As today is Krishna Janmashtmi, we can see the famous flute player in almost every news channel, on Instagram, Facebook posts, in the whats-app status of everyone. Right?
So to stay in the stream, I also planned to change the wallpaper of my laptop before I start my work and searched for lord Krishna’s pics on our current technical lord ‘Google’ and found as many as thousands of finest pics of Krishna on my screen.
I scrolled through the pictures to get the best among all.
The artists all over the world have depicted the lord as a toddler with lots of butter in his hand and tiny mouth, or a young smart boy with a flute in hands and peacock feather on his head, a lush green background and Radha-Krishna on a swing and in some paintings he is shown driving the chariot of Arjuna.
I tell you, there were many such beautiful paintings to confuse you to pick the best.
I was almost lost in searching the picture for my wallpaper, and what I found is that, in all those depictions, there was one common link.
Guess what?
The blue color of his skin.
Why is Krishna blue?
Ninety percent of those paintings show Krishna with totally blue in skin.
Here’s a logical dilemma.
Many poets express Krishna as dark or black skin and every artist has shown Krishna in blue color.
So suddenly I stopped searching and started thinking.
Oh yes, I have seen such pictures many times but never such a question raised in my mind that why Krishna is always shown blue and not in normal skin color? Even though he was an Avatar of Lord Vishnu, he was born as a human being, right?
I knew the story of ‘Samudra Manthan’ which believes that Lord Shiva drank the poison to save the world from destruction, as a result of that he has a blue throat and he gets another name as ‘Neelkanth’, which I find quite logical.
The same way I wanted the answer to Krishna’s blue color, so I googled it. (Maybe some of you already know the reason.)
And, I found diversity in answers to this question.
Some legends tell us that as a child, Lord Krishna drank poisoned milk given by a demon Putana aunty. And that had caused the bluish tinge in his skin.
Fine!
Some say that blue color has a special identity and that is why Lord Vishnu, Lord Sri Ram and Sri Krishna are always looked bluish.
And what’s so special about blue color?
Hmm! Blue is the color of all-inclusiveness. This means that anything vast, larger, and beyond your perception generally tends to be blue.
The Creator himself has given the maximum power of blue to nature i.e. the sky, the oceans, the rivers. It is based on this, that Krishna is shown as blue-skinned.
OKAY!
So in short, the blue color symbolizes the infinite, those who are blue are also infinite, and so is our Lord Krishna.
Now when I searched for the reason behind the dark or Shyam varna of our lord, I find one common answer from many write-ups as black is what you see when an object reflects no light.
When something attracts all the light, and nothing escapes, it’s black.
And that’s why Krishna is black because that’s what Krishna is – All-Attractive.
Understandable!
My search was over then, and I randomly picked one of the paintings of Krishna where he was driving a chariot of Arjuna.
I remember, my father used to tell me many mythological stories. And I remember many such stories of Hindu lords right from Lord Rama, Krishna to Saibaba, or Dattatreya. Among many such stories, I used to like to listen to stories of Krishna more than the other gods.
Can you guess the reason?
The reason behind was that being a child I always felt that the actor Nitish Bhardwaj in epic serial Mahabharat was the original Krishna and I loved his smiling face very much since then. Even those days, Arun Govil was real Rama for me.
Please forgive me for that, it was a child’s perception.
As I grew, I came out of that phase of superstition when I saw Deepika (who played Seeta) in the ad of Nirma Super.
I read some good books on Krishna, Karna, and Mahabharata. And I came to know many facts behind the war between Kauravas and Pandavas, where the lead role was played by Krishna.
Now correct me if I am wrong, I feel that if you compare Lord Rama and Krishna, you can find Krishna is much a pragmatic person. He is not as great as an idealist like Ram, but more a realist. I love lord Ram but I am always fascinated by the complexity of Krishna’s character.
Krishna’s role in the Kurukshetra war :
All of you know that Krishna tried his best to avoid the Kurukshetra war. He even made a very generous offer to Duryodhan on behalf of Yudhishthira. He tried very hard to convince Duryodhan that war is not good for both sides, but he failed. Once the war was declared, he believed in winning the war at any cost.
I appreciate this.
Krishna didn’t fight in war using any weapon but he was the main brain behind Pandava’s war strategy and played a key role in the killing of all commanders in chiefs of the Kuru army. He wanted Pandavas to win and was ready to pay any price for that.
Now tell me, do you find any difference in Krisna’s behavior as the war progressed?
During the war we see an altogether different side of Krishna, his manipulative side is exposed during crucial moments of the war. He believed that Pandava’s cause was right and only thing mattered to him was their victory.
But do you think he played tricks to defeat Kauravas?
To me, it’s a big YES!
Krishna knew what was exactly supposed to be done for the good of all.
I somewhere read that even Duryodhana, before dying on the battlefield, listed Krishna’s many misdeeds during the war and accused him of not fighting fairly. But Duryodhana and his team had already broken many laws of war before and hence Krishna also played real politics for the purpose.
So being manipulative is just a stretch of what Krishna already is.
That doesn’t make him bad, right? We have to understand that, Krishna was not being manipulative for his selfish gains but more for establishing the Dharma.
One must accept all the sides of Krishna, no matter how contrast or opposite they are.
You know what, whatever I have read about this famous flute player, I have come to the conclusion that people have divided his personality into many pieces. And take the piece which they like or are comfortable with and neglect all other aspects. I mean, Have you met GOD in your life, by any chance? No. But we feel him and love him the way we look at him.
Some only accept him as a cute child, some are happy with his raas-leelas, some want only his cuteness, some see him as a villain and criticize him for his actions during the war. I have also seen people worshiping only Radha and not Krishna.
I met him through all the books I read and the stories I heard. And among his many roles, personally, I love him as an adviser of Arjuna on the battlefield because I think in our confused lives, we need him not as a God but as a mentor or adviser more.
Let’s pray to the power:
वसुदॆव सुतं दॆवं कंस चाणूर मर्दनम् ।
दॆवकी परमानन्दं कृष्णं वन्दॆ जगद्गुरुम् |
Meaning: I bow to Lord Krishna, the son of Vasudeva, who was the cause of mother Devaki’s immense happiness, and the one who killed the wicked Kamsa and Chanoora, and who is the supreme teacher or the teacher of the universe.
Today, the world is celebrating his birthday, let’s celebrate his birthday by sharing thoughts or some unknown myths about this famous flute player or charioteer of Arjuna, or butter thief or Devaki’s eighth son or Great lover or Visnu’s eighth avatar or the creator or……..
Umm..out of words.
Even after thousands of years, his magic is not over. He is a real hero. Agree?
Happy Janmashtami to everyone. 🙂
Nice article!
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Great!.
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Nice
Thanks Shardu????
Was nice
Thanks Ganesh????
Superb Kimu
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Thanks for sharing the details