Sri Krishna, Significance of His form and incarnation

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Sri Krishna is typically represented as being either blue or black, with yellow

clothing, a flute, a discus, and sometimes a conch.

 

What does this representation signify?

 

Sri Krishna represents the personification of the Supreme Brahman incarnated as

a man for the purpose of restoring dharma to the world. What is 'dharma'? It is

the code of conduct prescribed that sustains the equilibrium of the world, for

the good of the world (its preservation, sustenance, etc.). He is also the

restorer of the sacred knowledge - the science of yoga - which he himself

indicates was first taught to Vivasvat, who taught this sacred science to Manu,

and so on, in a succession of royal sages. With the long passage of time, the

sacred science of yoga was lost. He incarnated to once more restore this sacred

science, by means of the teachings in the Bhagavad Gita. He is the Jagat-Guru

(World Teacher). His body is typically represented as either blue (sky) or

black (formless) to indicate the nirguna (formless) aspect of the supreme

reality - that which cannot be described or known by the intellect. The blue

being of the color of space,

represents consciousness; while the black represents that which has no form

whatsoever. That being the case, the question arises as to how can one 'know'

Him? This is why he wears the yellow clothing. Yellow signifies 'knowledge'.

This implies that he is both possessing 'all knowledge' as well as the fact that

one can know him 'through knowledge' (i.e., inference). Inference means to make

an educated guess as to the presence of something, based on co-existing or

co-operative conditions. For instance, one can know/infer the presence of fire,

when one sees smoke rising from afar. So how can one infer the paramatma?

Krishna carries with him several objects: a flute, a discuss, and a conch.

These have great significance, aside from being practically useful in his

physical mission as an incarnation. The flute represents his mastery of yoga,

i.e., as explained previously, it represents His ability to control the flow of

prana in the jeeva. It also

symbolizes the Omkara nada. The Omkara nada is known as the 'unstruck sound'

as explained previously - but wherefrom does the sound arise? All sounds have a

source, and the source of this nada is said to be the flute of Krishna.

Likewise, krishna carries a conch (in battle). The conch, known as Panchajana,

also resounds with the Omkara nada - but it has a two fold manifestation - that

of granting success (to Arjuna, or one who surrenders to the Will of Krishna)

and that of destruction (of Duryodhana, or one who goes against His will). From

the point of view of yoga, the Pnchajana which resounds with the sound of

Omkara, causes all Prana to " bow down " before it. In yoga, the process of

dhyana on Omkara is to cause the prana, which flies along the sushumna nadi to

be absorbed into the Omkara itself, but initially, it expresses itself as a

simple attraction. That is, prana bends towards the Omkara. This is the

significance behind doing 'ashtanga

namaskara' as it physically represents the yogic process by which all the

different pranic currents flowing along all the 16,000 nadis (Gopis) are caused

to 'bow down' to their source, the Omkara nada, arising from the Anahata. The

sound produced by blowing the Conch shell is important as it is a clarion call

to 'arise and fight' (against the tamasic tendencies of laziness, sloth,

inertia, and lack of alertness, for instance, in meditation - but also in daily

life when performing one's obligatory duties). All of these sounds and sensoral

impressions represent secondary 'evidence' by which one can infer the reality

and Truth of the underlying source. Finally, there is the peacock feather in His

crown. This symbolizes the multi-spectral aura that surrounds the yogi, who

successfully uses knowledge, yoga, and sadhana to tune him/herself with Krishna

- in a yogi in which all the chakras are fully active, the spectra is said to be

rich and takes on the

shape of the peacock feather's varied colors, each color arising from a

different chakra respectively. These can be intuited through the Ajna chakra,

hence the location of the peacock feather between the forehead and the sahasrara

(thousand-petalled lotus situated at the brahma-randra). Once tuned in to the

flute of Krishna, one is inevitably drawn towards " Krishna Consciousness " - or

that state in which there is no separate thought of one's self - a complete

state of surrender of the jeeva by means of laya yoga (absorption through mystic

sound produced by His flute). So the very form of Krishna encodes the entire

science of yoga: dhyana, inference, knowledge, kundalini process, and awakening

of the supra-sensoral energy centers (the shad chakras) that leads to a state of

Yoga (communion) by which the jeevatma is linked with the paramatma, and

ultimately merged as One. So Krishna's instructions (Bhagavad Gita) forms the

basis for Jnana yoga, His

form comprises the basis for Bhakthi yoga, and His yogic self-less

actions/past-times comprise the means to understand Karma yoga, and these three

meditated upon and practiced together in totality comprise the pathway to attain

Him, the Surpreme being. One must attempt to use all the paths, as they are

complimentary and help one to overcome obstacles within the other paths; if only

one path is followed (and usually when someone follows only one path, it is

because they are not really following the path they think they are following),

there is every likelihood that one will be misled into further delusion. To

avoid this, one must be ever vigilant (intellectually), ever feeling

(emotionally), and ever acting (physically) and thereby following all three

paths, which are ultimately only one path. Those who follow the path of

intellect without the other two, end up playing intellectual games and go

nowhere. Those who follow the path of emotional feeling

end up misguided as they are not able to recognize where they are going and can

be easily led into fickleness, and those who follow the purely physical path,

can become arrogant, ritualistic, dogmatic, and purely materialistic (seeking

material ends) and easily deluded into thinking that they are perfoming

'selfless' actions (when in fact, they do them for self-glorification or selfish

aims) and ultimately forgetful of the purpose of their existence.

 

 

 

yada yada hi dharmasya

glanir bhavati bharata

abhyutthanam adharmasya

tadatmanam srjamy aham

" Whenever there is a decline in righteousness, and a rise in unrighteousness,

there I manifest myself as an embodied being. " Although 'dharma' is typically

translated as 'righteousness' or 'religiousness', it in fact has a greater

meaning, and that is 'action under right knowledge'. Dharma is an action

performed by means of 'right knowledge' while adharma is an action performed

under 'delusion' - it is not the action itself that is important - it is whether

it is done in a manner that is " Nishkamya " (desireless) or not - desireless

action is non-action, whereas action done with a fruit in mind, leaves a stain

on the soul that leads to further karma - perpetuating the soul's descent into

the hell of samsaara (cyclic and repetitive birth, bondage, and limitation which

are the causes of all sorrow). When is delusion at its peak? When all knowledge

of the Self and its attainment is lost, and people are bound to the sensual /

materialistic knowledge of the

world - that is, they have forgotten that the world of experience, is in fact

nothing but His maya. The false philosophy that states that the objeective

world of things is the source of everything is the basis for delusion. Out of

mercy and compassion for our being caught up in the illusion (seeing a snake in

a rope), He takes birth to instruct the Truth again and again. Hence, he is the

Jagat Guru - for all eternity,. so long as creation itself exists. He is both

the source and preservation of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal dharma.

 

Jaya Guru Datta.

Jaya Guru Datta.

Jaya Guru Datta.

 

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Gurorangripadme ManaScenna Lagnam tata: kim! tata: kim! tata: kim! tata: kim!?

Sarva Kartha, Sarva Dhartha, Sarva Hartha, Mangalam!

Satchidananda, Satchidananda, Satchidananda Mangalam!