Krishna teaches us the path of acquiring inner happiness. It can be understood by the four cycles of Krishna described in the Vedic literature: Krishna the Child, Krishna the Husband and Friend, Krishna the Preacher and Krishna the Sanyasi.

The childhood of Krishna describes the methodology and components of a child education. Krishna, pure consciousness, was born as the eight child of Devki representing that during pregnancy one needs to follow the eight limbs of yoga to get a child with no disease.

Initial childhood is full of pure consciousness that spreads love to everyone without any discrimination. The only thing the child during this period does is to steal and spread love and that is what Krishna as Makhan Chor depicts.

With time the child’s mental faculty starts developing and distracting the child’s mind. During this phase of life, the child needs to be taught to control the thoughts and mind by learning viveka (discrimination between good and bad) and doing abhyas or hard work. The episode of Krishna entering into the pond (thoughts) fighting with Kaliya (duality of mind) and controlling it represents the same. This also coincides with the time a child should be sent to the school.

The next phase of childhood is activation of intellect which in Krishna’s life is depicted as the questions in his mind "Radha kyun gori, main kyun kala?" The incident is during Krishna playing Holi with Gopis and Radha. This happens when the child gets an exposure to the worldly atmosphere and starts getting attached to it. This is the time for the child to be taught control of mind and intellect by one point concentration on the object of concentration. This is also the time when the child should be taught the purpose of life, and the aim for which he has to live in future (usually adolescent by this time).

Krishna controls the intellect by winning over Indra (intellect) and raising the Govardhan Parvat (turmoil of the mind) on one finger and saves the public from the rainy storm (wavering thoughts). The one finger here indicates one point concentration on the object of concentration. Once the child is taught how to control the intellect, he or she completes spiritual education and learns about the true self.

Control of mind (Kalia) and intellect (Indra) leads the child to the next phase of life. In Krishna’s life it coincides with Ras Leela where Krishna is seen dancing with Radha and every Gopi. This also reflects the time for the internal ego to get killed and one acquires the qualities of humility. Killing of Kansa depicts the killing of ego. Once the ego is killed and humility is acquired Radha and flute are no more required and Krishna is now a perfect man and is ready to enter the next ashram of life called Grahasthashram. Radha (body) gets merged with consciousness and flute (humility) is a part of the nature. One now acquires a sudarshan chakra or a weapon to take decisions and adopt the good and kill the evil.

Krishna is always depicted as a blue color God with yellow clothes and a flute in his hands. Blue color indicates everything is possible and yellow clothes indicate that one can acquire it provided one has the flute, a hollow wood representing egoless nature.

Whenever Krishna is shown with a flute, the female figure with him is Radha with blue sari and yellow color, along with gopis (thoughts) dancing around them indicating that the thoughts of the mind are in symphony with each other and there is a union of mind, body and soul. Here the soul is represented by Krishna, mind by the flute, thoughts with gopis and body with Radha.

The second phase of Krishna’s life is shown as a perfect achiever and friend, which is evident from the story of Sudama.

The third phase of Krishna’s life represents Krishna as an advisor, which shows his role in Mahabharata and his preaching in Bhagavad Gita. He teaches the message of Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Gnana Yoga and Raja Yoga for acquiring excellence in life and inner happiness.

The last role of Krishna as a sanyasi is the end of Krishna’s life. The four cycles also coincide with the four ashrams of life.

To achieve inner happiness the message from Krishna’s life is to learn to make efforts to control the mind, to win over the intellect by one point concentration and to acquire qualities of humility and killing internal ego. Only with this can one become a perfect man like Krishna. ….Read More

The Science Behind Birth Of Krishna In A Jail Of Ignorance

Krishna represents Brahman or God consciousnesses or consciousness– the self. The birth of Krishna is synonymous with the process of self–realization.

Normally desires and negative thoughts core our consciousness with ignorance. The journey to self–realization involves removal or shedding of this ignorance which can only be done by the eight spiritual principles as described by the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

And these are Yama (self control); Niyama (self–discipline), Asanas (bodily postures); Pranayama (control of breath), Pratyahara (withdrawal), Dharana (one pointed), Dhyana (contemplation) and Samadhi (self–realization).

These eight limbs or eight steps signify the journey of eight days after full moon falling on Rakshabandhan, a day celebrated to control one’s lust. Ignorance is symbolized by a PRISON, which represents darkness; narrow–minded approach (small entry gate) and limitedness to everything (small room). The chain in the prison means the bondages to lust, greed, desires and ego.

Birth of Krishna in the prison means ‘self–realization out of ignorance’. It can only be acquired by adhering to the eight principles of Ashtang Yoga with Tapas (Abhyasa) or hard work. Krishna, born, as the eighth child of Devaki, represents tapas of eight limbs of yoga. The self-realization can only occur after the seven strips are successfully negotiated and the mind is purified in the process.

In the state of Samadhi, there is spontaneous birth of the self. In this state (sama = equal; dhi – intelligence) one controls equality and balances between good and the bad.

The symbolization is that, as Krishna was born, the chains that bound his father fell off; the doors that had been bolted flew open and the prison guards immediately went into sleep. Then Vasudeva, the father took Krishna and went to Gokul, by placing Krishna in a basket and walking across the Yamuna river, where at the same time Yashoda, consort of Nanda, had given birth to a female child.

The ‘chains’ here mean the bondage to the external world and the five senses. A self realized person is free of these bondages. The opening of gates symbolizes control over lust, desire, greed and attachments. Sleeping of the guard symbolizes, that in a self–realized state, one is totally cut off from the world. Everything else perishes and one gets detached.

The thunderstorm, the rain, and the fire, all represent the internal turmoil of uncontrolled desires and hatred. The moment Krishna’s feet touch the turbulent water, everything settles. The spiritual lesson is that by turning inwards and towards one’s pure consciousness any turbulent state of mind can be controlled.

While acquiring all that, one must control the ego and keep the desires inwards and not have egocentric desires. Controlling the ego is depicted as a snake sitting over the basket and guarding Lord Krishna.

The baby girl born at Gokul represents the Mayashakti, which was killed by Kansa (the ego of the body).

Controlling the desires and attachments is easy but controlling the Ego is the most difficult. That is what is represented by the fact that at the time of birth of Krishna, Kansa still remained alive. It took many years for Krishna (self realized state) to kill the ego (Kansa).

Acquiring a state of self-realization should not be the ultimate goal in life. After self-realization, if the ego is not controlled one can misuse one’s spiritual powers. The ultimate aim in life should then be to kill the ego, which is what Krishna ultimately did. ….Read More

Lord Krishna – The Great Teacher and Healer

Lord Krishna was a great teacher and a healer. He gave perfect counseling to Arjuna when he was in the state of acute anxiety, confusion, indecisiveness and depression. His supreme knowledge, skills and understanding of human relationship were responsible for convincing Arjuna that he has to perform his duty, regardless of who his opponents are.

There are basic principles which one must learn from teachings of Bhagavad Gita to get, if one wants, to the right state of mental and physical strength.

1. The 1st principle is listen, listen and listen. In the first chapter of Bhagavad Gita from Krishna only listened to Arjuna. One must learn to listen to others. Out of 18 counseling sessions which Krishna took with Arjuna, one full session was devoted only to listening to Arjuna. Fifty percent of the emotion of a person is out once he has spoken to the Healer about his or her problems.

2. 2nd principle is to remain non–judgmental while listening. This is beautifully described in Chapter 2 shloka 10. While listening, Krishna did not show any signs of anger to Arjuna even at those extremely difficult moments. On the contrary, Krishna kept on smiling and listened patiently. This is another avenue where most of the healthcare workers fail in their relationship with the patients. We (doctors) sometimes become annoyed with the patients because they narrate unrelated details of their health problems. We need to understand and appreciate their predicaments.

3. 3rd principle is that every answer should be validated by reasoning. Throughout 18 counseling sessions between Arjuna and Krishna incorporating 700 question and answers, Arjuna was given proper reasoning, either experiential or based on sound logic. Krishna never forced Arjuna to believe in what He was saying without getting convinced about it.

4. 4th principle is that of reassurance. Krishna re–assures Arjuna on two occasions. Firstly, when he said that “I’ll appear whenever there is adharma" meaning thereby that whenever there is injustice someone will come and set it right. In terms of a Healer the doctor should convincingly say that wherever there is a disease I will be there”. Again in Chapter 18 shloka 65, Krishna says that anyone who takes conscious decision and interprets things with full devotion, there is no reason why he or she should not become happy or healthy. He again assures Arjuna that he is going to be successful.

5. 5th principle is depicted in the last shloka of Gita (18.78) which summarizes the importance of a good doctor–patient (teacher–student) relationship where Sanjay says to Dhriharashtra that when there is a Healer like Krishna and a patient like Arjuna, there is no reason why there will not be a victory.

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