Mail Archive

The Rumor that Krishna in not a Person...

• Subject: The Rumor that Krishna in not a Person...
• From: Chris
• Date: Wed Dec 20 10:26:49 1995
• Message-Id: id661

>hello sorry i haven't communicated with u for awhile.. but i've been really

>busy with scfhool work.. i understand all that u have said.. and as a matter

>of fact i do read the Gita by his divine grace.. i understand that we are

>just souls who are independent and pure bliss within ourselves abd thus we

>should be dependent upon no other than Lord Krsna.. yet i have this demon

>in the form of a doubt.. i know that there i a God yet sometimes I ask

>myself how can there be a person that is the one who has created everything..

>that exists in this world.. its a question i don not like to ask but it is

>something that i must deal with and cannot be avoided.. please tell me how

>to specifically dispell this rumour..

>

>soon i will be going back home since school will be over so u can send me some

>mail at ...thanx..

>

>



Dear Chris



Hello. Hare Krishna!



Yes. It is an interesting problem. It is very difficult to understand the source

of everything is a person, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. Krishna

says in the Bhagavad-gita:



               manusyanam sahasresu

                  kascid yatati siddhaye

               yatatam api siddhanam

                  kascin mam vetti tattvatah



"Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those

who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows me in truth."



So it is not an easy thing to understand Krishna, the cause of all causes, is a

person. It is relatively easy to become liberated. To understand everything is

spiritual and blissful, to have some conception of the all-pervasive energy of

Krishna, but to understand a young cowherd boy playing with His friends in

Vrndavana could be the cause of all causes is difficult. It sometimes even

bewilders very great personalities like Lord Indra [the king of Heaven and the

controller of rain].



When Krishna was personally on the planet 5,000 years ago He spent His childhood

in Vrndavana, a village in India. He appeared like the other cowherd boys, but He

was special. Krishna has all the attractive qualities in full, He has all

knowledge, all strength, all beauty, all fame and all renunciation. So He became

the center of attention for everyone at Vrndavana.



In India it is the custom to worship various demigods [the demigods are in charge

of different departments in the material world: the wind, the rain, the ocean, the

moon, etc]. In Vrndavana the main business was dairy farming and growing grains

therefore they were very dependent on regular rain. So they used to hold a very

big yajna [sacrifice] every year to satisfy Indra. The idea was to please Indra so

he would supply regular rain. But Krishna wanted to establish the fact it is not

necessary to worship the demigods separately, for they are all part and parcel of

Krishna. The example is supplying food to the body or water to a tree. The food is

supplied to the stomach and the water to the roots of the tree. In this way the

whole body [or tree] is satisfied. It is not that you have to water every part of

the tree separately or feed every part of the body. Simply by supplying water to

the root or food to the stomach all the parts of the tree or body are

automatically satisfied. Similarly simply worshipping Krishna automatically

satisfies all the demigods [and everyone else in the creation as well].



So Krishna asked his father to stop the Indra Yajna and instead perform a

sacrifice for the local Brahmans and Goverdhana Hill... Because everyone was so

attracted to Krishna in Vrndavana, although he was only a boy of about seven years

old at that time, they agreed and stooped the Indra Yajna and instead performed

the Yajna for the local Brahmans and Goverdhana Hill...



Lord Indra was watching all this, and he became very angry. Although Indra is one

of Krishna's devotees, he couldn't recognize this little cowherd boy called

Krishna in Vrndavana was his worshipable Lord. He was very annoyed that Krishna

had convinced the residents of Vrndavana not to offer the traditional Indra-

Yajna... He called for the most vicious clouds and ordered them to inundate

Vrndavana with water... So there was a huge flood. Everyone was looking to Krishna

to save them from the wrath of Indra. So Krishna, appearing like a seven year old

cowherd boy, picked up Goverdhana Hill with the little finger of His left hand and

used it as a giant umbrella to shelter the residents of Vrndavana from the rain.

He held up the hill like this for seven days and by this time Indra, his plans to

drown all the residents of Vrndavana having been frustrated, could understand

Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his worshipable Lord... So he

stopped the rain and came down to the earth and bowed down before Krishna and

begged forgiveness for his offense and offered Krishna very nice prayers. It was

an incredible sight to see, Indra, the King of heaven with all his opulent

clothing and kingly dress bowing down in front of Krishna, who appeared as a seven

year old cowherd boy...



So it is not an easy thing to understand, even very great demigods become

bewildered, but it is a fact. Krishna is a person and everything emanates from

Him. It is our practical experience in this world as well. Even though I don't

know your parents, I know you have a mother and a father, everyone has a mother

and a father, and they are also people. You don't come from anything impersonal.

So if you trace it right back to the beginning you will find Krishna, the Supreme

Personality of Godhead. He is the original person, He says in the Bhagavad-gita

(10.8):



                      aham sarvasya prabhavo

                         mattah sarvam pravartate

                      iti matva bhajante mam

                         budha bhava-samanvitah



"I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from

Me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in My devotional service and worship

Me with all their hearts."



The rumor you have heard, that ultimately everything is impersonal, is a very

strong one. Mostly people prefer this idea to accepting a personal form of God. It

is because we have come here to the material world to try and become God

ourselves. We want to be the controller, we want to be powerful... So we prefer to

believe there is no one more powerful than us... But it is maya, illusion. God,

Krishna, is a person, the Supreme Person. He has all the personal qualities you

and I have also. He gets angry sometimes, He likes to fight sometimes, He has His

friends, His parents, everything. Of course Krishna is never born, so how could He

have parents? But some of His devotees want to have Krishna as their child, so He

appears as their child. It is called yoga-maya. It is a bewildering potency of

Krishna. We are generally bewildered by maha-maya, the material energy. Maha-maya

gives us the impression we can be happy independently from Krishna but yoga-maya

allows a devotee to accept Krishna as his son and Krishna to accept a devotee as

His father. The devotee doesn't know Krishna is the Supreme Personality of

Godhead, that would spoil the relationship of father and son... It is a very

subtle thing and you will come to understand it more and more as you chant: Hare

Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama

Rama, Hare Hare and read Srila Prabhupada's books.



I recommend you get "Krishna Book". It is an incredible book. It describes

Krishna's pastimes when He was physically present on this planet 5,000 years ago.

He spent 125 years on earth and "Krishna Book" describes what He did... It may

sound a bit like mythology when you first read it, but things were very different

on this planet 5,000 years ago. Our western historians can only give details back

to about 1,000 BC, prior to that they have very little knowledge. So "Krishna

Book" is real. It describes Krishna killing great demons, and in those days the

demons were actually great mystics also, they had great yogic power and they could

transform themselves into any form they desired. So such things are possible.



Anyhow read it and see what you think. I have one Krishna Book story, "The Killing

of the Agasura Demon" on the WWW at:



     /~balarama/a001.html



There are also other things off:



     /~balarama/wkrishna.html



But I suggest you get the book as well...



Anyhow have a very Krishna conscious Christmas and New Year.



Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!



Madhudvisa dasa

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