Srimad Bhagavatham

Since Krishna was not having any weapons, Yavana decided to fight Krishna without any weapons.

Explanation

We find here Yavana (who is similar to an asura) following dharma or righteousness with respect to war. Dharma in a yudha is not to fight a person who isn’t holding any weapons – also the rule is to fight people who are equal in most aspects. In order to become one with Krishna, Yavana thereby dropped his weapons.

We find that in ancient times, even asuras used to follow whatever dharma is prevalent. It is only today that we find even spiritual people trying to back-stab and waiting for opportunities to misuse others. It is as a result of the asuras as well following dharma that they were privileged with the Lord himself destroying their Ego and making them eternal.

We generally speak about dharma when it comes to the point where we lose something and we are failing – at all other times, we don’t even care about dharma. The talks about dharma and following what the scriptures say comes only when things are going against us – in fact, the scriptures are a way for us to escape from our miseries and a way to blame our mistakes. We do this quite often that it backfires unto us. We think that the scriptures have everything and hence we can easily blame them but with each blame, we are veiling ourselves with another strong layer of ignorance. The stronger is the layer of ignorance, the farther we will be from the goal of realization. The farther we are from realization, the more we will be suffering and the lesser will be happiness in our lives.

Though we speak about dharma at the empirical level (which of course we never follow and speak of until the tide is against us), real dharma is wherein we are focused on the Lord. It doesn’t matter whether we love the Lord or the hate the Lord – the various asuras like Kamsa have attained realization through hating the Lord. Whatever is to be achieved is just constant contemplation of the Lord – if this is achieved, it doesn’t matter as to how we achieve it. We find this real dharma being implemented by asuras and Yavana in this story. Yavana remembered Narada’s description of Krishna and started seeking him out.

Fighting with the Lord can be understood as Yavana trying to conquer the Lord who is so tough to conquer. Conquering the Lord is as simple as putting the Lord in the jail of our hearts – a devotee (one who is always remembering the Lord) is one who has jailed the Lord. For such a devotee, the Lord himself will make clear the reality that everything is the Lord alone (which the devotee is following unknowingly as his entire world becomes filled with the Lord) and thereby make the devotee realize in this very birth itself.

Though it might seem to be simple to conquer the Lord, it is very tough indeed as we will see in the next day.

Let us all try to slowly day-by-day implement this devotion/knowledge towards the Lord irrespective of whatever we are doing externally so that we may be able to always rejoice in bliss like the Mahatmas.

Seeing Yavana, Krishna turned around and started running. Yavana also ran behind Vasudeva who is very tough even for yogis to realize. Running a bit slow as if Yavana would catch him immediately, Krishna deluded Yavana. Doing thus the Lord entered into a mountain-cave.

Explanation

We learnt the previous day as to how tough is to conquer the Lord though it might seem very simple indeed. The toughest thing to achieve in life is conquering the Lord in our heart (which means realizing that everything is essentially the Lord alone).

Paramahamsa Yogananda in “Autobiography of a Yogi” speaks about his seeking out a saint (if memory doesn’t fail me, the saint was called glowing or awake saint as he used to always be awake as well as his body used to glow like a light); on the way to the place of the saint, he asks the direction to a couple of passers-by who direct yogananda in the wrong direction. He roams for an entire day and finally meets the saint. The saint proclaimed “do you think you can meet me without my permission?” and smiled.

This is very much like trying to conquer the Lord. The Lord is the substratum of the illusory world – the entire world is his creation; the world is totally under the Lord’s control as it is his Maya power which controls the world. Though the world is an illusion yet at the empirical level, it is controlled by the Lord. Therefore without the Lord’s permission it is impossible to conquer the Lord.

We may be able to fool a lot of people in the world but fooling the Lord is not possible without his permission. We may be able to convince many as to our spiritual nature, knowledge etc. but we can never fool the Lord as he knows everything. Trying to conquer the Lord is like trying to conquer the Sun – it may be possible (some day) to conquer the president of any country but it is impossible to conquer the Sun (at least today).

We don’t need to get worried or sad that we cannot conquer the Lord as conquering the Lord is the only way to get eternal bliss; most of the time, the toughest thing is the easiest and simplest to achieve in life. As Arthur Conan Doyle used to say through Sherlock Holmes that a puzzle seems quite easy and very simple when we know the solution to it, similarly conquering the Lord though is the toughest is also the simplest thing to achieve in life if we know the way to do it.

Conquering the Lord is very simple indeed as the Lord has a weakness like all of us. The weakness of the Lord is bhakthi or devotion. Devotion isn’t just wanting moksha or going to meet Mahatmas or trying to do spiritual activities – devotion is seeking the Lord at all times beyond any limitations whatsoever. This devotion is what Sankara and other acharyas speak about as knowledge (the knowledge that Lord alone is present here). When devotion and knowledge are present in a person, then he is a real devotee who is always contemplating on that Lord who alone is present here. The Lord is a servant of such devotee – such a devotee has conquered and jailed the Lord. This is clearly shown in the story of Ambariksha (which we learned earlier) when even the Lord couldn’t help Durvasa who had attacked Ambariksha but was counter-attacked by the Lord’s chakra. The Lord said he couldn’t stop the chakra and only Ambariksha can stop it from killing Durvasa – because the Lord was a servant and jailed by his devotees. It is this devotion through which the gopis were able to conquer the Lord – they didn’t have anything in life except pure devotion and surrender to the Lord. This surrender purified them as the Lord settled in their hearts.

Thus conquering the Lord is as simple as becoming a real devotee of the Lord. Real devotion is as simple as totally surrendering oneself onto the Lord with the knowledge that the Lord is the substratum of the illusory names and forms of the world.

We will continue with the story in the next day.

Let us all try to conquer the Lord through pure devotion (along with the knowledge that the Lord alone is present beyond the names and forms of the world) so that we may be able to rejoice in bliss at all times which is the goal of life.