For Krishna's sake, stop trivializing him

Happy Janmashtami. Krishna is the most beloved character in Hindu Itihisa (I'm deliberately not using the word mythology). Krishna has so many layers, so many complexities, so many contradictions, so many unique aspects that it is extremely hard to define or encapsulate Krishna in words. I know it is an impossible task and hence I am not going to even attempt it. Krishna in some ways is considered the most complete. He knows all 16 kalas. He is a Yogeshwar. He is the complete man so to speak. Each action of Krishna is for dharma but it is not straight forward. Krishna gave the Bhagwad Gita and Uddhav Gita. One pushes you to action for the sake of dharma and the other deal with complex topics like death and how to deal with sorrow. 

If someone has to start commenting on Krishna, his life, his teachings there has to be some penance before anyone starts doing it. You need no qualification for devotion and love towards Krishna but you need to be extremely qualified to start speaking on Krishna. Hinduism and Hindu way of life is open and hence there is a chance of trivializing the knowledge. Its not everyone's cup of tea (certainly not mine) to write on krishna because Krishna is complete but complex. Krishna bhakti is very easy but to understand Krishna is difficult. Often time, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar has said 'You should follow the character of Lord Rama and Krishna is epitome of love. If you follow character of Krishna you might land in trouble'. So you require very high qualification to comment on Krishna. Honestly its almost impossible to define qualifications as well but if you are sincere, honest, not an attention seeker but seeker of truth and knowledge you will know if you possess those characteristics. 

Now if there is one character which is most trivialized, its Krishna. Look at the representation of Sri Krishna in most of the series written on Krishna, I can guarantee you that writers, directors, actors have not read a word from Bhagavat Gita or Srimad Bhagvad. They have never done any deep contemplation over the life of Krishna. Krishna is The most complex character to write. Characters playing Krishna are mostly fair skin, have silky hair and sometimes come with a six pack.  Some one with a little knowledge of Srimad Bhagvad will know he was dark skinned, curly hair and considering his love for Maakhan (freshly churned butter) , I doubt he would have had a six pack. The dialogues in most of these series are as if he is preachy all the time far from the playful Krishna he was. Nitish Bharadwaj had done justice to the character in BR Chopra's Mahabharat because he is an amazing actor, he is well versed with scriptures and he understood the complexities. 

Anyone who wants to preach anything, wants to put Sri Krishna face and preach what they want. I have no problem what you want to preach but don't use the character loosely. If you are writing script try to stick to the original scriptures and don't use your mind too much. I see too many Instagram reels, WhatsApp forwards and sometimes some motivational speaker using Krishna's character to say what they want. Its a grave injustice. Often time no one criticizes because it seems harmless (but its not). If you have something to say don't say as if Krishna is saying. Krishna is not a Disney or a marvel character. 

I hope you take this in the right spirit. I don't want anyone hanged to death, harmed in anyway because of some misrepresentation in my eyes. All that I am saying is that we have freedom and its wise to use it carefully.

Jai Shree Krishna. Happy Janmashtmi

India @ 75. External Independence to Inner Independence.

 A very Happy Independence Day to All. It's really a special Independence Day. Yesterday I went to market to buy a good size khadi tri colour flag. Forget Khadi flag, I didn’t even get any flag of decent size or quality. All stocked out. But it makes me Happy not sad. I have lived in USA and many people in hoist flag at their homes on occasions like July 4th (US Independence), Memorial Day, Washington Birthday, Martin Luther king's birthday etc. Usual song they play in their backyard is God Bless the USA. Although public hoisting in schools, Govt offices and maidans etc is a pretty common thing in India but it’s a sight to behold that every Home has a tricolour hoisted. Anyways it's just a symbolic gesture but still makes you happy.  Make sure you hoist the tricolour. It will be a great celebration. Even if you are outside of India. Hoist it alongside the country you are in.

 

At 75 we look different. We have come a long way from country where life expectancy was 28, not enough food for its people, millions dying out of sickness, epidemics, hunger and scarcity to a reasonably good state. We were extremely fragile in terms of our external threats and our inner conflicts but now we have fairly secure borders and much better law and order in country. Our Independence was not just a 200-year odd British rule but from a Millenia of utter subjugation. During this time of over a Millenia, it's not just our prosperity was snatched, our healths had deteriorated, our produce was taken away but our way of life was taken, our culture was decimated, Our spirits were crushed, our consciousness was constricted. A salute to all men and women who fought to bring this day to light. I can't be thankful enough for their courage, their will and their sacrifice. A big salute to each and every one who brought glory to our mother land and the fact that we are in control of our destiny. I will not list any name because it creates more division than unification. So, in that spirt I will not mention any names.

 

We have come a long way from being an utterly poor to a reasonable state. We have a 2.4 trillion-dollar economy, fairly good foreign exchange reserves over 600 billion, above 6-7% GDP growth since 2000s. We have a long way to go. Our per capita income is barely over $2000 and 100s of millions still below $5 a day. We have challenges of 21st century in terms of our security, prosperity and sustenance. So, we have long, long way to go before we can settle.  

 

Every year same day, many pundits from west and here as well write long essays on how to move forward. Most of these essays, editorials, articles focus on govt policy on each and every count. These people discuss everything on Economy, health, education, infrastructure, taxation, external affairs (not affairs of our dear Chachaji), internal challenges etc. Many of them have hardly travelled India, know Indian psyche, know our way of life hence they don’t touch topic of Human resource development, human leadership and forget about the possibility of human consciousness. Many have this colonised mindset (both western scholars and their sepoys in India) that we are still subjects of west and need to be guided on how to grow our civilisation. Anyways dissing about them is not the topic for the day. Topic is to harness the power of human consciousness to the possibility to envision and enliven the newer future for India and for the world.  

 

It will be dishonest to give some solutions and some pathway and leave dissing the columnist of the day. See no family, no society, no nation can grow without its people realising their full potential. Our masters, our saints, our great philosophers always emphasised and worked towards development of Individual human consciousness rather than collective. In a limited way whenever we do talk about human resource, we limit ourselves to education and skill development. Now education and skill development are crucially important but full blossoming of human life is not limited to education and skills. Imagine being married to highly educated guy receiving a fat pay check, provides a great lifestyle but that person is highly stressed, sometimes mean and sometimes violent. Do you think he is living a good life and people around him are realizing their true potential? It's impossible and foolish to think that purely by lifting the economic standard and raising the standard of life are we going to live a fuller life. Now, before you reach any conclusion let me tell you I am not here to deny or curse prosperity, preach a socialist way of governance, lecture you on limiting your ambition or somehow glorifying poverty. I am capitalist who believes in prosperity, Innovation, Aspiration and chasing the Impossible. So, wait before I make my arguments. 

 

Education, skill development and even character and moral development is also limited way of thinking. A person needs to be multi-faceted to be a Complete man (No, you don’t need a suit from fancy brand to be one. You were lied). A person needs to be educated, skilled, environmentally conscious, kind, compassionate, innovative, creative, have leadership qualities, high morals and ethics and 100 other things. Believe me, you can't teach in all this in a classroom with sermons or in a corporate room with fancy looking ppts. We have tried all this and we have pretty much not succeeded. People in future have to bring products and services which encompass a variety of things. They should not only enrich our lives, entertain our minds but also are sustainable, environmentally friendly and educate and enlighten us. Simultaneously, these products and services have to generate employment and generate profits for its shareholders. Do you think all this is possible without a bunch of fully blossomed individuals. It's impossible. Now we defined the problem but what is the solution. Knowledge of self, deep meditative mind with a healthy body. Only solution is to start learning to meditate and have a deep sense of enquiry. I am a teacher with the Art of living foundation. I have taught meditation to many individuals in India and in US. When I lead simple meditations and use to ask people about their experiences, they were all positively unanimous. Some said I feel peaceful, calm. Some said I feel very creative, joyful and enthusiastic. Just 20 mins of silence, looking inwards will bring transformation which we cant imagine. Believe me, these are the kind of individuals who will bring peace, solace, prosperity, innovation while taking care of the planet. These enlighten souls will go in fields of politics, finance, I.T., startups and bring genuine revolution and not bloodshed. If someone asks me what is that one thing that is enough to make this planet a better place. It has to be knowledge of self and meditation. It changed my life for the good and I have been trying to create an impact in others life. I am blessed that I have a great master in the form of Sri Sri Ravishankar. His grace and his inspiration is the one which excites me to do more in this regards. I got this wisdom only because I showed some interest ( or maybe it was just divine grace, I don’t know). We all have to work to make this nation lighthouse of the world. I am convinced that only this nation can bring the love, wisdom, kindness, prosperity, safety that this planet needs but it needs warriors (spiritual warriors). On this occasion of 75th Anniversary of our independence, lets remind ourselves that we have a great task on our hand and the first step is to learn yoga, breathing exercises and meditation and go deeper in knowledge of self. Once we have enough people who are equipped with this knowledge and are regular practitioners, a positive change is inevitable. Some sceptical people will think whether yoga, breathing and meditation and knowledge of self I am talking about will make people lazy or less interested in change. Answer is not at all. All these things will make you extremely dynamic not lazy. Yes, they will make you conscious. So you will be innovative but not greedy. You will be full of life and not filled with lust. You will have a compassionate heart not an emotional fool. Your will have a blissful mind not an agitated mind. Our last millennia of subjugation were not because everyone was mediating and reading Gita. It was utter lack of it not more. People who have the inner independence will bring healthy life around them. 

 

Anyways changes are coming already. More people do yoga irrespective of their identities of religion, caste and creed. Interest I see for every event that I conduct is satisfying and transformation thereafter makes you even more enthusiastic. Only thing required is more people come to help. More people join hands. More people collaborate. This century will not only be India's century but century of renewal of Dharma. Sanghachadvam (Lets move together). 

To book a free guided meditation contact me on +91 8104971780