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
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