Author: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Publication: DNA India
Date: September 1, 2010
URL: http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/comment_janamashtami-a-new-perspective_1431703
Janamashtami celebrates the birth of Lord
Krishna. Ashtami is significant as it indicates a perfect balance between
the seen and the unseen aspects of reality; the visible material world and
the invisible spiritual realm.
Krishna's birth on Ashtami signifies his mastery
of both the spiritual and material worlds. He is a great teacher and a spiritual
inspiration as well as the consummate politician. On one hand, he is Yogeshwara
(the Lord of Yogas - the state to which every yogi aspires) while on the other,
he is a thief.
The unique quality of Krishna is that he is
at once more pious than the saints and yet a thorough mischief-monger! His
behaviour is a perfect balance of the extremes - perhaps this is why the personality
of Krishna is so difficult to fathom. The avdhoot is oblivious to the world
outside and a materialistic person, a politician or a king is oblivious to
the spiritual world. But Krishna is both Dwarkadheesh and Yogeshwar.
Krishna's teachings are most relevant to our
times in the sense that they neither let you get lost in material pursuits
nor make you completely withdrawn. They rekindle your life, from being a burnt-out
and stressed personality to a more centred and dynamic one. Krishna teaches
us devotion with skill. To celebrate Gokulashtami is to imbibe extremely opposite
yet compatible qualities and manifest them in your own life.
Hence the most authentic way of celebrating
Janamashtami is knowing that you have to play a dual role - of being a responsible
citizen of the nation and at the same time to realise that you are above all
events, the untouched Brahman. Imbibing a bit of avadhoot and a bit of activism
in your life is the real significance of celebrating Janamashtami.
