Hrishikesa

Abstract

Lord Krishna is hailed as a God. In fact, he was deified during his own life time. His deeds are an integral part of Indian folklore. His crowning glory is the Bhagavad Gita. It is considered as an eternal source of wisdom and spiritual guidance. Yet, his story is riddled with controversies and logical inconsistencies. As a result, there is a progressive decline in the faith accorded to Lord Krishna and his deeds. Today, Lord Krishna is more of a myth and his teachings are believed to be beyond the ken of ordinary mortals. The author opines that this is the result of projecting Lord Krishna as a reincarnate of the supreme being. We tend to obey his diktats rather than try and emulate him.

This work is a scientific examination of the life of Lord Krishna as an evolution from a gifted child to what confirms to the attributes of the supreme being. It examines the societal framework under which this evolution was made both possible and imperative. Such an approach shifts the focus from the end-result to the process of arriving at the result. Lord Krishna is the end-result of an intellectually challenging societal process that was fuelled by a galaxy of eminent individuals. A rigorous practice of Raja Yoga and Manthra Yoga could have been the catalyst. The collective failures of intellect and the corrective measures resorted to eventually shaped the mind of an individual called Lord Krishna. The author hopes that a study of this kind would lead to the restructuring of societal frameworks leading to the production of better minds.