman.
We have to remember while learning the plays or miracles of Krishna that any miracle is also an illusion in the reality of Lord. The miracles of Krishna unlike other miracles of the world are meant to point out the import of the ultimate reality of Lord. If we tend to emphasize and remember the miracles, then we will be lead into a miraculous world which has no beginning and no end. This will only lead us to sorrow and sufferings. But if we remember the import of the ultimate reality of Lord and the way to realize the Lord, then we will end with bliss - that which we have been seeking all our lives.
When Kamsa came to know that Devaki had given birth to a child, he came running to the jail. Though he saw that it was a baby girl, he didn't stop. He took the child and tried to kill it by hitting it on the stone. But the girl slipped from his hand and vanished into space. The girl said through sound that his killer was born in some other place and would kill him. Kamsa then released Devaki and Vasudeva from jail - he become very afraid and deluded.
Explanation
It is well known that the girl that was born in place of Krishna or rather was present there was none other than Maya devi. Man like Kamsa tries to overcome death through all means. But what man doesn't know is that he cannot outsmart death as that which is born will always die. Death is inevitable for that which is born. The body that is born will die - that which dies will be born again. Birth and death is a vicious never-ending cycle. The one and only way to come out of this cycle of birth and death is to know that I am the unborn Lord. Birth and death of the body is only an illusion in the Lord as body itself is only an illusion and not real. There is only one thing which is real - that is the ultimate reality of Lord of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute.
Everything else that is seen as distinct and apart from the ultimate reality of Lord is only an illusion of names and forms in the Lord. Even as various gold ornaments are mere illusions of names and forms in gold, similarly the names and forms of the world is only an illusion in the reality of Lord. The Lord alone really exists. The Lord is the indwelling Self in all beings that pulsates each moment as "I-exist, I-exist".
When we forget our very nature of Lord, we enter into the illusory world of names and forms. Thereby we consider ourselves as having a body, name, parents etc. This illusion leads us to nowhere except sorrow. The delusion of Maya is so strong that Maya makes thing appear as if real. If a normal person is told that the duality that is seen in the world is an illusion in non-dual Lord, he will consider the words as crazy.Instead what the person is believing is really crazy. Thus Maya makes thing seem real and possible. It is this Maya which is the power of the Lord that makes people delude into thinking that they are different from the Lord and are associated with the body-mind-intellect complex.
As long as a person is deluded into thinking that he is the body-mind-intellect complex, he will consider the birth and death of the body as his birth and death. Thus a deluded person seeks all means to get rid of death as death as per his definition is a state of non-existence - a state where he will cease to exist. What he person doesn't know is that he is eternal and ever-present; it is the body that alone ceases to exist. The person forgets that he has taken innumerous bodies entering into a long chain of births and deaths. This forgetting of one's nature of Lord as distinct from the body-mind-intellect complex makes a person to try to outsmart the laws of Maya.
A person thereby tries all means to overcome the law of birth and death - the law that whatever is born will die one day or the other. It is thus that we find Kamsa trying to outsmart the divine by putting devaki-vasudeva in jail and killing all of their children. The divine play of Lord through Maya is beyond all outsmarting and beyond any mistakes. There can be mistakes in coding or in management of things in life but there cannot be any mistake in the law governed by Maya. Thus we find the baby Krishna escaping from the jail and Maya devi taking his place. When Kamsa tried to kill the baby girl, the baby girl escaped. This is what happens when we try to break the laws of Maya. We can never break the laws because Maya itself is an illusion. Trying to break the laws of Maya is like trying to swim through the water seen in desert; there is no water at all and hence we can never even think of swimming.
But a wise person will understand that the Lord alone is real and Maya is just an illusion in the Lord. Thereby he will completely surrender unto the Lord - thus he will easily overcome Maya as he is contemplating on the substratum of Maya.
We will continue with the story in the next day.
# posted by vedanta : 8:03 PM
