Posted on: 26 Aug 2005
God alone can preach about Himself: The Veda says that the Lord alone knows about Himself (Brahmavit Brahmaiva). The Gita says that nobody other than the Lord can know the Lord. Some people misinterpret this Vedic statement as “He who knows Brahman becomes Brahman”. But this interpretation contradicts the Gita because the Gita says that nobody other than the Brahman can know Brahman. The conclusion of this is that the Lord alone can preach about the Lord or Himself. Therefore from this point of view also the Lord has to come down in human form to preach about Himself. When the Lord preaches, He preaches the concept very clearly. Based on this knowledge, you will naturally conclude that the Preacher is the Lord Himself. This is inevitable with any human incarnation.
Now you cannot tolerate this because you misunderstand Him thinking that in His preaching He deliberately concluded that He is the Lord. You will think that He is the biggest cheater. You will be the happiest person if His divine knowledge concludes that you are the Lord in human form. Then you will praise such knowledge. The Advaita scholar solves this problem of your egoism and jealousy by saying that both he and you are the Lord. It is a compromise in the spiritual business. Unfortunately Lord Krishna did not know such norms of business. Throughout the Gita He repeatedly emphasized that He alone is the Lord in human form and He preached very clearly about the Lord. He did not say even once that Arjuna was Brahman like the present-day Advaita scholar. He asked Arjuna to salute to Him, to meditate upon Him and to serve Him (Manmanabhava—Gita). If Arjuna were Brahman, Brahman cannot salute to Brahman.
If you have any doubt about the preacher being the Lord, you can analyse His knowledge. First you must see whether He is quoting the scriptures as a support while introducing the concepts. Then you must apply the faculty of your analysis and see whether His interpretations are logical. When you are satisfied with His divine knowledge in all angles and if such knowledge indicates Him as the Lord you must accept Him. If you are unable to do this, you are covered by jealousy and egoism. Shankara says that the knowledge to identify Brahman (Brahma Jnana) should be heard only after purifying your mind from egoism and jealousy. Arjuna surrendered to Krishna by falling at His feet without any trace of egoism and jealousy. Therefore Arjuna, the receiving medium, was very congenial for Krishna to say that He was the Lord. Except on this one occasion, Krishna never told anybody that He was the Lord. Throughout His life He behaved only as a human being and acted according to the role. This is the state of Advaita of Shankara in which the human being in the human incarnation identifies with the Lord. It is like the wire identifying with the electric current passing through it. Wherever you touch a live wire, you get a shock because the current and the wire are inseparable. When the Lord enters the human body, which is a composite of the three bodies, since all the three bodies are integrated, they are identified with the Lord. When the current is flowing in a wire, which is an alloy of three metals, each metal is charged and identified with the current. Similarly when the Lord enters the human being consisting of the Atman (causal body), the Jiva (subtle body) and Deha (external gross body)—all the three are identified with the Lord. Therefore the Jiva says that he is Ishwara (Lord).
When a deserving devotee like Arjuna was seen, Jesus also declared that He and His Father were one and the same. When Jesus saw a devotee who was slightly affected by jealousy and egoism, Jesus came down by one step saying that He was the Son of God. The word ‘Son’ indicates that He is different from the God but the same spirit is present in both like the same blood in the father and the son. This means that He is different and smaller than God but at the same time has the same essence. It is like the relationship between the mighty ocean and the tiny water-drop. The father is the major component and the son is the minor component. They resemble each other qualitatively but differ quantitatively. This is the Vishishtha Advaita of Ramanuja. When Jesus met a devotee who was fully bacterialised [plagued] by jealousy and egoism, Jesus told him that He was a humble messenger of God. This is the Dvaita of Madhva. Therefore the human incarnation will declare its level based on the level of the receiver. Mohammad told His disciples that He is the messenger of the Lord. Thus there is a gradual degradation of spiritual obedience and the gradual growth of jealousy and egoism. Jesus stands as a transition bridge between the Advaita of Krishna and the Dvaita of Mohammad.
Buddha introduced social service in which you have to serve humanity like a servant. This is a training course given to serve the human form in general so that in course of time you will serve the human form of the Lord. Lord Krishna also emphasised on this training in the Gita. Service should be without any desire according to Buddha and this is the karma yoga taught by Krishna in the Gita. When you are trained in doing such selfless service to humanity, you will naturally do the same selfless service to the Lord in human form too. Selfless service is indicated by the word Dharma. Humanity is indicated by the word Sangha. The Lord in human form is indicated by the word Buddha. The words Dharma and Sangha indicate the training to serve the humanity without any selfishness. The statement “Buddham Sharanam…” denotes service to the human incarnation after this training in the same way. This is the essence of the three statements “Buddham…, Dharmam…, Sangham Sharanam Gachchami”. Shankara also formulated this training in order to remove the repulsion to the human form. He asked people to serve all human beings, treating each human being as Brahman. He included your self in the word Brahman so that you will not have egoism and jealousy to humanity. When the training is over and the repulsion to the human form ceases the ripened souls served Him as the human incarnation of Shankara [Lord Shiva]. To such disciples He told “Shivah Kevaloham” which means that Shankara Himself and He alone is Lord Shiva.
Krishna is not mentioned in the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu because in His place Balarama was mentioned. Krishna was said to be the fullest incarnation (Paripurnatamah Saakshaat). Lord Vishnu indicates only one quality that is Satvam. Lord Krishna exhibited all the three qualities namely Satvam, Rajas and Tamas. He showed Satvam and attracted devotees. At the same time He showed Rajas and Tamas and repelled the [false] devotees. He was an incarnation of Datta, who is the form of the three qualities in equilibrium indicated by the three full faces. When the devotees ran away by the exhibition of the bad qualities, He laughed at them calling them as ignorant fools. He says “Tribhirgunamayaih”, which means “This fool does not understand that I am beyond these three qualities and that I am untouched by any quality. Any soul in this world is only a composite of these three qualities in different proportions and therefore cannot cross the influence of these three qualities”.
Krishna asked Dharmaraja to tell a lie but Dharmaraja refused. Dharmaraja was taken to the hell for not following the Lord. The Lord said that one should even cross justice [for the sake of the Lord] because whatever pleases Him is justice. Krishna appeared as a liar in this scene. He appeared as a thief when He stole butter. He appeared fond of girls when He danced in Vrindavanam. He appeared as the protector of justice in the Kurukshetra war. He appeared as the topmost divine preacher while preaching the Gita. This multi-dimensional personality of Lord Krishna shows that He is the Creator who is totally untouched by these items of creation. The cosmos is His playground and the human beings are the audience of the play and all the qualities are the tools of His divine game. We must constantly remember that the playground, audience, co-players and the tools of the game are just His imagination and that He is deriving the entertainment from His imaginary world. The word Krishna is derived from the verb ‘Krish’, which means that He attracts His devotees towards Him. Rama means the Lord who entertains Himself. Krishna means the Lord who wants to give the same entertainment to His close devotees. For this purpose He attracts His devotees towards Himself. He likes to enjoy this divine game along with His close devotees. It is just like somebody goes to see a movie along with His family members. He says that only one in millions can recognise Him (Kaschit Mam—Gita). This means that a few liberated souls, who are always associated with Him in the upper world come down into this world as His devotees and only those few devotees can recognise Him. Therefore all His life history on this earth is the divine drama played by Him along with His troop.
This discourse is the divine butter, which is being offered as prasadam (offering) to the devotees of the Lord. It removes egoism and forms the basis for receiving the eternal grace of the Lord. The [physical] butter, which you are taking as prasadam on this occasion is increasing the fat in your body, and raising your egoism and cholesterol that brings serious illness. Today you are breaking the pot containing butter, which is hanging up at a height. [On this festival of Krishnashtami, a pot containing butter and other items is hung at a height and people make a human pyramid to reach the pot, break it. Then they distribute the butter in it to devotees present. This is to remind people of the childhood pranks of Lord Krishna in which He would come into peoples’ houses with His friends and steal butter kept in pots, hung from the roof]. Do you know the inner meaning of this? Lord Krishna used to break the pot containing the butter. The maidens used to store butter [wealth of the cowherds], which was in excess of their requirements. They wanted the Lord to not take this excess butter. In fact they themselves should have offered it to the Lord. The reason is that this entire world is the wealth of the Lord. You can take whatever you need. But you are taking it in excess and storing for generations together. The Lord does not permit taking more wealth and therefore you are considered as a thief (Stenaevashah, Yavanartha Udapane—Gita; Maagrudhah Kasya sviddhanam—Veda). The maidens used to take the excess butter to the city of Mathura and purchase some luxurious ornaments. The Lord broke their pots and the butter in it would fall in the soil and go waste. Therefore when you store money for luxuries and for the future generations, without offering it to the Lord in human form like Krishna, it will go to waste by the will of the Lord. Either it will be stolen or it will go to hospitals [to pay your hospital bills, implying that you will have health problems] or it will be wasted by the undeserving future generations.