Article on KRISHNA AND FREEDOM

Courtesy:Sri.P.R.Kannan

The attached article on KRISHNA AND FREEDOM has been published recently in DILIP.

An abridged version of this article was sent to Times of India for publishing in 'Speaking Tree' on 15th August; but was not accepted by them. It was published later in another magazine. TOI seems to be accepting only articles of a higher standard!

KRISHNA AND FREEDOM

P.R. Kannan

This year Krishna Janmashtami was celebrated on 15 th August, India's Independence Day.

Krishna, the most recent Avatara, described in the Puranas as Purnavatara, is hailed as

Jagadguru. Guru is defined as one who dispels the darkness of ignorance and lights the lamp of

knowledge in the disciple. This he does not accomplish by mere preaching, but by his own life

and conduct. Krishna was born in a prison at midnight, but he broke open the shackles of his

father and the locks of the prison and reached Gokulam to carve out a life of his own. This was

superhuman. We also broke the chain of slavery under foreign rule and set out to determine our

own future. Krishna's long life of 125 years on earth was marked by feverish activity. Playful

childhood culminated in elimination of the tyrant Kamsa, who happened to be his own uncle and

reinstallation of Kamsa's virtuous father Ugrasena as king. We as a republic started off well by

honouring merit and denouncing evil and inefficiency; but steadily degenerated into a nation

known for nepotism, corruption and sloth.

Krishna studied under Guru Sandipani in Ujjain and gave him an incredible Guru Dakshina –

restoring his long-lost son, dead in the sea as a child, twelve years before. Have we been able to

make our youth imbibe the age-old respect for Guru? Today students mock teachers. They even

pour scorn on patriotism. They spend more time politicking than studying. Professors and Vice

chancellors are laid under siege by students under the misguidance of narrow minded, self-

seeking politicians.

Krishna's methods of dealing with the nation's external enemies were nuanced, effective and

novel. Jarasandha was his own relative – Kamsa's father-in- law. When he attacked Mathura

with a powerful army, Krishna evacuated the city overnight and shifted the entire population

safely to a newly formed city, Dwaraka. After seventy years of freedom, today we find to our

consternation that civilian citizens in our border villages are left to die frequently to enemy's

bullet, by the dozens.

Krishna ruled his state from Dwaraka justly and compassionately. Dharma was never allowed to

be breached. Great Rishis came for his darshan. Sastras declare that worship of Guru and elders

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is essential for spiritual advancement. Krishna religiously stuck to this principle. He welcomed

the Rishis very reverentially and said:

न ह्यम्मयानि तीर्थानि न देवा मृच्छिलामयाः ।

ते पुनन्त्युरुकालेन दर्शनादेव साधवः ॥

"Holy waters and divine images made of clay or stone take a long time to purify the mind; but

holy men accomplish it by their very darshan." Such was Krishna's humility and devotion.

Today devotion has come to mean vain pomp and unending desire for worldly recognition. True

devotion, which would ennoble conduct, is clearly missing.

Krishna did not content himself with Dharmic conduct of