Who Is Krishna?

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Krishna is an historical person who appeared on this earth 5,000

years ago. He stayed on this earth for 125 years and played exactly like

a human being, but from the very moment of His appearance to the moment

of His disappearance, each of His activities is unparalleled in the

history of the world, and therefore anyone who knows what we mean by

Godhead will accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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There are various classes of men in the world who speak of God in

different ways, but according to Vedic literatures and according to the

great acaryas, the authorized persons versed in the knowledge of

God, in all ages, like acaryas Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva,

Visnusvami, Lord Caitanya and all their followers by disciplic

succession, all unanimously agree that Krishna is the Supreme

Personality of Godhead... The modern historians of this earth cannot

supply historical evidences of events that occurred before 5,000 years

ago, and the anthropologists say that 40,000 years ago Homo sapiens

had not appeared on this planet because evolution had not reached that

point. But the Vedic histories, the Puranas and Mahabharata,

relate human histories which extend millions and billions of years into

the past.

For example, from these literatures we are given the histories of

Krishna's appearances and disappearances millions and billions of years

ago. In the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita Krishna tells

Arjuna that both He and Arjuna had had many births before and that He

(Krishna) could remember all of them and that Arjuna could not. This

illustrates the difference between the knowledge of Krishna and that of

Arjuna. Arjuna might have been a very great warrior, a well-cultured

member of the Kuru dynasty, but after all, he was an ordinary human

being, whereas Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the

possessor of unlimited knowledge. Because He possesses unlimited

knowledge, Krishna has a memory that is boundless.

Krishna's knowledge is so perfect that He remembers all the

incidents of His appearances some millions and billions of years in the

past, but Arjuna's memory and knowledge are limited by time and space,

for he is an ordinary human being. In the fourth chapter Krishna states

that He can remember instructing the lessons of the Bhagavd-gita some

millions of years ago to the sun-god, Vivasvan.

Nowadays it is the fashion of the atheistic class of men to try to

become God by following some mystic process. Generally the atheists

claim to be God by dint of their imagination or their meditational

prowess. Krishna is not that kind of God. He does not become God by

manufacturing some mystic process of meditation, nor does He become God

by undergoing the severe austerities of the mystic yogic exercises.

Properly speaking, He never becomes God because He is the Godhead

in all circumstances.

Within the prison of His maternal uncle Kamsa, where His father and

mother were confined, Krishna appeared outside His mother's body as the

four-handed Visnu-Narayana. Then He turned Himself into a baby and told

His father to carry Him to the house of Nanda Maharaja and his wife

Yasoda. When Krishna was just a small baby the gigantic demoness Putana

attempted to kill Him, but when He sucked her breast He pulled out her

life. That is the difference between the real Godhead and a God

manufactured in the mystic factory. Krishna had no chance to practice

the mystic yoga process, yet He manifested Himself as the Supreme

Personality of Godhead at every step, from infancy to childhood, from

childhood to boyhood, and from boyhood to young manhood..

Since Krishna is all-attractive, one should know that all his

desires should be focused on Krishna. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said

that the individual person is the proprietor or master of the body but

Krishna, who is the Supersoul present in everyone's heart, is the

supreme proprietor and supreme master of each and every individual body.

As such, if we concentrate our loving propensities upon Krishna only,

then immediately universal love, unity and tranquillity will be

automatically realized. When one waters the root of a tree, he

automatically waters the branches, twigs, leaves and flowers; when one

supplies food to the stomach through the mouth, he satisfies all the

various parts of the body.

The art of focusing one's attention on the Supreme and giving one's

love to Him is called Krishna consciousness. We have inaugurated the

Krishna consciousness movement so that everyone can satisfy his

propensity for loving others simply by directing his love towards

Krishna. The whole world is very much anxious to satisfy the dormant

propensity of love for others, but the inventions of various methods

like socialism, communism, altruism, humanitarianism, nationalism, and

whatever else may be manufactured for the peace and prosperity of the

world, are all useless and frustrating because of our gross ignorance of

the art of loving Krishna. Generally people think that by advancing the

cause of moral principles and religious rites, they will be happy.

Others may think that happiness can be achieved by economic development,

and yet others think that simply by sense gratification they will be

happy. But the real fact is that people can only be happy by loving

Krishna.

Krishna can perfectly reciprocate one's loving propensities in

different relationships called mellows or rasas. Basically there

are twelve loving relationships. One can love Krishna as the supreme

unknown, as the supreme master, the supreme friend, the supreme child,

the supreme lover. These are the five basic love rasas. One can

also love Krishna indirectly in seven different relationships, which are

apparently different from the five primary relationships. All in all,

however, if one simply reposes his dormant loving propensity in Krishna,

then his life becomes successful. This is not a fiction but is a fact

that can be realized by practical application. One can directly perceive

the effects that love for Krishna has on his life.