Emedinews : Krishna Janmashtami the message from Lord Krishna

Reading about Lord Krishna one understands the way 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.

A new born and during initial childhood, the child 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 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 Govardhan Parvat (turmoil of the mind) by one 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 chilod 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 sudershan chakra or a weapon to take decisions and adopt the good and kill the evil.

Krishna is always depicted with a blue colour God with yellow clothes and a flute in his hands. Blue colour 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 colour, 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 the gopis 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 Sudhama.

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.

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. With this only one can become a perfect man like Krishna.

Spiritual significance of Krishna Janmashtami

The science behind birth of Krishna: Krishna Janmashtami

Krishna represents Brahman or God consciousnesses. Krishna avatar is synonymous with 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 (one pointed), Dhyana (contemplation) and Samadhi (self-realization).

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 his balances himself between the 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. And the father, Vasudeva, 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 ego egocentric desires. Controlling the ego is depicted as a snake sitting over the basket and guarding Lord Kris.....................................more read............http://www.itimes.com/users/iti475269/blogs