Dr KK
Aggarwal
Krishna
teaches us the way of acquiring inner happiness. Four cycles of Krishna are
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 childhood.
Krishna
(pure consciousness), was born as the eight child of Devki on 8th day
(Ashtami) signifying that during pregnancy one needs to follow the eight limbs
of yoga to get a perfect child.
During
initial childhood, the child is full of pure consciousness that spreads
unconditional pure 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 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 (disturbed 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 is exposed to the worldly atmosphere and
starts getting attached to it. Here, Radha depicts the body or the five
elements representing the worldly desires.
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 Govardhan Parvat (turmoil of the mind) on his little finger and saves
the public from the rainy storm (wavering thoughts). 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 complete 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, this 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 Grahasth ashram.
Radha
(body) gets merged with consciousness and flute (humility) is a part of
person’s 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 with a blue color 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, which is a hollow wood
representing egoless nature.
Whenever
Krishna is shown with a flute, the lady with him is Radha with blue sari and yellow
color, along with Gopi’s (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 the Gopi’s and body with the 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 represent 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.
The message
from Krishna’s life is that to achieve inner happiness, one must 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 by this can one become a perfect man like Krishna.
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
President Elect Confederation of
Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania (CMAAO)
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications
President Heart Care Foundation of
India
Past National President
IMA
No comments:
Post a Comment