Remembering Lord Krishna's appearance day

Radhamohan Das *

"Krishna Jarma" celebrated at ISKCON Temple, Imphal on September 03rd 2018 :: Pix - Shankar Khangembam

Lord Krishna as the Supreme has descended to lift the world wherever abuse of unrighteousness increases or whenever and wherever there is a decline of virtuousness and a predominant rise in irreligion on the earth planet, to protect the devotees and annihilate the miscreants.

He descends from His eternal abode, Goloko Vrindavan once in a day of Brahma. He always descends with all His entourage and paraphernalia to accompany with Him, when He appears at an schedule set eternally once every 4,320,000 X 1000 X 2 years (or 8.64 billions). Krishna exists prior to the creation of the numerous universes.

He told Brahma (Srimad Bhagavatam: 2.9.33), "Brahma, it is I, the Personality of Godhead, who was existing before the creation, when there was nothing but Myself. Nor was there the material nature, the cause of the creation. That which you see now is also I, the Personality of Godhead, and after annihilation what remains will also be I , the Personality of Godhead.”

In other words, it is just like the Sun which always shines independently in the sky. Lord Krishna is not a bygone Personality but the indwelling Spirit (Paramatma or Supersoul), and the object for our spiritual consciousness. God is never born in the ordinary sense. An avatara (incarnation) is a descent of God into man and not an ascent of man into God. So, the incarnation of Krishna is not so much the conversion of Godhead into flesh as the taking up of manhood into God. When the Divine birth takes place, the Supreme Lord abides in the heart of every creation.

Lord Krishna always appears as a son of a father and a mother in a certain family and land to execute His pastimes and then He disappears. He never dies, as He exists eternally and travels from universe to universe to enjoy His blissful pastimes and exchanges with His devotees, such as the cowherd friends, the gopis, and the cows. When Lord Krishna disappeared after performing His transcendental pastimes, His devotees can always associate with Him by means of hearing, reciting and remembering His pastimes as related in Srimad Bhagavatam or Gita.

His holy name is chanted, and this is called practicing the Bhakti-yoga, the way of devotion. By this way one can attain the pure love of Krishna, which is an essential quality for a devotee at least. Lord Krishna's purpose for the world is to achieve the divine life through the intellectual consciousness. The indwelling God is the inner light and He is the concealed witness. When the ego is completely harmonized by God, the individual soul of ours ascends into the spiritual existence and until that it (soul) travels birth after birth.

The matter, life and mind are in us as well as in the world. The individual soul leads to the emergence of the individual self. Man is a complex multi-dimensional being having different elements of matter, life, consciousness, intelligence and the divine spark. As Lord Krishna told His disciple and friend Uddhava that there are twenty eight different elements of creation in the individual self.

These are God, the soul, the mahattatva, false ego, the five gross elements: ether, air, fire, water and earth; the ten senses : eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, speech, hands, feet, genitals, and anus; the five subtle objects of perception: sound, touch, form, taste and smell; the mind and the three modes of natures : goodness, passion, and ignorance ( Srimad Bhagavatam: 11.1-3).

Man becomes a slave to the mechanism of nature when he does not recognize his distinction from the self. One should be aware of what he is or what I am. When we subdue our senses, the flame of spirit burns bright and clear like a lamp in a windless place. The self is controlled by intelligence and the light of consciousness is reflected, then we rise above the play of nature (prakriti). Every act of the self is a creative of oneself. The ego, in its self-confinement is a distortion of the true subject. To be a victim of lust is the enemy of man on earth.

If one cannot control the passions and impulses, he is more like an animal than a man. Even though, if one is influenced by goodness, when he controls his passions and ignorance he is not entirely free, because goodness binds the one quite as much as passion and ignorance. Only the desires for truth and virtue are nobler. To rise above ego and free from three modes of nature: goodness, passion and ignorance then only, we will be finally freed from bondage of the world. These are all the examples of the great and enlightened devotees.

One should perform all act of speech, mind and body by dedicating to the Supreme Lord, with the purification of heart, and action done in the spirit of a sacrifice, and then one ceases to be a source of bondage and he attains perfection even while doing one’s duties.

Action must always be done devotedly and whole heartedly without attachment to the results, all such advice was told by Krishna to His devotee and friend, Arjuna. The celebration of the particular day of the appearance of Lord Krishna as the Janmastami is performed every year when He appeared on earth some 5000 (3000 BC) years ago. Lord Krishna appeared on the eight day of the waning moon on this earth planet.

His appearance on a planet in one of the material universes, is not a one-time event. It is always going somewhere. His transcendental pastimes are like the waves of the Ganges river flowing forever. Brahma the predominating deity of this earth approached the Supreme Lord Vishnu without directly seeing Him to narrate those sorrowful words of Bhumi. Brahma in meditation received a message that the Supreme Lord Krishna will appear on the earth planet to execute His mission of performing the blissful pastimes and that message was broadcasted by Brahma to the demigods.

Lord Krishna appeared exactly similar to His original position of the Supreme God of the universes as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki in the form of baby with four hands Krishna cannot be born like an ordinary child or living entity through the womb of a mother. Krishna has got various names such as Parthasarathi, Vasudeva, Devakinanda, Nanda-nanda, Govind, Lakshipathi, Hari, Sankarshan and many more.

He is all attractive possessing six opulences unlimitedly viz; all wealth, all power, all fame, all beauty, all wisdom and all renunciation. Though Krishna lived for 125 years to perform His pastimes on the earth planet some 5000 year ago, His look was always youthful and His complexion is that of the colour of the cloud-bluish and blackish hue. Brahma’s prayers: The Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna has an eternal, blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all, and He has no other origin. He is the cause of all causes.

Krishna the primeval Lord, who is Shyamsundara has inconceivable and innumerable attributes and whom the pure devotees see in their hearts of heart with the eye of devotion tinged with the pulp of love. Lord Krishna manifested the different avatars in the world as Rama, Narasimha, Vamana, Chaitanya etc. as His subjective pastimes. Krishna, the primeval Lord has allotted the respective authorities to the rulers of the graded realms such as 1) Devi-dhama (mundane world) located at the lowest, 2) Mahesh-dhama (abode of Mahesh) and Hari or Krishna’s own realm named Goloka at the top.

Mahavishnu is a plenary expansion of Krishna therefore Lordship Govinda is the cause of all causes. Lord Govinda's lotus feet are always held by Ganesh upon the pair of tumuli protruding from his elephant head to obtain power to destroy all obstacles on the path of progress of the three worlds.

The Sun who is the king of all the planets, full of infinite effulgence and the image of the good soul travels as the eye of the world in its orbit in obedience to Sri Krishna's order [Brahma Samhita] Lord Shiva's prayers: Lord Shiva said to Sati (Durga) that I am always engaged in paying obei-sane to Lord Krishna in pure Krishna consciousness in which the Supreme Personality of Godhead, known as Vasudeva, is revealed without any covering.

"The nectarean discussions about You (Krishna) are the life and soul of those, who are tormented by separation from You and greatly teamed personalities such as Brahma, Shiva and the four kumaras (sons of Lord Brahma) sing of those nectarean discussions. Those narrations vanquish distress of the past sins (pra.bdlia and aprarabdha).

Immediately upon being heard, they bestow the highest auspiciousness, and especially the wealth of promo. The nectar of Your narrations is expanded by those who glorify Your pastimes, and therefore such narrations are truly the most benefactors in the world..primad Bhagavatam [10.31.9]

Generally, on such auspicious occasion of the Janmastani or birth of Lord Krishna at mid-night (and this year (2021) , 30th August, Monday), it is observed with jubilant celebrations having programs of the sankirtanas, prayers, discouse of His pastimes etc and finally abhisekam is performed and maha-aarti done, and after that the Janmastami ekadasi prasadam is distributed to the devotees.

The next day, the Nandotsava is performed with the Vyasa-Puja of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada by the devotees in the case of ISKCON centres throughout the world.