Posted on: 18 Nov 2019
Krishna is said to have been about twelve years old when He danced with the Gopikās and had sex with them. How is this possible? In any case, Rāma is the best since He is not surrounded by such controversies. What do You say?
Swami replied: Everyone seems to be highly interested in the first twelve years of the life of Krishna. Based on it, they call Him a thief and a characterless person, even though we have clearly given the real explanation for His behaviour. His apparently negative behaviour was related to the path of nivṛtti, in which sages, who were highly advanced spiritually and had tried to attain God for millions of lives, were tested by Him through such behaviour. Why is nobody bothered about the rest of Krishna’s life of 113 years in which He lived just like Rāma? Of course, it is true that Krishna married several girls. But in every case, the reason for the marriage was the burning desire of the girl. His involvement with the married Gopikās was also due to the extreme devotion-filled desire of the Gopikās and not His own desire. In any case, polygamy was ethically allowed for kings in that time (Rājāno bahuvallabhāḥ). So, Krishna did not violate any ethical rule by marrying many women. You need not blame Krishna for adopting certain tricks in the Mahābhārata war. Even Rāma killed Vāli after hiding behind a tree. One cannot object to such tricks since the ends justify the means. If the end is justified, the means adopted can be crooked. The critical requirement is that the goal must actually be justified without any trace of partiality to favour oneself. God is never partial. He is only partial to justice. So, to protect justice, both Rāma and Krishna adopted certain tricks.
God is omnipotent and can do anything at any age. How come nobody comments about a seven-year-old boy lifting a huge mountain on His tender little finger? When the boy Krishna so effortlessly lifted the Govardhana hill at the age of seven, why could He not have had sex at the age of twelve? Later on, Krishna is also known to have married 16,108 girls and have produced ten sons and one daughter through each wife! These examples clearly prove that He was the visible human form of the unimaginable God. Did you know that even God Rāma started His family life with Sita at the age of 12 years? In the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇam, Sita says that she was eighteen years old and Rāma was twenty-five years old while leaving Ayodhya for the forest (Mama bhartā mahātejaḥ, vayasā pañcaviṃśakaḥ, Aṣṭādaśahi varṣāṇi, mama janmani gaṇyate). She also says that she stayed in Ayodhya for twelve years after marriage (Uṣitvā dvādaśa samāḥ ikṣvākūṇām niveśane). This means that, according to her, Rāma must have been thirteen years old when He got married to Sita. In another verse, just before the marriage of Rāma, King Daśaratha told sage Viśvāmitra that Rāma being just twelve years old was too young to fight demons (Ūnaṣoḍaśa varṣo me Rāmo...). In this verse, the meaning of ūna is to be taken as one quarter (of sixteen) less than sixteen (16 – 4 = 12) and not one year less than sixteen (16 – 1 = 15) (Pādena ūnatvaṃ natu varṣeṇa). One quarter of 16 is called a pāda, which is four years. Only then does Daśaratha’s statement nearly coincide with the information given by Sita. The one-year difference between the ages of Rāma as stated by Sita and Daśaratha is not significant since there are two well-known ways of expressing age. The first one is to say that Rāma had completed twelve years of age and the other is to say that He was running thirteen. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇam thus, clearly puts the age of Rāma at the time of His marriage at twelve (or thirteen).
The fact that God Rāma and God Krishna were omnipotent is of course the most important. But apart from it, we must also understand that there are significant physical differences related to health, size and longevity, between human beings in the various ages. In general, there is a gradual decline in the physical characteristics of human beings from the Tretā Yuga of Rāma to the Dvāpara Yuga of Krishna and further to the present Kali Yuga. In the Tretā Yuga, human beings are said to be as tall as a śāla tree (Shorea robusta) (Śālaprāṃśuḥ mahābhujaḥ). So, we should not try to assess the health and physical capabilities of people in those ancient generations from our point-of-view since we are like Lilliputs before them. Their health and physical capabilities were tremendous, compared to us and we need not doubt this point. But even if we find some things hard to believe, the omnipotence of God Rāma and God Krishna alone is sufficient to explain any impossibile event.
It is quite common to form a negative impression of Krishna based on His record of having had illegitimate affairs with the Gopikās. Considering the relations between Krishna and the Gopikās as illegitimate affairs is a complete misunderstanding. But people today, still continue to have that misunderstanding even after the nivṛtti-background of those incidents has been clearly and repeatedly explained. If the liberal people of today, can still not understand this point, even after such a clear explanation, what about those ancient times, when society was conservative and no explanation of Krishna’s behaviour was available! Every king was hesitatant to give his daughter in marriage to Krishna. Even Rukmiṇī who was interested in marrying Krishna, was strongly opposed by her brother, Rukmi on the grounds of Krishna’s behavior. Finally, Krishna married Rukmiṇī since she sent Him a message that she would die if He did not marry her. Even Satrājit unnecessarily doubted Krishna due to Krishna’s past record of stealing butter. He thought that Krishna must have stolen His divine diamond!
| Shri Dattaswami | Gopikas Nivrutti Raajaano bahuvallabhaah Mahabhaarata Ashtaadashahi varshaani, mama janmani ganyate, mama bhartaa mahaatejaah, vayasaa pamchavimshakah samaa dvaadasha tatraaham Ayodhya Dasharatha samaa dvaadasha tatraaham uunashodasha varsho me Raamo uuna paadena uunatvam natu varshena Saala (Terminalia Arjuna) saalapraamshuh mahaabhujah Rama Rukmini Rukmi Satraajit Vaalmiiki Ramayanam