Hari Krishna

[Guest guest]

On advice of council, namely Maa and Swamiji, Krista and I have been watching

Krishna, a 15 DVD long mini-series made in India a couple of decades ago.

 

The symbolism runs pretty deep, especially for a movie, but lately I find myself

hating little Krishna.

 

Now before you get yourself all in an uproar, let me tell you where we're

watching...

 

First a bit of background:

 

Maha Maya spoke to the Demon Kans, "Kans you fool! your beloved cousin-sister,

Devaki will give birth to the one who kills you! Devaki's eight born child will

kill you!"

 

So what did the demon do? He became afraid and locked his cousin-sister up (they

are cousins but so close that they are more like brother and sister, this is

common in India even today).

 

And then, everytime she gives birth to a child, he kills it, to insure it would

never be able to kill him. He does this with the first six boys.

 

Not a nice guy, but what do you expect from a demon?

 

Well, up in the Go-Lok (that's the sphere of light, where Vishnu lives),

Vishnu's old friend (who's name I'll never remember in a million years, he's a

cobra snake with seven heads I think) who had encarnated as Ram's little brother

pleads with Vishnu, let me be your protector this lifetime! So Vishnu grants him

the boon and he goes to inhabit Devaki's seventh baby whom she now carries.

 

Ultimately, to save the seventh baby, Vishnu asks Yog-Maya to move the seventh

baby to another woman's womb (the elder wife of Devaki's husband, don't ask me

to explain ... their society was different from ours).

 

So Devaki, heart broken thinks she miscarried.

 

Then, on her eighth pregnancy, when Krishna is born, Yog-Maya puts Devaki's

husband (a prince who's name slipped my last functioning neuron) under a spell

and he switches Krishna with a little girl (who is an encarnation of Yog-Maya

who was born to Devaki's first cousin.

 

Get all that? That's how Krishna is born. Through a bunch of Mayic tricks and

deception.

 

As little Krishna grows up in this little town of cow-herders, he becomes very

fond of butter, and takes to stealing it, for the fun of it. That's one of his

names "butter thief."

 

Now butter represents consciousness of the most pure. So it makes sense he would

steal it from the minds that would bind him, huh?

 

Well, we're at a part in the story where Krishna is about 10 years old, and he

is completely pathologically lying to his mother all the time. I mean he mixes

so many lies with a few truths that he has her wrapped around his finger (keep

in mind, its not his bio mom, just his step mom of sorts).

 

The kid's driving me nuts. I can't stand the way he lies to his Mom. My heart

just goes, "OUUUUCH!" every time he manipulates her.

 

Its so not me to act that way...

 

I guess maybe that's why I like Shiva so much, anyway...

 

I pondered the symbolism for quite a while and I came to one conclusion. If

Krishna, an encarnation of Vishnu, was a liar and a thief, then anyone could be

a liar and a thief. And because Krishna is god, we have to love him. Likewise,

we have to love all liars and thieves.

 

There's a lot more depth to the story though. He's spinning this web of lies to

make it so his step mom can continue to love him as her child. Even when she

hears that he's Devaki's son, she won't believe it because he's already set her

up to believe a lie. Thus enabling him to fulfill a boon he had granted her:

namely to be his mother.

 

Devaki had been granted the boon of giving birth to him, I guess she should have

been more specific though because she's never even seen him...

 

Its funny how I watch myself react to his folly. It really urks me to see him

lying to his Mom. And I'm humbled by the fact that I'm so identified with being

a "good" guy.

 

Jai Krishna. May he win over my heart and may I love him and everyone equally.

 

Brian

 

 

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