krishnas speech at the battleground chapter ten

Arjuna is quite changed in his outlook in the meantime. He addresses Krishna as one who is superior to the Cosmic Being. Krishna is the ultimate retreat for all things in the world. He is the Holy Spirit. He is the eternal. He is the divine. He is the first cause. He is beginningless. He is the almighty. All the sagas bear witness to that. Even Vyasa testifies that. Thus Vyasa the author of the Mahabharata and of the characters Arjuna and Krishna is referred to. At once the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna becomes larger than the life in the fiction; they become real to us. Now Arjuna also begins to believe in what Krishna says. Truly, neither gods nor demons know who Krishna is. Krishna, the omniscient alone knows that. He knows himself directly. Arjuna asks what is the secret of the spell that pervades the whole world. Arjuna wants to hear it again from Krishna. Repetition does not wear him out. This is a clear signal to speak again what Krishna said earlier. But repetition is a must when someone gives a talk. Or else the hearers may not be able to gather up all the threads of thought. If it were a written treatise repetition was not necessary. The reader can read again what he read before. So Arjuna wants to hear from Krishna over again who Krishna is. The speaker Krishna himself becomes the subject- matter of his speech. We want to know him for his own sake forgetting the battle-field of the worldly life. God is indeed a wonderful word which never becomes a cliche with use even though it has a referent only. To very few people the word has a signified. But when god speaks of himself it is time and again. Krishna says that he lives as the stay in every human heart. He is the beginning, the middle and end of all the world. He is the sun among the luminaries. Originally the glare of the sun burnt everything it saw. So, His wife could not come near him. The sun could not have children. Hence the one sun became twelve sons. The vernal equinox takes place then. The god mother Aditi was the mother of sun and other gods. Indra is the king of gods. Krishna is Indra among the gods. The gods are ever in strife with the demons. The demons are the step- brothers of the gods. They are the step-children of Diti, co- wife of Aditi. Once gods and demons fought among themselves and the demons were massacred. Heavy at heart, Diti prayed for a strong child who can overwhelm the gods. Diti tried to observe austere penance. She was carrying. But she had her lapses. Indra took the advantage of it. He secretly stole into his mother’s womb and cut the foetus into seven pieces with thunder. Thus seven children were born. They are the wind-gods. They ride the flash of light. Lightning is their wife. They are the harbingers of the hail-storm and rain.They always act in collusion with Indra- the god of rains. They often cover the sun with clouds. Krishna is Marichi among the wind gods, Krishna is the moon in the milky way. There are twenty- seven constellations which men take in account for fortune-telling. Moon is the husband of these twenty-seven constellations. The sun is the soul of man. Moon is his mind. Indra is the king of the senses. The wind gods are the vital air. The Vedas are the inexhaustible fund of all knowledge. Krishna is Samaveda among them. There are eleven senses including the mind and the intellect. Krishna is the mind of man. There are eleven rudras. They were the children of the creator. As soon as they were born they shook the universe with hullabaloos. Krishna is Sankara among these rudras. Kubera is an ogre. He is the god of accumulation of wealth. Krishna is Kubera among the ogres. There are eight vasus. They are all attendants of Indra, the king of gods. They had stolen the wonder-cow that gives every thing one desires from the hermitage of a sage. They had to be born for that. The great Bhisma the grandsire of the Kurus is one of those vasus. There are numerous mountains on earth. Krishna is the Mount Meru among them. The mountain stretches for more than 84,000 miles. The mountain ranges of Himavan, Hemakut and Nishad lie in the south of it. Neel, Set and Sringi mountain ranges are in the north of it. Krishna is Brihaspati among the priests. Brihaspati is Jupiter in the sky. He rides the chariot of truth. Truth is his bow also. He has seven mouths and seven rays. His tongue is sweet. He has sharp horns. His colour is a mix of red and golden. He is the priest and chief advisor of gods. in war, Krishna is Skanda, the Field Marshal of heaven. He is the son of an ascetic god who is no other than the great god of destruction. The ascetic god was submerged in the meditation of the Supreme Being. Gods implored the god of love of love to charge him with amatory passion. The god of love shot his shaft at the ascetic. Awake from the meditation the ascetic burnt him in a flare of wrath. It is the union of the god of wrath with the daughter of the Himalayas that gave birth to the divine general Skanda. Thus Krishna identifies himself with all the gods of the Vedas and the ancient myths. The catholicity of his mind compasses the whole of the past. Krishna accepts everything and discards nothing. Krishna claims himself to be Bhrigu among the sages. Once the sages elect ed Bhrigu as their leader to ho and ascertain who id the greatest among the gods, Bhrigu went to Krishna’s place. He found Krishna in deep sleep. He took offence. In a huff he kicked the god. Our Krishna awake from asleep and saw his own mistake. He apologized to the sage repeatedly and promised in penitence to keep the footprints of the sage on his chest through all futurity. No wonder that Bhrigu will be ever dear to Krishna. Krishna can see a friend in the enemy. Every word in the language is a cliché. Aum is the one sound which has neither referent nor signified. So its signification is cosmic. It is the primordial Word. Krishna is the Aum in he speech; it could be explored to forge fresh words to create fresh thought that are not chained to human reason. Krishna is the Pipul among the trees. He is the Narada among the seers in heaven. Narada always carries a harp with him. He is a traveling mendicant always singing in praise of Krishna on the harp. There are faeries who are full of songs. Krishna is Chitrarath among them. Chitrarath rides the chariot of coal- fire. He is a friend of Arjuna. He gave Arjuna the faculty to see anything whatever in the world. He is Kapil among those who are one with Krishna. He once killed 60000 princes of the king Sagara, of the poisonous, in a fury. Krishna is the horse Uchaisraba. Krishna is Airabat among the elephants. Both the horse and the elephant rose from the seas when they were churned by the gods and the devils. Both of them belong to Indra the king of gods. Among men Krishna is the king. Among the sacrifices Krishna is the repetition of the name. Men are of different dispositions. So Krishna has prescribed different kinds of sacrifice. But the repetition of the name is the easiest of all. One can do it at heart always even if has to remain busy with worldly affairs. mong the inert, Krishna is the Himalayan mountain. Parvati , the mother of the general of the gods-Skanda was the daughter of the Himalayas. Krishna did not mention Mount Meru as inert. Mountains had wings earlier. Perhaps the Meru Mountain had its wings still. It was with thunder that Indra destroyed the wings of the mountain. . Among the weapons Krishna is thunder. Indra wields it. He used it to vanquish the demons. There was a sage named Dadhichi. He voluntarily died. Thunder was made of the bones of the sage. We must die ourselves to discover the thunder that can route the demons. Then only the higher self in us, the superman will be born. Krishna is the wish-fulfilling cow that was once stolen by vasus from the hermitage of a sage. Another time a great king wanted to take it away by force. .Among the causes of procreation, he is the god of love. The god of love was burnt to ashes by the ire of the ascetic god- Skanda’s father. Later he incarnated as the son of Krishna. Among serpents, Krishna is Vasuki and holds the earth on its hoods. The gods used him as the rope to bind the Himalayas that was the rod with which the gods and demons churned the ocean. Krishna is also Ananta among the snakes on whose hoods he takes repose when the world melts into casual water during the hours of destruction with the passing away of the creator’s day. Krishna is Varuna among the aquatics. He is the king of the seas. His complexion is as transparent as that of water. He is strong as the bright deer. He is a friend of the Sun. He stretches the path for the burning sphere. He lives at the meeting point of the sky and the sea. He presented Arjuna the chariot that Arjuna rides and the bow that Arjuna wields. He has untold treasure. He is fond of wine. Krishna is Aryama among the ancestors. The first fathers of men and gods, devils and serpents etc. were the children of Manu named Hiranyagarbha. It is these first fathers whom we worship along with other ancestors. Aryama is one of these first fathers. He is the power of sun that presides over the transitional hours when the day becomes night. Among the self-restrained, Krishna is Yama the god of death. Sun is the giver of life. No wonder that Yama the god of death is his son. He was the first living being to die. He was the first to go to heaven. He rides a buffalo. His body is green. He is clad in crimson. Hid realm is more than 86000 miles away from the earth. Is it in the galaxy named Andromeda? His city is more than 4000 miles in length and 2000 miles in breadth. He holds a fiery staff in his hand which is time. There is death always in front of him. An owl is his messenger. He has a dog with four eyes. It is the sun and moon combine. The dog keeps watch over mortality. Yama gives shelter to the dead. He appears as a great terrors to others. He is the most pious among the gods. He married the daughter of the creator. His wife Sraddha or Respect gave birth to Truth or Satya, Moitree or Friendship gave birth to Prasad and Bliss, Daya or Mercy gave gave birth to Fearlessness or Abhay, Shanti or Peace gave birth to Pride or Garba, Kriya or Action gave birth to Urge for Union or Yoga. Unnaiti or Prosperity gave birth to boastfulness or Darpa. Buddhi or Wit gave birth to Artha or Wealth., Medha or Intellect gave birth to Smriti or Memory, Titikhkha or Urge to Sacrifice gave birth to Mangal or wll-being. Lajja or Shyness gave birth to Vinay or Discipline and Murti or Image gave birth to Nara and Narayana. Nara and Narayana were two great sages. Arjuna is the incarnation of Nara and Krishna is the incarnation of Narayana. While Krishna remembers his past, Arjuna does not. How is it that Krishna the Supreme Being was subject to births and deaths? Krishna is the Supreme Being. He is all-powerful. If he does not have the powers to be born as an ignorant self, how is he all powerful? Any one of us can be Krishna through penance. It may take thousand births and deaths. But that is nothing in comparison to the remaining bound to the wheel through eternity. A young man took the vow to become a Buddha or the enlightened one 4X10140 years back. He underwent countless births and deaths to become Buddha of Kapilavastu. Once we become Buddha or Krishna, we can say like them that we are beginningless. Kunti is the mother of three of the Five Brothers. They are Yudhisthira, Bhima and Arjuna. Kunti’s husband was prince Pandu. It was at his instance that Indra put his seed in Kunti and Arjuna was born. So he was in a sense the son of Indra , the king of gods. But no one is the father of the shelf. The parents are instrumental in making the body for the shelf to wear. Thus the wind god has his child by Kunti.He is Bhima, the elder brother of Arjuna. The eldest brother of Arrjuna , Yudhisthira was born of the seed of Yama in Kunti’s womb. Today artificial insemination is being done. In those days the husband invoked the seeds of gods to bring forth a better generation of mankind. Kunti when she was a virgin gave birth to another child, with the seed of the sun. He is Karna, one of the greatest generals of the Hundred Brothers. The poet of the Bhagavad Gita , Vedavyas gave his seed to the women of the royal family at Hastinapur . Pandu the father of the Five Brothers , and Dhritarastra , the father of the Hundred Brothers and Vidur were born of that. Vidur is the incarnation of Yama. But that does not harm. Yama rules as usual from his house of the dead. Vidur is the uncle of the warring brothers. He is very pious. Curiously enough being the incarnation of Yama, the god of death, he does not know how to fight. He does not take part in the war. Recollections of all these past anecdotes change the whole scene of war before us. There are the children of gods also. Krishna is Prahlad among the demons. He is Kala or Time among those who are keen to devour everything whatever. Krishna is the lion among the beasts. He is Vainateya among the birds. As soon as he was born Vainateya flew to the moon. The jar full of nectar was placed there. But Krisna’s weapons- the wheel rotated at the entrance of the moon. Vainateys defied it and brought the jar down to earth. His mother must give it as a ransom for release from slavery. Vainateya became the mount of Krishna. Among the winds Krishna is Pavana or the wind god. Krishna is Ram among those who wield weapons. Krishna is the shark among the fish. He is Jahnavi or Ganges among the rivers. yeTt Once Narada’s hymns brought Krishna to melting mood, Krishna sweated. The sweat of his feet was held in a jar by the creator. It was the Ganges. She came down upon earth to redeem those poisonous souls who were turned into ashes by the angered sage Kapil. They were the children of the poisonous King Sagara. Kapil, the symbol of sun, burnt the poisonous water of earth. Ganges has come down with fresh water in turn. Krishna says that he is the alpha and omega of creation. He is the spiritual knowledge among all knowledge. When there is a debate, Krishna agrees to determine the truth. He does not argue for the sake of mere argument. Thus, he clearly tells Arjuna that his talk han to with Arjuna has no other motive than to ascertain the truth. He has neither good wishes nor ill-feeling for anyone in the battlefield. At least he does not talk with any such motive at the moment. Krishna is the first letter in the alphabet. It is the symbol of creation. There are different kinds of word-compounds in the Sanskrit tongue in which Krishna speaks. Among them Krishna is that kind of compound word which keeps the meaning of both the combining words. This is very significant utterance. Krishna is not the one in which the whole universe is dissolved. He is the one and yet he is the many. The many will never lose their identities if they join Krishna. He is both multi-self and trans-self. If the self contemplates on heaven it attains heaven. If the self contemplates on the Cosmic Being which alone is and nothing else exists, the self will lose its identity. But if one meditates Krishna, he will remain ever a play- mate of Krishna in the enchanted garden beyond the universe across the casual sea. Krishna is himself the deathless time, Krishna is the giver of rewards and retributions to everybody according to his or her deed. He has mouth in all directions of the universe. Krishna says that he is the thief who robs one of everything. He is death. Indeed, it is said, Krishna is the most jealous god. If someone is in love with Krishna, Krishna makes a beggar of him. Still love is not love that changes with every change of wind. So the wretched lovers of Krishna become more determined to get Krishna close ti their bosom. Krishna is the seed of future. He is the fountain head of the qualities of fame , goodness, speech memory intellect, patience, mercy and fine excess in women. Thus women in Krishna’s light unite the opposites. They are the women who act in life. So, they acquire fame. They have intellect and memory. The women seldom get the opportunity to manifest in the patriarchal society of ours. The sole agency of such qualities seems to be in possession of the males today. But Krishna unites these so called manly qualities with those of the feminine qualities Among the hymns in Samveda Krishna is the Vrihat Sama, or the hymn to the Cosmic Being- Krishna is Gayatri among the metres. It is the metre that liberates the souls through the chanting of it. It was the Word that created the universe. The scriptures all over the world have this Word. In modern languages we need to revive it. It is the Margasirsha or between November and December among the twelve months which is Krishna’s self. Krishna is the spring time among the seasons. He is the spirit of gambling among the deceitful. He is the splendour of the splendid. He is victory. He is initiative. He is the neutral quality that predominates in the best among men. He is Vasudeva Krishna or Krishna the son of Vasudeva among the Vrishni tribe. He is Dhananjaya Arjuna or the Arjuna who has conquered wealth among the Five Brothers. Thus Krishna a character of the Mahabharata becomes so great that he becomes larger than the Cosmos of the Mahabharata. He is the author of that. Every self is larger than the universe where he crawls. Everyone can be the Supreme Being, the author of the very universe where he is but a puny creature. Among the poets Krishna is the Ushana the preceptor of the demons. Krishna is the punishment in the hands of the rulers. He is the law to the conqueror. Thus Krishna clearly abhors conquests for self–aggrandisement. He is silent among the most secret. He is the wisdom of the wise. He is the seed of the whole existence. Inert or restless whatever is there, does not exist without him. He has no end of divine powers. Whatever is there- beautiful, wealthy, powerful, grand- emanates from Krishna. Krishna tells Arjuna, “What will you gain by this knowledge? The infinite universe is only a part of my being.” This is a very significant speech by Krishna. The Supreme Being baffles our imagination. How can we meditate on it? rishna says that meditation on any God as such will do. He cites the whole range of Vedic Gods to that end. Even meditation on the forces of nature can be pursued. Snakes, lions, sharks, horses, elephants, the most conspicuous animals draw our attention. One can worship them. One can worship the rivers and mountains. One can worship the best traits of man. One may worship the best of men. Nothing is insignificant in the world. Everything could work as god because Krishna the supreme being is the universe himself. The bright, the courageous, the wise, the grand, the vast, - all these show the manifestation or the supreme being better. But every grain of dust can be worshipped. The world remains as it is; but Krishna’s words turn the inside out. The whole universe is a holy place. Here nothing is profane. And every act that we do here should be a feat of worship. We have no right to sacrilege. Long ago there was a giant king. He hated to hear the name of Krishna. He was a sworn enemy of Krishna, although he never saw Krishna. He hated the idea of Krishna, the Supreme Being. The idea limits his pride, the idea provokes him to be altruistic than egoistic. Great egoism can thus bring into mind its opposite. The Giant’s head was full of Krishna. Quite naturally his son became a great devotee of Krishna. His son was Prahlad. The giant was very angry. He wanted to kill his child. The child was thrown into fire. But the fire became cold. The child was flung from the mountain peak. But it was soft cushion at the foot of the hill. The giant king was disgusted. He asked his child where his Krishna is. Prahlad said that he is everywhere in air, fire, in the grass, in the tree. The giant asked whether Krishna was in the pillar nearby. Prahlad said, ‘Yes’. The giant kicked the pillar. From the interior of it came out a lion-man – a lion’s face and a man’s body (the opposite of Egyptian Sphinx that has human face and a lion’s body). It killed the giant. Krishna’s universal mind affirms everything including plant –worship, river-worship, and snake-worship. The Supreme Being is omniscient. He can see into everyone’s heart. Whether one is civilized or not is left to the judgment of the historians. The Supreme Being is not concerned with that. He asks for truthfulness in man. But do the faiths of the primitive people, smack of mere ignorance? Does man ever attribute divinity to that which he does not understand? In that case many so called educated persons like the present author would have worshipped a presiding deity of a computer. Because the computer id as mysterious to the author as anything under the Sun. Of course every man is hysterically anthropomorphic. There was a tree in our house. Every morning it shed white flowers. One day it was downrazed to the ground by the wind. I wept. Once a loaded truck kissed the handle of my two-wheeler. The handle went asunder. My eight years old son wept for hours. He did not cry out fear. He cried for the handle of the scooters that went to pieces. One loses one’s pen and is pained so much at heart that it seems that one has lost an organ of one’s body. The little children do not differentiate between the animate and the inanimate. My daughter wept with the puffed up lips when her uncle moon would not go with her inside the house. This anthropomorphism persists in every poet. Wipe out religions from the face of the globe, the poets will create it. Why is man anthropomorphistic like that? Why is every man as naïve as primitive man? Surely in remote past during the golden days of mankind they experienced some mysterium tremendum in flashes in a tree, or in a thunder, or in a lake, or in a snake. Or else why should they worship them? No one is that fool. Krishna also makes room for Comte who discarded all ancient religions in favour of the worship of great men. Yes, they worshipped Stalin, when God seemed to be dead in Russia: O Great Stalin, O Leader of the People Thou who didst give birth to man Thou who didst make fertile the earth Thou who didst rejuvenate the centuries Thou givest blossom to the spring Thou who movest the chords of harmony Thou splendour of my spring, O thou Sun reflected in a million of hearts. [Pravda the 28th August 1936, Quoted in C.L. Wayper, Political Thought, B.L. Publications, Bombay, 1st ed. 1974]. But need the Supreme Being be then jealous of Stalin? Perhaps not. Will not the Supreme Being bestow gifts on the worshipper of Stalin? He is the worshipper. He is the worshipped. He is the prayer. He is the boon. Nothing can describe God’s grandeur. Even Krishna has to stop in the middle of his speech. He says that this world occupies only a part of Krishna’s being. Now words have come to their end. Are we prepared for an experience that goes beyond thought? What do the Hundred Brothers think? Perhaps they are hearing Krishna with great curiosity. Or else, they are enjoying the waste of time. They patiently wait to know what happens finally. Actually Duryodhana , the leader of the Hundred Brothers, was scared of Arjuna. So he had given up the idea to fight. It was the devils who assured him assistance and Duryodhana and his brothers and his men have come to Kurukshetra shouting battle-cries. But they will surely thank their luck if Arjuna withdraws from the battle-field. And there is half a chance that Arjuna will not fight in the ensuring battle vvvv