East Meets West – A Gautami Tripathy Column

This column previously ran by Deepak Morris is now taken over by Gautami Tripathy.

The purpose of the column is to bring the culture and joy of mysterious and beautiful India to the world.

January 29, 2007

 
 


Brief bio: I am secondary school teacher. I teach Mathematics. I love to write. Poetry, prose whatever. I read a lot too.

 Gautami Tripathy
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(c)2006 Gautami Tripathy
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Gita V11 – Krishna The Teacher

Krishna plays an important part in the story of Mahabharata where he is presented as the friend of Arjuna. He preaches the virtues of austerity, charity, uprightness, non-violence and truthfulness. The book is called Bhagavad-Gita because Krishna is known as the Bhagavan (GOD). Gita was
taught by Krishna when during the fight between the Kauravas and Pandavas, both the armies had got ready for war and Arjuna had become depressed.

In the Gita, Krishna is identified with Supreme Lord, the unity that lies behind the manifold universe, the changeless truth behind all appearances, transcendent over all and immanent in all. Krishna is called Paramatman which implies transcendence; the essential life of all.

The representation of an individual identical with the universe self is a very familiar concept in Hinduism. In the Upanishads, the fully awakened soul merges with the Absolute One. In the Gita, Krishna says, "delivered from passion, fear and anger, absorbed in me, taking refuge in me, many purified by the austerity of wisdom have attained to my state of being."

The ego holds something other than, to which it should abandon itself. In this abandonment, one can find true liberation of the soul. A liberated soul uses its body as a vehicle for manifestation of the eternal. The divinity claimed by Krishna is the common reward of all those who seek spirituality. Krishna is everywhere and in each one of us, as ready to speak to us now as ever was anyone else. He is not a bygone personality but the indwelling spirit, an object for our spiritual awakening.

God is never born in the ordinary sense. Processes of birth and reincarnation which imply limitations do not apply to him. When the lord is said to manifest himself at a particular time, particular occasion, it means that it takes place with reference to finite being. God is born for the protection of the good, the destruction of the evil and the upholding the righteousness.

Krishna is an incarnation or descent of the Divine into the human form. Krishna is human embodiment of Vishnu. The assumption of the human nature by the Divine Reality, like the creation of the world, does not take away from or add to the integrity of the Divine.

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