Sri Krishna Janamasthami: The unprecedented manifestation of Absolute Divinity on Earth

Sri Krishna Janamasthami: The unprecedented manifestation of Absolute Divinity on Earth

Sri Krishna Janamasthami is the ‘birth’ or incarnation of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna—the only Avatara throughout history of civilization who declared to the world His Absolute Supremacy and when such declaration confronted with doubt, the Glorious Lord revealed it Infinite Might and Glory. It took place in the eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad Geeta entitled Vishwaroopa Darshana Yoga-The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form.

It would then be no exaggeration at all to describe Sri Krishna as the unique personality, power and phenomenon which has exercised a profound influence on Hindus and the world over thousands of years, an influence which had been most pervasive, positive and potent.

The Sanskrit root-verb ‘kars’ means to pull or draw to oneself. When derived from this, ‘Krishna’ connotes one with that power, and from all accounts we have of him, he was a verifiable divine magnet who irresistibly attracted to himself all beings—men, women, and children, young and old, saints and sinners, scholars and the unlettered, royalty and common folk, heroes and weak and even animals like the cows.

Both illumined sages and innocent devotees have adored Krishna as the ideal of all that is good and great, noble and beautiful. He has been considered the most perfect manifestation of divinity on earth. But there have been critics, both Westerners and well as Indians who consider him just a product of the infantile imagination of a people who posses neither lofty intellect nor high ethical standards.

Notwithstanding the opinions of such critics, Krishna remains and prospers as a continual power, a living  and wholesome ideal illuminating the minds, inspiring the hearts and moulding the lives of millions of good, worthy and intelligent people. What may appear to the dry intellect of the ill-informed critic as a bundle of contradictions and confusions—that very Krishna lives on in the consciousness and memory of the devoted as the sublime, indefinable, fusion of a many-faceted magnetic personality, a grand all-round ideal and a delightfully uplifting legend. Refusing to be disturbed by the doubts, comments or critical onslaughts of the skeptics, devotes have blissfully allowed themselves to be drawn to one or more of Krishna’s aspects. They find themselves elevated and enriched by the light, love, and joy radiating from their great Teacher, who is ‘Madhava’, the embodiment of sweetness and bliss. Sri Krishna is not merely the great lover, but equally the great hero, the great yogi and the supreme Guru for aspiring and adoring humanity.