Know about Krishna the Pastoral and King maker(First published on 1920)

Krishna the Pastoral and King maker(First published on 1920)

I do not advise any man to believe anything blindly, but what I want to say is that it is always better to reserve judgment as long as one cannot properly convince other, as well as himself, as to the real state of affairs that look place in those Pauranical days, the only means of knowing  which are form these Puranas. Science has proved many impossible things to be possible, and is it a wonder then, that what we cannot understand now and deem altogether impossible, may appear to us clear as day light in some near or remote future? So let us narrate the incidents in the life of Sri Krishna, just as we find them depicted in the glowing pages of Srimad Bhagavatam and other Puranas, and try to understand them in our modern light as much as we can. That will be doing justice to our ancient holy sages, to whom many profound Occidental savants give due respect and honour now-a-days, unlike our remarkably shallow critics who never scruple to send them down to the lowest level of hemp-smokers, and thus illustrate the proverb, “Fools trample where angels fear to tread.”

When we ponder upon the supernatural birth so Sri Krishna, when we consider the tyranny which the good folks had to undergo form the hands of the wicked at the time, when we consider the series of those miraculous incidents that followed him at every step after his birth, when we consider the irreligious and immoral attitude of the generality of the people, and at the same time when we look of the people and at the same time, when we look into the past history of the world and see that when ever tyranny, irreligion, or immorality was rife in any part of it, that could not last long, because a deliverer was sure to come to the rescue of the suffering millions, we cannot but conclude him to be a savior of the oppressed, deputed by God to look after the welfare of his children. And because divine power was acting through him therefore all his works are extraordinary. If our critics want to understand Sri Krishna, let them at least imbibe a little bit of his infinite greatness. He is known as Hrishikeshs or lord of the senses; so let our critics raise themselves above their senses, let them be proof against all sorts of temptations, and then they will be able to understand some of the extraordinary incidence in his life. Blinded by passions and desires, if a man attempts to know anything about the passionless doings of a saint’s heart it will be as fruit less as a blind man’s attempts to know what takes place in the Vimanam or inner sanctuary of Sri Parthasarathi, many demons were sent by Kamsa  to make and end of our hero but instead of being  able to kill him, they themselves were put to death by him, although in stature and strength they appeared to be thousand times bigger and stronger then him.

Bhagavan Patanjali ,, in his Yoga, aphorism, states what an infinite power mental concentration on the part of  a man or a woman can bring to him or her. The scattered wind, like the scattered rays of the sun, he snot much strength in it, but a the concentrated rays of the sun through a lens possess burning power, so the concentrated mind of an individual can burn down his barrier of ignorance and enable him to see all. Concentration not only confers on a man mental power, but also superhuman physical strength as we know from the aphorism Baleshu Hasti Baladini i.e., when the mind is concentrated upon the strength of an elephant, lion , storm, thunder or any manifestation of the highest physical force it imperceptibly imbibes the strength there from , and when the concentration is perfect he becomes as strong as an elephant, a lion, a storm, etc. And he alone is qualified for such masterly nature by being an abject slave to his senses, that is , who has become a Hrishikesah or Lord of the senses and as Sri Krishna was known by that name showing that he was a master and not a slave to his passions and appetites, can there be any doubt that he was a yogi of the highest type and as such, all powers, whether mental or physical were at his command?

Apart from the attacks which he had to encounter constantly form the demons sent by Kamsa , he had to resist sometimes the celestial powers arrived against him to test his divinity. Once when he was tending the calves with his companions in the forests of Sri Brindavana, a demon in the disguise of a big snake devoured all of the. But eh indestructible Sri Krishna rent his throat and killed him on the spot, and gage life to his senseless companions after he had extricated them form the stomach of the demon; and it was not very difficult for him to do so, as , being a born Yogi, he had full command over the elements , so that he should transform poison into nectar. This power of Yogi is called Yatrakamavasyitvam, or the power of getting fulfilled whatever he desires, which is the result of his victory over all sensual enjoyments. Brhama the creator, was seeing all this form a distance, and he himself wanted to test the power of Sri Krishna once more. So he stole the calves of the shepherd boys as they were all on the bank of the Yamuna, taking their Tiffin which they had brought from their homes and had kept hanging upon the branches of the trees. When they could not see their calves they all begun to weep and Sri Krishna at once ran to see who had stolen them. As soon as he left them, Brhama stole also the shepherded boys and shut them up with their calves in mountain cave where he kept them sleeping in mountain cave where he kept them sleeping in the meantime Sri Krishna searched every nook and corner of the forest but he could not find any calf; then he returned to the place however his companions had been but finding none of them, he concentrated his mind and found out that this was all the stratagem of Brhama. Without showing the least sign of uneasiness he at once created out of his mind all the shepherded boys as well as their calves; and when he returned home on that day with all his mind born play fellows and calves non of the shepherds and shepherdesses knew anything about the stealing of their darlings. They began to love their children more than before and they did not know why.  

The very sight of their children used to give them the highest bliss, which comes to him alone who realise the glory of his own real Self. This on-flow of love on the part of the shepherd girls towards their children is an undeniable proof of Sri Krishna’s being the soul of all soul, the Self of all selves with whom all souls are eternally united, whereas the connection with our earthly children is only throughout this life and hence temporary. Seems to be natural, is really acquired, and based upon the wrong notion of “ I and mine” instead of the right one of “Thou and Thine”. This natural outpouring of love towards Sri Krishna can only be accounted for in his being the Soul of our souls or in other words in his being God Himself. 

This state of affairs went on for a year ; and when Brahma saw this power of Sri Krishna, he marveled, and admitted his superiority in being able to create out of his will; for he had hitherto thought himself to be the only creator. So he appeared before, and bowed down to Sri Krishna, who in the meantime had shown him some other instances of his divine power forgiveness in not being able to recognise him as the sole Lord of the Universe.

If we with Brahma, admit him to be the God incarnate , then there can be no doubt in us as to his creating shepherd boys and calves out of his mind But in this skeptical age such a faith is hard, nay, almost impossible to expect from our –so called educated young men who talk much but do little;

They played and danced and kissed an embraced each other until they were completely tired. At last they went into the Yamuna, played into the water for a while, took a pleasant bath and came up perfectly refreshed. After this they went away to their respective homes. Where they were not suspected by their husbands of spending the whole night out side , since through the Divine power of Sri Krishna, their husbands had found them by their sides all through the night.

I hope these considerations have amply proved that it is death for a man to imitate the doings of God. We should always abide by the lessons they teach. In the Taittriya Upanishad, among the counsels given by the sage to his disciples, beginning from ‘Tell the truth, do your duties etc.” we find this advice also.” You should follow those examples of ours which will do you good, and not others.” Those who have gone beyond all material or earthly convictions, have no law, mandatory or prohibitory, to bind them . as long as a man has any connection with society, he is bound to obey the laws of it. The simplest from of society is what is composed of two individuals, and even in such a society one individual must have to respect the feelings of the other although very few may be the restrictions in such a case. So the society becomes more and more complex, or composed of various individuals with diverse tastes and sentiments, the restrictions increase more and more in number. A number of such society must have to obey all those laws that are intended for its good, such as morality, civil and has gone beyond society, he can be restricted by it can have no place in him, as water can never find any place in or moisten the lotus leaf, although it not be regarded as a member of society, although he may be in it, and we should not judge him form our social standpoint. Although Sri Krishna was immersed in the company of young ladies, still none of them had any place in him. Such great beings –doing, do not eating , eat not (Gita v. 8,9) some one may here step forward and say that it is very easy thing to be a sage; by leading  a reckless life, any man may become one. These people commit a great mistake. We can never accuse the true sages rather they are the personified images of morality. For what is morality? When a man’s desires and appetites do not go beyond a certain limit, we call him moral, But these sages have altogether no desire or appetite. How can it be possible for them man sometimes becoming immoral as he has not given up his desires which are apt to tempt and bring down even a God from heaven; is it, then a wonder that however morally strong a son of man may be , he is never proof against temptations?

Now if a man be sitting alone in his room, being left to himself , he can do anything and everything that he likes, there being no one to criticize or find fault with him. So he thinks himself perfectly free. But after a while his servant announces to him from outside that a certain gentlemen wants to have an interview with him. Then if he has thrown down his cloth on account of excessive heat, he picks it up, puts on a shirt, combs his hair, stand before his looking  glass, and sees whether everything is all right, and then tells his servant to being in the gentlemen. To see a gentlemen, he must have to be a gentlemen himself, so that he may please and be favorable looked upon him. In so doing he has sacrificed his independence and tried his best to suit himself to the taste and liking of his gentleman visitor. Now, suppose the visitor to be the wealthiest, most kin-hearted, and most honorable like ceo man in the province, then although he may naturally be a very conceited and capricious sort of man, still he altogether banishes all his conceits and caprices, become a perfect gentleman, tries to look humble and amiable , so that he may gain some favour and good opinion from him. For the time being his old self is banished, and a new self which may be liked and loved by his honorable visitor, takes its place; that is the raises himself to the level of the honoured self of the gentleman, or he becomes a little Mr. so and so . For what does a man really like and love/ His own self . In the Upanishads we learn, “Do not think that a man loves his child for the child’s sake, but he loves his child because by loving his own self.” Really , if by loving his wife, children, relatives, or friends he had to undergo and experience any kind of pain either physical or mental then no one could love his wife, children, relatives or friends. So when ever a man loves his wife or children, he virtually loves his own self in the form of his wife or children. Hence, it is clear, that whenever I try to be liked or loved by another, I will have to transform myself into him or her, and then he or she will be able to love me.

Now every one wants to be loved by his God, for from God alone he gets whatever is good and enjoyable here. So if he wants to be loved by God. That is the reason why our Scriptures enjoin, Devabhtva devam yajet, i.e., worship God by being a god.

When one day Sri Krishna and Arjuna were waling by the forest, the God of Fire appeared before them and requested them to help in burning the wood as he was very hungry. He had tried several times previously, but Indra, to whom the forest belonged, had always prevented him from doing so by pouring incessant shower of rain upon him . if they would kindly prevent Indra from doing this from doing then he could appease his otherwise insatiable hunger by eating up the big forest. they took their bows and arrows and told the god to burn the forest . the fires raged terribly on all sides and all the denizens of the forest began to fly away towards all directions, but Sri Krishna and Arjuna prevented them as sacrifices  to the God. There was a demon whose name way Maya also living in that forest. When he saw that fire was coming to swallow him up, he wanted to make his escape, but Arjuna prevented him, and when he came and took refuge at his feet, he was allowed to go wherever he liked. Indra in the meantime seeing that the fire had again encroached upon the territory, began to rain in all direction but Sri Krishna and Arjuna prevented the rains from falling down upon the forest. At this Indra got very much enraged and darted a big hill against the two in order to smash them under it, but they reduced it into powder. Indra tried to hurt his thunder against them, but he was prevented from doing so by n unseen voice, stating that Sri Krihna and Arjuna were the incarnations of two ancient sages, Nara and Narayana, and therefore they should not be served in that way. Indra desisted an became their friend. The hunger of Fire was appeased.

On one autumnal night, when the full moon was raining shower of nectar upon the thirsty earth in the shape of her balmy rays, when a soft and mild breeze was engaged in carrying to Him the sweet fragrance of fresh-blown flowers, when the murmuring Yamuna was singing sweetly all His divine glories, when the lilies opened their soft and white bosoms to be kissed by the wooing breeze when the two soft-natured sisters, Sleep and repose , had paid their nocturnal visit to almost half the population of Sri Brndavan, Sri Krihna was sitting alone near the forest side, on the bank of the Yamuna, with his flute in hand . Seeing the beauty all around and excited by it, he began to play the sweetest tune on his flute. The willing breeze carried the soothing melodies every where; at last it brought them to the ears of the buxom.

Our hero was now in the prime of youth. Goddess Beauty, charmed  as it were, with his attractive person, resplendent with divine glory, wanted to make it her permanent abode, as so she left her various habitations, such as the full moon, the full-blown lotus, the smiling dawn, the dewy flowers, the variously coloured rainbow, the rippling and murmuring streamlets, the golden-plumed and sweet-singing birds, the pure and spotless hearts of the sages, and sundry other charming abodes, all of which were ashamed for themselves, and completely put into the shade , when they looked at the all-beautiful swain of Sri Brindavan.  

Pathanjali’s opinions being the opinions of all the theistic and atheistic philosophers of ancient days., quoting I m as good as quoting all of them. What the author of the Yoga philosophy says, requires a little practice or the part of the hearer to fully comprehend. If a boor from the inland, who has no idea of the topography of his land, and who has never seen a sea before , comes by rail and is made to stay shut up in one of the house of Triplicane here, at a little distance from the sea, can you convince him that there is vast ocean lying there a few steps from this place? His view being bounded by the four walls of the room he will have full right to deny or doubt your assertion, and he will actually do so. But if you just take him out for a walk and bring him face to face with the ocean , he will then be convinced of his ignorance. Since mere wrangling can bring about such a doubt even as to the existence of this vast, tangible ocean of ours, is it then strange that mere foolish talking can bring nothing but skepticism in our minds. If we do not prop up or theories with a little bit of practice?  

Beauty

Beauty is the only thing which attracts a human mind here. By the word beauty we must not understand the beauty of from only. Beauty  is sensed and perceived by each one our six senses; eyes perceive the beauty of forms ; ear’s the beauty of sounds, such as melodious and musical voice; tongue sense the beauty of taste; nose the beauty of smell, such as the fragrance  of flowers; the skin, the beauty of touch, such as the soft breath of a cool and mild breeze, the sweet embrace of loving friends and the mind perceives the beauty of thought, such as thoughtful desertion by a profound and skilful writer. Any one of these beauties has full power in it to attract a perceiving man. None of us here perhaps has sense with our eyes Mr. Glandstone, the grand old man, but still many of us love him , simply because we have perceived his beauty with our mind in his broad and liberal views , as depicted in the columns and pages of our newspapers and magazines. The man who possesses on of these six kind of beauty, commands the love and respect of the whole humanity. the most beautiful person, the best musician, the best cook, the best performer, the best manufacturer of all kinds of luxuries that give the highest enjoyment to our flesh , the greatest hero protects our life and property and those whom we hold most dear from the ravages of marauding hosts and wins for us new territories, the best thinker, wit, humorist, all have been commanding the love and respect of the whole humanity ever since the creation. Since we can exact the love and admiration of all people, if we can have one of these beauties at our command is it not natural for the man who possesses all these beauties simultaneously. To be loved, respected, honours nay deified by the human race.

When he grew up to be a big boy of nine or ten years he argued with his father about the efficacy of yearly worshipping Indra, the king of Gods. He saw that all the shepherds were intent upon celebrating their annual festival, and were making grand preparations for it ; but he convinced his hater that it was wrong to worship a minor god of the whole universe. For his part, he said, it was better to celebrate the festival in honour of the hill, goverdhana, which supplied their cattle with good grass, sheltered their town from storm and in several other ways was a real friend to them.  Led away by his advice, Nanda ordered the shepherds to take all the preparations intended for Indra’s festival upon the hill and there celebrate it, not in honour of the king of gods, but of the hill itself . that year they had a grand festival on the Govardhana. This so much enraged Indra that he wanted to destroy the whole of Sri Brindavan with all its inhabitants by an incessant downpour of heavy rains and hail-stones, accompanied with a devastating hurricane. As soon as the rains began to pour down, the shepherds got so much frightened that they did not know what to do and were almost helpless of their lives. Sri Krishna saw all these and he wanted to teach him a lesson. So he without any effort as it were, lifted up the hill finger of his left hand, requesting all the shepherdess and shepherdesses to take their shelter under it. For a week he remained in the posture sheltering destroying hailstorm and rain. When Indra saw the super human power of the seeming shepherded boy , he came to know who he was stopped the rain and asked his forgiveness for the blunder which he had committed in not knowing him to be  conqueror of external as well as internal Nature where as he (Indra) was only the lord of the out side universe.

My dear boy, I know you from your boyhood to be perfectly pure, wise charitable and loving even towards your enemy, how can anything bad be done by you? You are more over , always guided by the Supreme Being in his human incarnation, whom you regard as your greatest friend on earth; how can you , my beloved children, ever do anything wrong? So be not sacred by an imaginary evil which has no existence whatsoever Go, my boy, rule the empire with righteousness, showing peace and bliss all over the land.” Today we leave you with these sages that never  leave your side either in weal or in woe, and in whose company you always find that consolation which pure and saintly persons alone can ever expect to have. May all glory, peace and bliss be yours”.

Yudhishthira now was on the pinnacle of his glory , surrounded by Sri Krishna and his four unconquerable brothers. He ruled his empire with so much ability and love for all his subjects that in a few days peace was restored everywhere. There was no famine or untimely death. Everywhere the lands yielded the riches of crops, the most beautiful and sweet smelling flowers, and the most luscious and juicy fruits. The climate everywhere became very pleasant and salubrious. Timely shower of refreshing rain clothed the earth with the most abundant vegetation, and the whole land attired itself in the most gaudy dress as if to show that its rightful owner had come to take charge of her.

The sweet and instructive words of Sri Krishna restored peace in his heart and he began to rule the world with his brothers thereafter as a loving father rules the happy household, sitting upon the imperial throne of Hastinapur.

When peace was thus restored throughout the whole of the Empire, Sri Krishna and Arjuna took several pleasure trips to many of the holy places and solitary hills with swift-flowing streamlets adorned with picturesque trees on both sides. They spent their time in friendly conversation and various other amusements. At last they arrived khandaprastha and lived for sometime in the unrival led court-hall of the former capital of Yudhishthira, build by Maya.

Several such incidents are mentioned in the Puranas as having taken place in the early life of our hero, who successfully put the demoniac authors of them al to death, and who began to increase in stature and strength, beauty and majesty rapidly. Some people like to look upon these demons as mere disastrous accidents which the baby of Yasoda, somehow or other, escaped; and these getting  their color from the hands of the poets, have been manufactured into demon stories . Modern science has taught such critics that the universe is made up of eighty elements which have certain fixed characteristics of their own. Those characteristic are always the same under the same circumstances, and go by the name of Natural laws. Atheists, Sceptics and Agnostics, therefore, find no necessity of admitting a God as the Creator of the universe, since those eighty elements and the laws which they obey are sufficient to explain all phenomena. They have reduced the whole universe and its working to a combination of dull , dead and inert matter and material forces. No intelligent power is behind all these, to order and regulate them. The aimless, thoughtless stream of creation is eternally flowing between  its two banks of cause and effect, upon the bed of space and time, coming from and going to the unknown and unknowable; and the self-consciousness and intelligence of man, what are they? They are merely the effects of the combinations of certain elements in certain proportions. Death dissolves the body, as well as the self. However rational these conclusion may appear, which I leave to my audience to refute, there can be no doubt that they are extremely uninteresting , dull, prosaic and undesirable. The universe, in that case , is nothing more than an automatic machine, a soulless active organism. But as we cannot imagine the existence of an automatic machine  unless it has been previously arranged or set in order by an intelligent being, nor of a soul-less body having life in itsimilarly it is impossible for us to imagine the existence of such a world. as in a living being life depends for its existence upon the soul, that is with the entrance(this is the concept of shiv ratri),  or exist of the soul(cremation) in the organism, life also will have to enter into or go away from it; similarly the cosmic life must depend for its existence upon a soul behind , but for which no life can exist. This is our hones conviction; and this was also the conviction in those old and hoary Pauranic days, when people were hones believers in a universal soul, whom they called God. This God used to peep out to them through all glorious phenomena, through all beautiful and charming manifestation of Nature. Hence the sun, the moon the lightning and thunder, the fie , the sublime mountains like the Himalayas, the wide and long winding rivers with pure and limpid water, like the Ganga, the gigantic trees which lift up their innumerable, massive and leafy branches to reach the heavens, like Peepul trees, the majestic king sitting upon his brilliant throne, the glorious sages sting above kings, potentates and emperors , upon their thrones of eternal peace and bliss placed upon the adamantine rock of Truth, and whatever is great, glorious, good and extraordinary, were to them the manifestations of the Divine Soul  behind the universe. As every limb of a living man is filled with the man, similarly very important and impressive phenomenon in Nature was filled with that Divinity(Consistency), in their eyes . that being the case , is it not natural that the innocent and pure-hearted people of the period, and especially the inhabitant of Gokula, before  whose eyes these incidents took place, should not look upon these extraordinary disasters in the early life of our hero, as mere accidents which he accidentally escaped, but as the workings of some superhuman evil powers which he was able to put down with his own superhuman divine power?

Thus vanity entered their minds, and Sir Krishna immediately disappeared in order to dispel their vanity, and test .When the helpless Gopis found out that their vanity had cost them their own beloved, they became actually mad, and as all other ideas had vanished from their minds save that of Sri Krishna , they lived, moved and had their being in him alone. All their thoughts therefore naturally dwelt upon his doings and personal beauty and strength. Some Gopis even identified themselves with their beloved, and thought themselves Sri Krishna, and caught hold of and pulled some others thinking them to be demons sent by Kamsa.

The Kingmaker Sri Krishna

“Necessity is the mother of invention” is a extreme need of anything the intense desire, thus created in us, finds out a way to its fulfillment; and  the man or the woman who is fortunate to discover or invent that way first to its fulfillment; and the man or the woman who is fortunate to discover or invent that way first, is held in very high estimation by the whole of humanity . Hence people, who regard this world and its concerns to be all in all , give all those honours to worldly men and women with the pious men give to God. Columbus , James Watt, Franklin, George Stephenson, Edison and many others command more respect in the West from many than even God Himself; for very few can believes in things which transcend the senses, such as after-life, eternity, God. But how ever the scientific positivist may overlook the teleological side of the phenomenal universe, there is an innate faith in almost all men and women in a being who transcends, rules over, and guides all phenomena. Although sometimes materialism, or worldliness confines the views of the denizens of this planet to obliterate the nature of man, which always aspires after life and bliss eternal , as well as after perfect knowledge of all things, and whose immense appetite can never the appeased by anything short of them. Even and idiot hats to be known as such and always wants to pass as one in no way inferior to his neighbours. No man hates anything so much death, and no man wants to be miserable. This clearly points out the nature of every human being which is eternally blissful and omniscient or satchidanada.

But whatever Reason may tell us, we are born with the idea of form and name, and all the people of the world deem these to be indissolubly connected with them. It is not strange therefore that every man and woman thinks himself to be three and a half cubits in length, made up of bones , muscles, flesh , blood, brain and the nervous system. The infinite has shut itself up in a nutshell, and deems itself to be as such. It has become a man or a woman, and the man thinks that his capacities are few and limited. His mind can contain only a few ideas, his body can carry only forty pounds of weight or so. Can you convince him by way of argument, however cogent and irrefutable that may be the he is infinite? Even if he understands, does he like to give up his conviction that he is a bodied being.  No doubt, body gives him pain, but sometimes it gives him pleasure also. It is by means of his body alone the he can regard the beautiful girl there as his wife, the charming , sweet and cherub-like children playing on the lawn as his own offspring. Is not the earth beautiful with her fine scenery, her sweet singing birds , her sweet smelling flowers. Her luscious and charming fruits and her fine breeze carrying balm for all fatigue and tiresomeness? And how without a body can all these things be enjoyed ? so keep aside all others philosophy of religion, O wise , and allow man to enjoy the beautiful . you say that the world is not all beautiful there is deformity side by side with beauty. But do you not know that stands as a set off to enhance the beauty of the beautiful all he more? He requires evil side by side with good, to appreciate and enjoy the beauty of goodness, for otherwise it would be insipid and unattractive. Thus man cannot leave the world for the sake of his wife and children, as well as various other charming things which ever active Nature is constantly bringing forth to fascinate him. He has been charmed by Nature, and therefore he can easily swallow without grumbling all those bitter doses, which she makes  him incessantly drink along with occasional doses of pleasure, which she offers him with a niggardly hand. But eh man does not know the deceit till too late, when death comes and knocks at his door to give him the unexpected and sad warning  that it is time that he should take his last farewell from all those whom he has been thinking as his nearest and dearest friends on earth. “To go away from here ?Why, is this not my home? Men only go away from places of sojourn to reach home; says the man. But death is deaf to all this and says, “ Be ready, there is no more time” Is this not my home then? And the man shudders to think upon it. There is his wife weeping and the children are looking towards him with bewildered and sorrowful gaze. A writhing pang thrills his heart and chills his body , till in agony of despiser he gasps out his last breath, and leaves the body for ever. He dies a dupe to Nature, the mother of all deceitfulness, fair all outside, but bearing venom within.

Such is the life of the man of the world, and who Is not a man of the world? Everyone thinks that his home is here , and everyone therefore is always n willing to leave it. Forgetful of the utterly precarious nature of his life, forgetful of the one certain fact of his final departure from here , the man of the world behaves like  a mad man in thinking that to be his own, which really does not belong to him . The all-deluding idea of “I and mine” impels him to fight against his brother-men for a small scrap of land, for every trifling thing, and sometimes bloodshed and murder are the result. The thought of “ I and mine”, is the cause. He does not considered that what he thinks to be his now, belonged to some one else before and is going to belong to some one else hereafter. So how can that be his , which has come to him by accident , and which is to go away form him by accident? To-day a man is poor. To-morrow he becomes rich, and a few days after wards he again becomes poor. Where has the money gone? It came of its own accord to him, and it left him of its own accord. So how can he rationally think the money to be his , since whatever belongs to him must depend upon him, whereas the money is totally independent of him. A man may be learned and vastly qualified , still he may be poor; and on the other hand , a man may be nothing better than a dunce and still he may be millionaire . therefore, the great Bhismacharya says, “Man is slave to money, but money is slave to none; and still he is under the illusion that money belongs to him, it is his property, and he has full right over it. What a delusion!

But this delusion every man inherits from his father, and his father has inherited it from his father as so on ad infinitum. Hence delusion is the only patrimony we can be proud of and what a wretched pride it is! To what an abject condition it reduces us. Upon this delusions are based all our social rules and regulations nay, all our higher moral ideas too are based upon this idea of “I and mine” Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you.” Means regard all as yours. It broadens your idea of “I and mine’ no doubt but tit does not save you from the hand of illusion. You have come form the unknown you are destined to go. You are merely a stranger to this planet, ad like a stranger you will have to leave it sooner or later. This is the bare truth devoid of al false ornamentation. has a stranger any right to claim as his won the property that belongs to his host? So you have no right to call anything you’re here, if you want to be saved form the hand of illusion.

This is what the wise advise us to do. But it is very easy to advice and most difficult to perform and in this case, it is altogether beyond the power of a man to carry it out practically. As we cannot imagine a triangular circle, so we cannot imagine a world without the idea of “I and mine.” Which is the only pivot upon which the eternal wheel is revolving. From the lowest to the highest all men are imbued with this one idea. Hence a man can never save a man from the hand of illusion.

Is there then no Salvation? Is man always destined to be a plaything of the unconquerable demoness, the illusion, this Maya? This history of the world sometimes presents us with the lives of a few care individuals who are altogether of different type from the ordinary men of the world. They never find any satisfaction from the teachings of human teachers. Human aspirations and ideals do not satisfy them. Lust and gold have no charm over them. Nature with all her loveliness can never fascinate the. The idea of ‘ I and mine” has no place in them. They do not condescend to travel through the paths taken up by the multitude of men who surround them. An altogether unthought-of and new path each one of them must have to prepare for himself (and for those who will be willing to follow him) to satisfy his mental craving, for no earthly food can ever satisfy his hunger. He finds fault with the existing system of religion and education. He puts down the vanity of the pedants, wants to turn the course of society, and if he takes it into his head, sometimes wants to rebuild it .People look at him wonderingly , and ask” what sort of man this must be?” He claims no human teacher. Whence has he learned all his queer ways? He must have leaned them from some unknown teacher, or it may be, he has learnt them form himself. He is his own teacher. But what a tremendous power he has, to set at naught the combined power of the whole human race ranged against him to put down his new theories and principles! How can they classify him as one of them? He must require some higher, nobler a better stuff to be formed as a man.

Thus naturally all men regard him as some thing superhuman or Divine, and of their own accord they invest him with the title of the “Incarnation of God.” As his training and education have not proceeded from the school of the senses, they must have flowed from the school of the senses, they must have flowed from some super sensuous region, and hence naturally he must have many supersensuous   experiences, which to us may appear as miraculous and hence incredible, still which we cannot relationally deny , seeing that he owes not a little to any our books , scientific or religious, but that he brings altogether new ideas and principles of our acceptance. The man who is fondly imagining that he is only three and a half cubits in length, and who never wants to regard himself as anything higher then that , lest by so doing he may be unmindful of the charming Deity who presides over his life, his fair partner whom he regards as his better half such a man may deny , like  a frog in the well, that there can be anything higher and nobler than what his five senses present to him. He may quote the philosophy of Comte to support his pet views which are absolutely limited within the four corners of the earth, but no sane man, amenable to reasoning can eve deny the existence of many more worlds than what he is destined to see with his five senses only for a short period of time. If the real man to eternally blissful and omniscient ,as we have seen previously , then the opinion of the apparent man of three and a half cubits in length may be safely dispensed with, although the modern civilized man, standing upon the highest rung of the ladder of our dying century may encourage his extremely narrow and dogmatically skeptic ideas what ever they are following.

The number of such Divine Beings, who have graced this earth of ours from time immemorial, is so few that they may be counted on our fingers. They always come to give and tell us something new, and they leave the earth, increasing her intellectual and spiritual wealth a thousand –fold more than what it was previous to their advent. Such also the life of Krishna, representing all sides of human nature coupled with the superhuman. This grandly divine parsonage (Sri Krishna) flourished in remote antiquity many hundreds of years previous to the advent of Lord Buddha, and blessed the mother earth  with a religion , which in its broad universality far surpasses all other religions and which is a true  representation of the Religion Eternal, intended for all men at all times .

From what has already been said, it is clear that these divine personages must experience many supernatural phenomena and must possess much supernatural knowledge and power, their minds being always directed beyond the senses, beyond all names and forms. So not limited by their bodies and thus not confined by time and space, they are sure to be all-permeating in all times and hence eternally omniscient. Their lives have no beginning and no end, because they never identify themselves with their bodies in which they feel that they are dwelling for a time. Therefore since they are eternally, they are still living.

But the question may come, is not every man similarly eternal? Then what is the specialty of these beings? The only specialty is that they know they are eternal, whereas the man of the world does not know it, although he is really so. And the difference is vast, one is wise, the other is otherwise ignorant; one I light , and the other is darkness; and hence one must be the leader or guide, and the other must be led or guided as the one has eyes and the other is blind.

It is only natural for a man of the world, therefore, to commit all sorts of blunders, if he is vain enough to believe in his won deplorably limited mind. If he does not allow himself to be led by one or the other of these Divine Incarnations, woe is sure to befall him in the meandering paths of this world of misery , where Nature like a siren deceives all passers-by and leads them to destruction at last.

The lives of all those glorious individuals whom the world, of its own accord has had to recognise as nothing less than Divine incarnations, always present to every reader a series of incidents which are human, strangely interwoven with what is superhuman; and thoughtless people , who always boast of the superior character of their intellect, hold that all the superhuman incidents are later inventions of the followers of those great men, for according to them, nothing superhuman can ever exist. After what we have been saying all along, does not this dogmatic assertion on their part sound like that of the frog in the well  which held that there could be nothing bigger than his well? Really such people are to be pitied. They do not want to harbor any idea which is more than human, and therefore they do not want to see in these Godmen, anything  more than model men who lived, laboured, suffered and enjoyed as all people do ,a and who preached nothing but how to live in this world happily , how to get the greatest amount of good here with the least amount of labour, forgetting all the while that the lives of these Godmen were the standing protest against  the lives lived by men surrounding themselves or form some unmainfested Power, to find fault with all those social and religious practices that were in vogue around them. These hast people forget that these incarnations were born to guide and not be guided, an hence their experiences must be of a far superior nature to those of others, to whom many of their actions must appear therefore to be more than human or miraculous. The attempts of those who want to paint such men as nothing better than ordinary men, are as good as to pint the sun, without his glory, to  describe beauty without a from to enjoy a piece of music without melody, to relish a dish without taste. As light is inseparably connected with the Sun, so the superhuman is inseparably connected with the human in hem. Thus if we totally disbelieve in the miraculous portions of their lives, we cannot do so without raising suspicion in the minds of all good and unbiased reasoners regarding our sanity. It should be our duty therefore to present the lives of these Godmen as we find them depicted in our Books, instead of omitting, altering, twisting and torturing the texts to suit our limited mental capacities. With this preface let us proceed to our subject, and really benefit ourselves by studying the divine character of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, whose Incarnation was solely for the material and spiritual welfare of the earth. 

The king in his palace was restless after sending Akrura to bring Rama and Krishna form Brindavan. He was expecting them every moment with feverish excitement. The town people on the other hand, were very happy over the coming festival ; they had attired themselves in gala dresses. And had formed themselves into little groups “drowning their merry talk in incessant floods of laughter”. The whole city of Mathura was very gay, expecting to receive in its bosom ere long the two brightest gems on earth. The stories of the unprecedented personal beauty and prowess of the two brothers had long ago been carried by the breeze in all directions. Hence Rama and Krishana were not unknown to the citizens of Mahtura, who , of their own accord, were decorating their houses and streets to give them a suitable reception, and were every moment expecting their  much longed-for arrival. Kamsa also was restless for them, but how different was the anxiety in the heart of the king form that in the hearts of his subjects.

 

One was ordering the decoration of the arena, selecting the biggest and maddest of elephants, and the most bloodthirsty, ferocious and powerful or wrestlers to meet and ruin the two brothers, with a secret understanding that the later should never be allowed to escape alive. While the citizens, on the other hand, were beautifying their city, anxious to meet them out of pure love and reverence towards them. One was restless with expectant pleasure .These two opposite feelings were not hidden from the all –seeing minds of the two brothers and they were ready for the occasion.

Akura also revealed to them the full purpose of the demoniacal monarch, for although he was a confidential courtier of Kamsa, still he was a great lover of Sri Krishna whose glory was not hidden form him. When he got down into the Yamuna to take a bath after the two brothers hand finished theirs and were comfortably seated upon the chariot. Akrura who had been looking at their beautiful and innocent forms and inwardly admiring them, also saw them in the river when he took his first plunge in it, and not being able to make out how within the twinkling of an eye the two could leave their seats in the chariot and come into the river, he immediately raised his head from the water and directed his eyes towards the chariot once to see in great wonder that they were sitting there as before.

He thought it might be an optical delusion and with totally unprejudiced mind he took a second plunge, but the matter was not emended in any way, and he saw before him the tow brother smiling at him in the waters. He again raised up his head from the water and looked towards the chariot only to see them sitting in the same postures as before. He made a third experiment, the result was the same. a forth , fifth , sixth experiment, and many more experiments afterwards only brought about the same result. Then he naturally concluded that they must be the incarnations of that”eternally glorious Being who permeates fire, water and all the universe”; and at this thought his heart melted into an intense reverence towards them and spontaneously he sang their glory in this way; “I bow down to Thee. O thou the abode of the all beings, Who art the cause of even the cause of the universe, who art the first Being, the eternal One, and from the lotus of Whose navel Brahma, the creator of the universe, has taken his birth.

So Akrura knew them to be the One infinite Spirit; disguised in human forms , the most attractive that eve were born of women, only to draw the mind of all men and women of the world, who are always mad after the ever shifting and ephemeral beauties of nature , toward themselves. Infinite we are all indeed , but this idea of ourselves has been totally sealed from our view by the nameless power of ignorance, which never allows us to go beyond names and forms, and which was totally driven out and discarded by the glorious light of Eternal Knowledge in Rama and Krishna.

Kamsa was a tyrant. He threw his own aged father into prison and usurped the throne from him. He was an advocate of debauchery, lustfulness, and all sorts of horrible and immoral practice. If any good man dared to stand in his way, he used to get rid of him by at once extirpating him. All good men either ran way form the monster, or were killed by him. He was never in any way conciliatory to his nearest and dearest relatives, if they happened to be good and God-fearing, so most of them avoided him and preferred to live in distant places beyond his reach. Can the world go on with such a demon as its ruler? And since he was impregnable to all good and godly sentiments, the only way to save the earth from his tyranny was to root him out like a weed that is bane to the useful vegetation. The father who spares the rod and spoils the child does not do the duty of a father. The government by letting go all the culprits without punishing them, will be no government at all, for ungoverned vices in that case will swallow up society in no time. Hence to protect his children from the hands of the wicked. God must have to come now and then in this world to destroy the latter and protect the former. Without such Divine incarnations, the world would have been destroyed long ago. Hence the occasional advent of such men in an unavoidable necessity, if God wants to preserve His creation. 

And God wants to preserve His  creation, for no father wants to see his favourite child murdered before him by the relentless hand of a lawless ruffian, if he is a father at all and if he has power to save. God never wants to destroy His creation and as Rama and Krishna were the Incarnations of that God, it was their duty to see all the good men of the land protected, and the evil doers scattered even as the chaff is scattered by the winds.

As long as the two brothers graced our earth, they were entirely engaged in weeding out directly or indirectly the useless and baneful plants from the beautiful garden of creation. So crossing the Yamuna with Akrura, when the buxom, jolly shepherded boys reached Mathura, the memory of Sri Brindavan with all their merry pranks there was totally washed off, for now they directed all their energies to effect the welt of the oppressed. They were at once changed men. They looked around them and found that their dresses and ornaments were not at all in keeping with their environments. So they wanted to change them and then proceed to their task. There was the royal dressmaker’s place displaying the gaudiest and best of apparel intended for the use of the royal family, and without much ado they asked the man to let them have suitable dresses. The dignity of the man being thus offended, because he was no less a personage than the great Kamasa’s servant, he wanted to thrash them for their impertinence and then hand them over to police, but like lambs before lions he and all his party lay dead at their feet. They selected their natural beauty by means of art, they walked through the streets of the city. They saw a hump-backed woman carrying charming garlands and fragrant sandalwood paste for Kamsa , and they asked her to adorn their bodies with them .Charmed with their beauty , the women , who was naturally kindly in her disposition although her exterior was totally deformed, at once decorated their beautiful persons with the choicest garlands and so tastefully smeared them with the sandalwood paste, that they looked like angels come down from Heaven to see the grand festival that was going to be celebrated on that day in the city .As a reward for her goodness Sri Krishna, with a single touch, transformed her deformity into the choicest beauty.

Was it not partiality on the apart of Sri Krishna to kill a dutiful servant, because he did not comply with his unlawful request, and to reward the undutiful maid servant, because she obeyed him? The highest duty of every man is to love goodness and godliness wherever these may be found, and the worst crime which a man can commit is to abet and advocate unrighteousness, ungodliness, perfidy, and inhumanity in others or to perpetrate those evil actions himself. As has been seen, Kamsa was the personification of evil and therefore whoever loves and honours him, loves an dishonors evil, and being nothing better then evil itself, he should share the same father with the evil-minded Kamsa. With the exception of a very few low-minded people, none and all were only praying to God to relieve them from the hand of such a tyrant. As a response to their incessant prayers God hand come down in the form of Sri Krishna to save them. Such was also the case with Kamsa’s maid servant, who being naturally good, could never love and regard the demon in her heart of hearts although fear made her outwardly loyal to the tyrant, and she got the reward of her goodness.

Attired in such beautiful dresses, decorated with most beautiful garlands, the brothers attracted naturally the minds of all men and women of the city who could not take their eyes away . They now reached the gate of the arena and as soon as the menials of Kamsa saw them, according to their master’s advice , they directed the most ferociously mad elephant. Kuvalayapida, against the two brothers who in no time, put the animal to death. Then came forward the tow best of wrestlers, Chanura and Mushtika, to meet and wrestle with them, and ultimately to kill them; but their villainy cost them their lives, for no sooner did they meet the two brothers then they were killed. This enraged Kamsa, and he ordered nanda, the shepherded father of Rama and Krishna, to be thrown into prison, and Vasudeva, their real father to be killed , and the brothers themselves to be driven away from the city. But Sri Krishna was too quick for him. He sprang upon the dais where Kamsa was sitting upon his throne with his nefarious courtiers and catching him by his hair, brought him down to the arena and in a moment killed him. The villainous friends of Kamsa, who took arms against the brothers were similarly served, and the all conquering hero with his brother Rama at that time appeared to his own parents as a boy, to the wicket as the Highest Truth , to the good as the God of the Universe to the Vrishnis, his own caste people , as their all-comforting , ideal God. 

When the tyrant with his party was thus killed, peace was restored in no time. All people became happy and Sri Krishan’s first duty was to bring his aged father and mother, Vasudeva and Devaki,as well as the father of the tyrant, Ugrasanas, out of the prison. He restored the throne to Ugrasens, because he was far above the petty desire to rule over a kingdom, being above all desires. He bowed down to his real father and mother, vasudevd and Devaki, who at first could not recognise him and his brother. He told them who they were and their bliss knew no bounds, so much co that they fell down senseless. Being restored to their senses they embraced their children and bathed them in tears of love. They narrated the cruelty of Kamsa to them and were very happy to her that the tyrant had been put to death by their own children. All their troubles were ended once for all. The rest of their life they lived very happily with their darlings.

Then came a very sad scene. When the shepherded father and mother of Sri Krishna, Nanda and Yasoda, heard that their darlings were clime by Vasudeva and Devaki , they were besides themselves with sorrow. When the shepherded boys and girls heard that Sri Krishna was not going back to Sri Brindavan with them, it was  worse than a death blow to them. To return to Gokula without Rama and Krishana was something they could not believe nay, even imagine . When Sri Krishna himself came and told Nanda, Yasoda and all the shepherd boys and girls, his playmates and companions , all of whom came with him to see the grand festival and present their annual tribute to tyrant Kamsa that the could not leave his aged father and mother to go with them to Gokula, it was as if a thunder bolt fell upon their heads. They did not know what to do; so fondly did they love him and Rama. Sri Krishna tried to console them as much as he could and promised to come  back to them after seeing his aged parents, whose eyes had become almost blind  with incessant weeping for them in the prison of the tyrant but who were comforted now and told happy after many years of uttermost misery. He told them that it was the first duty of every child to bring comfort to his parents , which he had been neglecting by leading a merry life in Brindavan,altogether unmindful of the extreme agony of his parents whom Kamsa had been torturing with all manner of villainous means. So he could not leave them now on any account. Nanada and Yasoda, who always used to regarded him as their darling did not expect such an answer form him, hwen they wanted him to accompany them to Gokula. They were astounded at the reply. His playmates looked towards him with wistful supplication. They could not talk but only looked at him with eyes blinded with tears. He kissed his parents, he kissed his friends and told hem that ere long he would join them at Gokula, after seeing hi parents happy and the shepherds with vacant minds directed their unwilling steps towards their homes, s if they were going to some foreign land. Vashnava poets have lavished all their arts in describing this extremely pathetic scene, so much so, that even a heart made of steel will have to melt in the warmth and fervors of their description.

After seeing Nanda, Yasoda, and all the shephereds cross the Yamuna, Rama and Krishna retruned t their parents. They made them very happy and lived with them for some months. But they felt ashamed  to the Pandits that they had not as yet known a single letter of the alphabet; so they asked their parents permission to Varanasi to prosecute their studies there at the feet of a certain sage, named Sandipamuni . unwillingly the parents consented , and the two went directly to the sage who was very glad to admit them as his disciples. Rama and Krishna, with other Brahman charins, lives with and served their Guru. Who took particular care the them. They used to go to the neighboring forest with other boys to bring fuel for cooking and sacrifice; sometimes they used to go out to beg rice and other edibles for their teacher and were perfectly pleased with that abstinent life. They were so very intelligent the they were able t learn within seven months everything which the sage could teach. When after finishing their studies they wanted to give their teacher some remuneration for his kind care and love towards them, the wife of the sage asked that her dead child might be restored to life and brought back to her from the abode of Death where it had been taken away a year before , for she knew that Rama and Krishna were not ordinary individuals. They fulfilled her request by restoring her own child to her, and with the permission of their teacher they returned to Mathura, versed in all schools of philosophy and the Vedas . their parents got back their life , as it were on seeing them.

Kamsa was the son-in-law of the most powerful monarch of the period, Jarasandha, the king of Magadha or Bihar. When Kamsa was put to death by Sri Krishna, his tow widowed wives, the daughters of Jarasandha, went away to their father’s places, and informed him about the wretched lot to which they had been reduced by Sri Krishna, and wept and entreated him to punish the wicked man, the cause of all their sorrow, Jarasandha , at the head of a vast army, blockaded Mathura, but his army was routed by the limited number of Ugrasen’s army , through the commanding skill of Sri Krishna. But Jarasandha was not a man to be put down easily, and so he attacked a second time, but Sri Krishna was again able to repel him with all his forces, nay, he was successful in routing him with all his army in many succeeding attacks, which in all numbered seventeen.

In studying the life of Sri Krishna, we will find that he was never aggressive. He always defended himself against the aggression of others. He was altogether averse to shedding human blood unnecessarily. He was always for peace at any cost; but when war was inevitable , he taught his adversaries that he was more than a match for the, till of their own accord most them, used to surrender, while the obstinate were sure to be ruined completely . This clearly proves his humane and all protecting nature. He could feel for all. After killing Kamsa. He lamented for him. For such a soft-natured man war was altogether distasteful , an innumerable men were to be offered as sacrifices to it. So when Jarasandha repeatedly attacked Mathura, he concerted a successful plan to avoid further attacks from that redoubtable enemy. In the hilly island of Dvaraka he ordered a town, as well as a fort to be built when that as completed, he removed Ugrasens’s capital to that place, well protected by the hill fort of Raivatka; but it was not without considerable difficulty , as at that time he was simultaneously attacked on both sides by Jarasandha on the one hand, and on the other hand by Lalyavana, a non Aryan king who , being a friend to the king of Magadha, was instigated by him to attack the Yadavas at Mathura Sri Krishna( I am not yadav) wanted to shed as little blood as possible; moreover he did not like to meet the innumerable forces of the two armies with his limited number of men. So he went alone in disguise to the camp of Kalayavana and stood before the latter, who easily detected him and ran after him to catch him. Sir Krishna was a better runner than the king; so although they went far away form the camp , still the latter could not over take him , till he entered and hid himself in a cave. The king followed in search of him, and saw a man lying on the floor. He took him to be Sri Krishna and kicked him with his foot. The man who was a great sage named Muchkunda, thus kicked , suddenly , got up and looked at him with eyes buriining with anger and at once reduced him to ashes. Sri Krishna came back to Mathura, while the death of Kalayavana so disheartened his army that it left the project of attacking Mathura and returned to its own territory. Then it was not difficult for the Yadavas to meet and rout Jarasandha’s troops . when thus the enemies were routed, all the Yadavs , led by Sri Krishna, went to their new city Dwaraka, and there lived peacefully ever after wards.

After this , proposals for the marriage of Rukmini, the most beautiful daughter of Bhishmaka, kong of Vidarbha, were doing made. Sri Krishna asked that King for the hand of his daughter. This accomplished lady also had a grate love for Sri Krishna. But Bhishmaka, instigated by Jarasandha, did not  comply with his request and wanted to give his daughter in marriage to a cousin of Sri Krishna named Sisupala, who was his inveterate enemy . The day of marriage was settled , and all the kings were invited to it except the Yadavas. So Sri Krishna wanted to take her away by force, because that kind of marriage, which went by the name of Rakshasa Vivaha, was highly esteemed by all Kshatiyas in those days. When on the day of her marriage Rukmini was going home form the temple after performing her worship, Sri Krishana suddenly came up to her and took her upon his chariot. As soon as Bhishmake and al the royal guests saw this, they came upon him, but the successfully defended himself and his bride against innumerable odds, and at last succeeded in taking her home safely, where they were married in great pomp. The married couple were indeed very happy for they loved each other very ardently. 

This is a supernatural incident which many people may not believe. It may also have an allegorical meaning which is at once palpable. To be free is the nature of the soul,, and hence it is perfectly happy in that state, being in it s own natural elements. This blissful state goes by the name of heaven. Therefore whatever destroys the liberty of the soul must be regarded as opposite to heaven, i.e., hell or Naraka, and what is that? Desire. it is a fact that desire binds the man to earth. Whence does this desire come? It comes from the contact of the soul with the earth or Purusha with Prakriti. Sri Krishna killed this desire and converted the innumerable miseries, the off-springs of it, into highest enjoyments, by making them his subservient handmaids or obedient wives.  Indra represents the unseen Guru who revealed to him the extent of mischief which this desire is capable of making so much so , that even gods are not safe from its hands.

After this Sri Krishna killed another demon, who went by the name of Bana. Then he fought against the king of Paundra, named Vasudeva, a term which, besides the obvious meaning Vasudeva’s son, also means the universe, i.e God. This king proclaimed that he was the real Vasudeva or the Incarnation of God, whereas Sri Krishana, the son of Vasudeva, was a nobody. So Sri Krishna challenged him to fight. They met and the latter with all party was killed in the battle.

Yadu was the eldest child of Yayati, but being cursed by the father, he did not succeed him on the throne, which Puru, the younger son, occupied after his father’s retirement. Yadu however ruled over some other territories and his descendants went by the name of the Yadavs. These Yadavas were subdivided into several dynasties, such as, Virshni, Andhaka, Kukura Bhoja etc, sri Krishana belonged to Vrishni’s family, and Kamsa and Devaki belongd to the Bhoja dynasty. Most of the Yadavas were living in Dvaraka ruled by Ugrasena and led by Sri Krishna, who was always kind to his relatives.  

Satrajit, a Yadava living in Dvaraka at the time, got , a very precious jewel which Sir Krishna suggested to him to present to the king. But lest there should be any misunderstanding amongst his relatives on account of the jewel, Sri Krishna did not press his request too far, Satrajit loved the jewwl very much and did not like to lose it, and so, fearing lest Sri Krishana might take it back from him, he gave it to his younger brother Prasena, who, one day going to hunt, was killed by a lion in the forest. In this way the jewel was lost, and Satrajit meanly thought Sri Krishna must have killed his brother to get the jewel, and spread such a rumor. At this Sri Krishna was sorely troubled. He wanted to relieve himself from the calumny by recovering the jewel, and went to the place where Prasena was killed , and by the blood marks of a lion’s paws, he found out the cause of his death. He also detected the bloody marks of a bear’s paws side by side with the lion’s at a little distance and concluded that the lion must have been killed by the bear. He followed that footmarks of the bear and was thus led to his den where he fought with him, subdued him, and recovered the jewel from him. Not only that, the bear, who went by the name of Jambavan and who had fought for Rama against Ravana in former days being pleased with Sri Krishna’s might and coming to know who he was, offered his beautiful daughter Jambavati in marriage to him. After returning to Davarka he gave the jewel to Satrajit who too gave his most fair-looking daughter Satyabhama in marriage to him. So Sri Krishna married many wives, but as we have seen this may be regarded as an allegory.

At this time Drupada, the king of the Punjab, invited al the kings of India to win the hand of his daughter, Draupadi, the paragon of beauty , by showing their skill in archery. All kings flocked form all directions to win the beautiful girl. Duryodhana, the king of the Kauravas, who had usurped the throne from its rightful owner Yudhishthira by sending him away with his four brothers to a distant place to be killed in a nefarious manner, also came with all his relatives and friends desiring the hand of Draupadi . There were with him the best of warriors and statesman, such as, Bhishma, Drona, Karna, and many others. A target in the form of a fish, was placed high up in the air. It could be seen with great difficulty through certain holes made through the intervening barriers and to his it the archer should look down in a vessel filled with water, placed just beneath to descary the shadow of the target, and thus send forth his arrow with his head downwards. All the kings and warriors failed . then Drupada asked the warriors of all caste to try, with the promise that whoever  should succeed, he would get his daughter. None rose up, until a young , stalwart and beautiful Brahmana came up to the bow. People hissed at him , taking him to be a madcap, but he succeeded in hitting the mark and winning the fair lady for whom so may kings had assembled. When the Brhamana took the hand of the girl and tried to take her to his home, he was attacked from all sides by the assembled kings. He was more than a match for them, and with the help  of another  bigger and stouter Brahamana he succeeded in driving away all the kings in no time. Sri Krishana was present on this occasion; he was merely  witnessing, but took no part in the proceedings. When hw saw the two strong Brhamanas drive away all the kings in no time Sri Krishna was present on this occasion; he was merely witnessing ,but took no part in the proceedings. When he saw the two strong Brhamanas drive away all the Kshatriya warriors, he at once found out who they were. He concluded that they must be the heroic children of Pandu, whom rumor announced to have been killed by the villainy of Duryodhana. In order to verify his conclusion, he followed the two heroes and saw them join three other fair-looking young Brahamanas. The five together. Taking with them the newly won bride, went into a potter’s house situated in a village called Ekachakra not very far from Dhrupad’s capital , and presented the bride to an elderly lady, saying. “ mother, we have e brought a daughter to you.” Sri Krishna’s conclusion was confirmed and he appeared before them, kissed and embraced the four and bowed down to Yudhishthria, the eldest brother stating that he was their cousin, Kunti their mother being the sister of his father vasudeve. It was a very happy meeting . Sri Krishna took leave of them for the night after bowing down to Kunti and Ydhishthira nd next day he brought with him enormous wealth and offered it to the Pandavas. In the meantime , Drupada knew everything about them through his son Dhrishtadymna, who also had followed them in disguise, and seen and heard what had passed between them and Sri Krishna. So , early in the morning he came and took them to his palace, where in the presence for all the Yadavas headed by Rama and Krishna, the marriage was grandly celebrated . Arjuna, the third of the Pandavas, won the bride.

When the blind king Dhritarashtra, the father of Duryodhana and uncle to Yudhishthira, heard that the Pandavas were still living and were married to Draupadi , he with ehe advice of his pious ministers, such a Bhisma and Vidura, brought about a reconciliation between the Pandavas and his won wretched and abominable children. The Pandavas were given half of the kingdom. They made their capital in a place called Khandavaprastha by the side of a forest which went by the name of Handavavana. Within a very short time Yudhisthira, with the help of his four heroic brothers became one of the most powerful monarchs of Inida. They conquered the surrounding territories and brought enormous riches from all land, and made their city one of the richest and most beautiful ornaments of the earth. Sri Krishna made the their of the Pandavas, Arjuna his dearest and most confidential friend and always loves to live and move in his company.

 The Pandavas were living very happily in their kingdom. Sri Krishna was staying at Dvarka. For some reason, Arjuna wanted to make a pilgrimage to all the only places of India and he started from Khandava-prastha for that purpose. He saw many holy places, bathed in many holy rivers and lakes. At alst he reahed Dvaraka where h was received very kindly by his friend Krishna. He was staying there with him for some days and spending his time very happily, when one day he saw a beautiful girl coming from the temple after performing her worship. She was the sister of Sri Krishna , named Subhadra. He as charm with her beauty, but tried to suppress his feelings. As nothing could be hidden from Sri Krishna, he asked him the reason o this absent-mindness. And when Arjuna was hesitating  to give it out, h of his own accord advised him to take the girl away by force from before all hr relatives, when the time of her marriage should come; for that kind of marrying a lady by force was highly esteemed by all the valiant Kshatriyas of the period. For a brother to advise a stranger to take away his own sister by force seems to us very unnatural and monstrous. But when we consider the standard of morality in those days when we consider that Arjuna was held in very high estimation by Sri Krishna and that it is the duty of a brother to see his sister married to a great and noble-minded hero, we can never blame Sri Krishna for advising Arjuna in that apparently unseemly manner.

Arjuna followed his friend’s advice and, getting permission from Kunti and Ydhisthira through messengers, he took away Subhadra by force before all her relatives during the times of her optional marriage. All Yadavas took arms against him. He, with great dexterity, defended his newly won brides as well as himself against innumerable odds, and safely escorted her form the battle-field Sri Krishna, at last , brought about a reconciliation between Arjuna and the Yadavas and the marriage was formally celebrated with great pomp in Dvaraka.

Arjuna lived very happily for some time there , and at last , taking Sri Krishna and his newly married wife with him, he returned to Khandavaprastha, where Kunti , Ydhishthira and the other Pandavas were anxiously expecting them. The whole city was full of happiness over their presence. Such was the charm of Sir Krishna’s personality, such was the amiableness of his character, such glory he used to the diffuse wherever he went, such words of wisdom he used to pour forth to all people who used to come to him for advise, such a master of humorous expressions he was, and consequently such a boon and jolly companion he proved himself to be, that whenever he came to a place it was at once invigorated with fresh life, peace and happiness always following in his wake , and whenever he left a place it used to appear like lusterless sun. so was if a strange that incessant festival should go on in the noble city of Ydhishthira during his stay? 

When one day Sri Krishna and Arjuna were walking by the forest, the God of Fire appeared before them and requested them to help in burning the wood as he was very hungry. He had tried several times previously, but Indra, to whom the forest belonged, had always prevented him from doing so by pouring incessant showers of rain upon him. If they would kindly prevent Indra form doing this then he could appease his otherwise insatiable hunger by eating up the big forest. They took their bows and arrows and told the god to burn the forest. This fire raged terribly on all sides , and all the denizens of the forest began to fly away towards all directions, but Sir Krishna and Arjuna prevented them form doing so with their arrows and offered them as scarifies to the god. There was a demon whose name was Maya also living in that forest. At this Indra got very much enraged and darted a big hill against the two in order to smash them under it, but they reduced it into powder. Indra tried to hurl his thunder against them, but he was prevented form doing so by an unseen voice, stating that Sri Krishna and Arjuna were the incarnations of tow ancient sages, Nara and Naryana, and therefore they should not be served in that way. Indra desisted and became their friend. The hunger of Fire was appeased.

The demon who was saved by the kindness of Arjuna wanted to do some service to him; Arjuna did not like to be rewarded for doing his duty, and when the former insisted upon doing something, he asked him to do some service to his friend Sri Krishna. So to him he turned expecting an order and Sri Krishna asked him to build a big court-hall for Yudhisthira, unprecedented in its beauty, grandeur, and richness, as he was the chief architect of demons. Maya complied with his request and built such a grand court-hall for the pious and holy king Yudhisthira, that is like had never been seen by any man before.

 (out of this you all don’t need to make or brake any thing again its not about any mandir , how you all interpret this story  its upto you alls own judgment and decision and it would be you all responsible for your own thinking)

This incident in Sri Krishna’s life is also  very supernatural, and many people may regard it as nothing better than a grandmother’s story.. The chief cause of their arriving at such a conclusion is a strong belief in the dull, inert, inanimate and unconscious nature of all matter and material forces. They do not believe that there is an intelligent force behind every particle of matter of regulate, guide and keep it in its proper place. But let us see how far their position is tenable. Those people who admit the independent existence of the phenomenal universe commit a great mistake by admitting from, touch, taste, smell and sound to be existing independent of the organism and consequently of the man behind the organism. Their argument is that space and time and consequently the universe contained their in can exist independent of man. If a man dies, does the world die with him? The world is eternally living for others. But suppose others also die away, where then is the world to remain, the world which is solely made up of forms, touches tastes, smells and sounds, which can never exist independent of living and conscious human organism to perceive them ? You may still insist that some thing must exist independent of the organism, the something must be unknown and unknowable; but the world is known and knowable. Hence independent of the organism the world or universe cannot exist , and we are only concerned with the universe. So the universe is a compound made up of man and not-man , Spirit and matter, Purusha, and Prakriti. As an atom or water is never an atom, but a molecule consisting of one atom of oxygen and two atoms of hydrogen, similarly a particle of the universe is never an indivisible atom, but made up of one atom of matter and one atom of spirit, if we can use such expressions. This clearly proves that the entire universe is permeated with an all-intelligent Spirit, intelligence always go hand in hand. As the known and knowable universe is resting on Space and Time which is infinite, it is also eternal and infinite, and the all-permeating Spirit must necessarily be eternal and infinite Spirit goes by the name of God; and as an individual man thinks himself to be limited in his physical and intellectual power, small in stature and short in life, he cannot but worship, honour, and always pry to that all-powerful Spirit. Because he is filled with many desires, he wants to get those desired fulfilled , and he naturally and with good reason hopes that it God wills all his desires may be fulfilled in no time. For this reason he want to please God by worshipping Him, or solely confides himself to His kind care and protection. He realise that the more he loves Him all his cares and anxieties leave him, till at last, knowing Him to be the best of all friends, he direct his whole soul towards Him and thus knows Him to be the nearest and dearest to his heart. He forgets all earthly concerns and floats in the ocean of Bliss Divine and forgets his individuality. Cannot grasp the infinite nature of God, for how can the finite contain the infinite? So how worship God in every glorious phenomenon, such as Sun, Moon, Fire, Lightning, Rains, etc. and God, Who is all-permeating and all –powerful, fulfills the desire of these people by manifesting Himself through these phenomena. Many such incidences we read of in our Upanishads to have taken place. When a man has learned to see God in everything, to him nothing in Nature can be any more dull, dead and inert. Everything appears to him to be living in God. Sri Krishna and Arjuna  were such man (in modern context who can be term Krishna or Arjuna we simply cannot jump into conclusion by any mean) They were not like us living in a dull, dead, and material world, so we cannot gauge the extent of their knowledge even if we try. Hence we should not find fault with them if they are concerned with such things, or connected with such incidents, as to us appear supernatural and incredible. Being like Sri Krishna, as we have already noticed, are made up of other stuff then what we are made of. So the laws that hold good with us will not hold so with them. Hence we should always reserve our judgments regarding them if we do not want to be rash.

We have already heard about Jarasandha as one of the most powerful monarchs of the period and as in inveterate enemy to Sri Krishna. He was in no way inferior to Kamsa in lawlessness, debauchery, and allsorts of vices. He was so cruel hearted that desiring ot be proclaimed the Emperor of India, he wanted to offer as sacrifice one hundred kings, and for this reason he was already able to procure eighty-six of them whom he kept in prisons like so many cattle. Sri Krishna wanted to save the live of all these kings, but in order to do that, Jarasandha must be put to death. He did not like to shed the blood of others on account of Jarasandha’s villainy. So, not wanting to meet him in a battle field, he took Bhima and Arjuna with him, want directly to Jarasandha hlf disguised, asked him for a duel and told him, he could select any one out the three Jarasandha preferred Bhima, seeing him to be stouter and stronger than the other tow , for he was a good wrestler .So a wrestling match took place the next day and continually lasted for fifteen days, until Jarasandha was killed by Bhima.Sri Krishna placed the young son of the dead monarch upon the vacant throne of his father and thus saved the lives of eighty-six kings and brought peace and purity to the earth.

His next work was to install Ydhishthira, the pattern of all virtues, as the sole Emperor of India, in the presence of all kings. This ceremony gos by the name of the Rajasuya Sacrifice. The four Pandava brothers, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Shadeva, at the head of large armies, went in four different directions to invite the friendly kings and sudue and then invite the unfriendly kings in the coming festival. They succeeded in inviting all the kings of India, and they were all present in Khandavaprastha on the appointed day, with enormous tributes. A grand meeting of the assembled kings and sages took pace on the installation day under a spacious pavilion , erected for the purpose , and in that meeting in was purposed to offer a token of especial regard to the wisest and best of men.  Yudhishthria, advised by Bhismacharya, unhesitatingly offered it to Sri Krishna. He wanted to instigate the assembled kings to put a stop to the sacrifice. So Sri Krishna fearing a general commotion that might prevent the inauguration of Yudhisthira, cut the matter short by killing the culprit on the spot and all things went on smoothly afterwards. Yudhishthira was formally proclaimed the Emperor of the whole of India in the presence of all kings . Thus Ssri Krishna succeeded in establishing the kingdom of righteousness by making Yhdhishthira the Emperor.

At the end of the sacrifice, when all the kings had gone away to their respective territories, Duryodhana with his party went to his won capital of Hasthinapura. But he fir of Envy, after seeng eh enormous wealth of ht Pandavas, bgan to corrod his heart. Hplannd to ruin Yudhishthira in a very bas manner . Sir Krishna had gone to Dvaraka, and a few days after Yudhishthira was invited by Duryodhana to a match at dice.The five brothers, with their wife Draupadi, went to the court of Dhritarashtra. The match began and Yudhisthira lost everything, one after another, nay, even his four brothers, and worst of all, h lost his own wife Draupadi, who, as soon as her husband lost her, was dragged to the court before the assembled kings and courtiers by the ruffian like brother of Duryodhana, although her condition at the time was such that no man ought to have gone even near her. The abominable wretch wanted to strip her of her cloth, but she was save by the miraculous intervention of Sir Krishna, who made her cloth, with which sh was vainly struggling, endless, so that the more the villain  drew the cloth away form her body, the more her cloth proved to be endless, till completely foiled in the attempt he sat down exhausted amidst the lord maledictions of all good men.

This miracle bettered the lot of the Pandavas a little and the dice match ended in banishing them with their wife to the forest for thirteen years, the last year of which they should live in perfect disguise, for it , at that time they were detected by any one of Duryodhana’s party , they would to live in the forest for thirteen years more.

Sri Krishna came to them when the Pandavas were living in the forest to console them. The very sight of him dispelled all their gloom. Then he took leave of them and went back to Dvaraka.

Once Duryodhana requested the hot-tempered Durvasa to be a guest of the Pandavas, with his hundreds of disciples after a day of fast. He complied and came to Yudhistrhira one midnight with his disciples asking for food. They were saved from the Brahmana’s curse by the miraculous intervention of Sri Krishna, who when they went to wash themselves in neighboring brook, after ordering food, so overloaded their stomachs that Durvasa did not dare meet Yudhishthria and ran away out of the forest.

Sir Krishna came once more to them, when they were staying in the forest of Kamyakha. The Pandavas(five brother) passed the thirteenth  year in such feet disguise in the court f Virata, the King of Matsyadesa, that none could detect them. At the expiration of the year, after totally routing Duryodhana, hwo at the head of a vast army , had come to rob Virata of his cattle, the Pandavas revealed themselves . Virata was very much pleased and gave his daughter Uttara in marriage to Arjuna’s son, Abhimanyu, Sir Krishna had brought the bridegroom from Dvaraka where he had been staying while his father and uncles were living in the forest. All the Yadavas had also accompanied Sri Krishna on this happy occasion. The news reached the court of Dhritarashtra tht the Pandavas had fulfilled their promise. A sudden consternation took possession of the heart of Duryodhana and his party. In the meantime Sri Krishna at the head or all the Yadavas, started for Dvaraka, after advising Yudhishthira to send overtures of peace to the court of Dhitarashtra. He preferred to settle the affairs of the Pandavas and the Kauravas as amicably as possible, not desiring to stain the earth with the blood of her children in unnecessary warfare. Yudhishthira however learned through his spies that Duryodhana was not at all for peace, but was collecting forces to give them a sound eating . So he also sent his brothers to different kings requesting their help in the impending war which seemed almost inevitable . Accordingly, Arjuna went to Dvaraka to ask Sir Krishna’s help, Duryodhana had taken his sat upon a thorn placed near the formr’s had.. Arjuna cam in and took his sat nr the ft of the leader of the Yadavas, who got up after a little while and saw Arjuna cam in and took his seat near the feet of the leader of the Yadavas. Who got up after a little while and saw Arjuna fist and Duryodhana nxt. So when help was asked by both of them, he wanted to help both. To one party he wanted to become an adviser  merely , and the other he offered to help with nine hundred thousands of warriors each one of whom was as good as himself, and he first asked Arjuna to choose one or the other of the two alternatives. As he had seen him first. Arjna prefeered to have him as an adviser, and Duryodhana was perfectly pleased to have the nine lakhs of best warriors and gladly returned home.

Sir Krishna and Arjuna after this came to Yudhisthria at the court of Virata , and at the latter’s request Krishna went to Hastinapura as an ambassador, to try a reconciliation between the two parties. The Divine Ambassador was received kindly by the blind king and his pious minister, but his wicked son and his evil-minded ministers, such as Karna, Dussassana and Sakuni wanted to imprison him although he was in the capacity of an ambassador. This plot was revealed and Sri Krishna, not deigning to accept Duryodhana’s , who did not want to part with even that portion of land that may be taken up by the point of a needle without fighting, was inexorable. So , Sri Krishna had to come back to Yudhishthira, On his way, he met Karna and revealed to him the secret of his birth stated that he was the eldest son of kunti born of the Sun-God when she had been a virgin, and if he preferred to come over to the side of the Pandavas, the Pious King Yudhishthira and his four heroic brothers would make him the emperor of Inida, after killing Duryodhana. Karna declined for although he was a great freidn to the wicked king still he was famous for his charity and truthfulness. This is called the policy of Bheda. In India Sama, Dana , Bheda and Danda ae the four policies which ware in vogue amongst her politicianas. Sama is peace. Dana is Concession. Bheda is Division, and Danada is Force. Sri Krishna tried the first three to the best of his power but he did not succeed. We have seen that he never liked to shed human blood unnecessarily. In him heart and brain, feeling and intellect, were wedded together.

He returned to Yudhishthria and conveyed to him the bad news. The two vast armies, composed of all the best warriors of India and numbering about eighteen Akshauhinis, of which eleven were on Duryodhana’s side and seven on Yudhishthira’s . met in the memorable field of Kurukshetra. On the eve of battle Arjuna, seeing that he would have to kill his nearest and dearest relatives in the war, got very much dejected, so much so that he determined not to fight and asked Sri Krishna’s advice about it. Sri Krishna, who preferred to be the charioteer and adviser of Arjuna, pointed out to him the error, that he was preferring pleasure in duty. The wicked should be killed , if they could not be brought round by any other mans, and the cause of the righteous should be supported even at the cost of one’s own life. Arjuna had forgotten this golden rule, and that was the reason why he did not want to fight. A man should sacrifice all personal comforts for duty’s sake. It was the duty of a Kshatriya to support a righteous cause, and by not wanting to do so he was going to prove to himself an undutiful man. Moreover, according to the sages the man can never be killed, it is the body, the dwelling house of the man, that wears out like a cloth. That is what is called death. The man himself is infinite and perfect, and hence inactive and desire less. Men who realise that clam and inactive nature self go by the name of wise men and the path which they take to realise this goal is called the Path of Wisdom or Jnana Marga. But no man can stay even for a moment without being active. With his food and drink he imbibes activity. 

There fore it is not at all easy for him to give up activity all at once, that his very nature. It is as good to advise him not to breathe, as to ask him to give up his activity. So a man should act without looking at the result, and that can only be done if he can get rid of the idea of “ I and mine,” that being the cause of all his bondage. But as every man is always actuated by some motive in all his actions, to act without looking at the results is next to an impossibility. Actions done with motives breed desires which bind a man; the fore, if a man wants to get rid of bondage “ to work he should have the right, but not to the fruits thereof” It is not  a very easy affair, as have just now been seen. So this path, which goes by the name of the Path of Action of Karma Marga, is as difficult to be followed as the previous Path of Wisdom.  

Man lives by desires alone, and without giving up desires there is no salvation for him , for life is nothing but a slavery to the senses. So a man should practice to die even before his death, that is, he should be dead to all passions and appetites and to all earthly charms. To do that , the is another path, the Path to Yoga, in which he should try to collect and concentrate all his vital energies in the middle of his eyebrows, forgetting all worldly concernments. When no thought agitates his mind when he forgets that he has a body, when he is conscious of nothing but perfect calmness, at that time he experiences within himself a peculiar kind of intense bliss which transcends the five senses and which can be grasped only by the clearest intellect. That is what is called the perfection Yoga. That is not a very easy affair for the men of the world who cannot even form the idea of giving up the earth, and whose idea of happiness is indissolubly connected with form, touch, taste, smell and sound. Then is there no path for a man of the world to enable him to realise perfection?

Arjuna , his attentive and obedient disciple and friend, asked to be blessed with a vision of his divine Form, and though his grace was able to see the universe in him. Not being able to beat h intense glory of the sight, prayed to Him to assume his previous form in which beauty and sweetness had been blended together, Sri Krishna complied and became a man again.

This is the path of love, intended for the saint and sinner, the wise and unwise alike. This is the path for all to realise perfection which is my own self. So fight without any scruple, fight not for yourself but for me who am righteousness itself.”

Arjuna fought, and with the help of Sri Krishna’s sag advice and the mettle of his heroic brothers, won the grate battle of Kurukshetra, where evil was sacrificed at the alter of good. With death of Duryodhana, the incarnation of evil, righteousness was again brought into prominence, the world get back its long-lost peace, the wicked people  had to seek out the nooks and corners of forests and mountain caves. The good were no longer in fear of tyranny of evil doers, the whose aspect of nature assumed a beautiful form , and joy flowed forth from the hearts of every living being in the earth, air and water. Sri Krishna felt that his task was done; and his next duty was to place Yudhishthira , the pure , on the throne of India.

But that saintly man, after the victory, was so much overpowered with compunction for the loss of all his kinsmen and friends who had been the greatest and most warlike men of India, that the very idea of sitting upon the throne after having shed so much noble blood he could not entertain and he requested Sri Krishna, his four younger brothers, the sage Vyasa his grandfather, and many request him to be formally inaugurates as the emperor of India, to allow him to lead a secluded life in some solitary corner of a forest in the hills. After a good deal of remonstrance he was at last prevailed upon to sit upon  the thorn by his advisers who had showed many clear and undeniable reasons based upon the authority of the Scripture.

Thus Sri Krishna, the King-maker, made Yudhisthira the emperor of all India and established the empire of righteousness. Where peace. Prosperity and happiness throve in abundance under his benign influence. India was saved from the tyrannical rule of the wicked, and placed under the care of the mildest and hokiest of men, the incarnation of purity , Yudhishthia, the bare mention of whose name purifies a man.

The sacrifice was performed in the grandest and best manner possible. Yudhishthira, the incarnation o riotousness, was now in the highest pinnacle of his glory whither he had been raised thought the irresistible will of the Lord of the whole universe, Bhagavan Sri Krishna. After this, the two divine brothers went back to Dvaraka to shower peace and blessing there for many days to come. Let us leave them her in their sweetest and most benign aspect.

He, the soul of the entire cosmos, the Divine Sri Krishna has given us the best and most universal religion. He has brought out and popularized the grand truths of the Upanishads in such an easy and attractive manner, that all men at the present time recognise the greatness and universal sympathy of his all-embracing hat. He could equally feel for all, a saint as will as a sinner. He is the best exponent of the Religion Eternal whose infinitely broad nature he has so clearly brought out that it will always stand unparalleled amongst alls the religions of the world. Can we be too grateful to him? Blessed indeed is that man who has learned to worship him with the flowers of faith, gad and love, for he has not only made himself one of the happiest individuals here but has earned and kept in store for himself eternal happiness hereafter. May the blessings of Sri Krishna alight upon all of us on this auspicious day of his nativity, and enable us to love him. May we regard him as the only support of our life, through His infinite grace and loving kindness? May peace and bliss be showered upon us from His unstringing and all-bestowing hands of Infinite Loge, logon www.smratvision.com!