The many images of Krishna: their utility and limits || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2020)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 16.02.2020, Month of Awakening, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand  Context:  ~ We receive Krishna in a way that we look for. ~ What are the various images or forms of Krishna? ~ What is Krishna really? ~ What is the meaning of Avatar?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00 Pranam Acharya ji, earlier during the discussion you were telling us that we receive Krishna

00:16 in a way that we look for and on one hand we are reading Srimad Bhagavad Gita today

00:24 and in a more direct way we are coming close to him.

00:30 On the other hand we have heard few stories in Bhagavad Purana about Krishna and his way

00:40 of life.

00:41 When we read that he was a charmer, he used to dance around with women of his village,

00:56 he used to be a prankster with his friends, he used to be a notorious thief during his

01:08 childhood and he was a friend of friend to Krishna and even to Arjun.

01:16 So what is Krishna then like?

01:25 What's the contradiction that you are seeing?

01:29 Where's the problem?

01:32 We said the avatar could be anywhere in any shape at any time.

01:42 Wherever the avatar would be in whatever shape, he would have a personality and where there

01:48 is a personality, where there is a person, there are stories that person would be doing

01:53 something right?

01:54 That person would have a name, a gender.

01:59 Bhagavad Purana has such stories.

02:05 On the other hand like we study, we get to know that we cannot create an image of him,

02:16 creating any image of him would be falsity or it would be like limiting.

02:22 You should not limit yourself to one particular image of him.

02:30 That's where the problem lies.

02:33 Not that you cannot have an image of him but do not be too obsessed with one particular

02:38 image else the danger is that you will miss all the other images.

02:47 If you are obsessed with the lover boy image of Krishna, then you will miss Krishna when

02:57 he does not come as a charming lover and he will not always come as a charming lover.

03:04 If you are obsessed with Krishna, the male, then you will miss Krishna when he comes as

03:14 a woman because in your imagination, Krishna is the one wearing the peacock feather with

03:26 the flute at his lips, appearing in attire that belonged to those ages, enjoying milk

03:47 and butter, speaking Sanskrit.

03:59 That's the image that you will so intensely stick to that you will miss Krishna in flesh

04:08 and blood even if he walks past you.

04:10 Why?

04:12 Because this time he is not carrying the flute, because this time he is not speaking

04:18 in Sanskrit.

04:23 So you will totally miss him.

04:28 Not that Krishna cannot have an image but you should be open to all images of Krishna.

04:41 If you have to look at Krishna as Sagun, Sakar, then you have to be receptive to all

04:49 images and if you look at him as Nirgun, Nirakar, then you very well know that there can be

04:55 no image.

04:59 Problem starts when it's one image that becomes very dear to you, one particular image,

05:08 then there can be a problem.

05:11 In this case, then idol worship or reading about those things, so that's why there are

05:19 so many idols so that you don't stick to one particular one.

05:24 But then this can become a bondage in itself and this can.

05:30 So if you have it in you, then simply go to the Nirgun, then there are no images or deities.

05:45 Image worship comes from a very practical realization which is that most people do need

05:52 images even if they claim that they worship only the formless, still somewhere in their

06:00 mind they are dreaming up a form.

06:04 Even word is a form, even name is a form.

06:08 Even if you say that the absolute truth is formless, even in calling the absolute truth

06:15 as formless, you have accorded a form.

06:21 So India has been wise enough in realizing that most people do need images and forms.

06:32 So from there comes the method of idol worship, image worship, deity worship.

06:43 It's a practical method.

06:50 So like when one is going for a darshan or he is seeing the idol, then basically he should

07:06 not have any fantasies or image.

07:10 Before you go to look at an image, the image should have benefited you, otherwise why will

07:18 you go to look at it?

07:19 It is almost like this.

07:21 You read the Gita with me here, right?

07:25 And intensely let's say you read the Gita and then you go back to your native place,

07:31 you get busy with your usual schedule and you start forgetting the Gita and then when

07:44 you look at the face of Krishna again, then the Gita comes back to you.

07:52 That is darshan.

07:55 If you have no relationship with Krishna at all and you just look at a Krishna idol, that

08:01 will not benefit you.

08:03 Darshan is a technique.

08:06 It helps only when some previous groundwork has been done.

08:11 Are you getting it?

08:15 For you to benefit from Krishna darshan, darshan of the Krishna statue, first of all you should

08:25 have had a relationship with Krishna.

08:28 Now you have had a relationship, you already are full of respect for Krishna, you know

08:37 the Gita, but you are ignoring it in your daily run of life and then suddenly you find

08:52 yourself face to face with a Krishna statue.

08:58 That is the moment you are strongly reminded of something.

09:01 Reminded of what?

09:04 The Gita.

09:05 Now the statue, now the darshan is a great method.

09:20 But if you have not read the Gita at all, then what will the darshan do to you?

09:26 Nothing.

09:27 If you have had no prior relationship with Krishna at all, then darshan makes no sense.

09:34 Darshan is a good way to immediately bring back all that which has

09:53 gotten a little hidden under the dust of time.

10:01 It's a very efficient way.

10:05 Either you could re-read the entire Gita or you could just look at the Krishna statue.

10:17 So it's a fantastic method.

10:21 But only for Gita lovers.

10:26 So if you have a lot of virtues instilled in you, only then it makes sense to go for

10:37 let's say Sadhu darshan every morning.

10:43 The moment you look at that person, that reminds you of everything that comes from that person.

10:53 Have you not seen how memory operates?

11:00 Let's say there is a hotel room in which you stayed one year back.

11:06 One year back, many of us, most of us might have stayed in some hotel room.

11:12 How much do you remember today of that hotel room?

11:15 How much do you remember?

11:16 Very little.

11:17 But if I take you back to that hotel room, suddenly you will find that you remember a

11:23 lot.

11:25 All the small events and memories will come back to life.

11:29 Does that happen or not?

11:30 You will suddenly remember, oh, you know, that particular drawer was a little fractured.

11:38 I remember now.

11:39 But today if I ask you, you will not remember much.

11:44 This is the science behind darshan.

11:49 When you look at a face, all that is associated with that face comes back to life.

12:01 And you start saying yes, yes, yes.

12:02 Now I remember, yes, you know, last time I came here, that particular waiter was pretty

12:07 good.

12:08 Does he still work here?

12:09 Does he still work here?

12:12 Had you not returned to that same hotel today, you would have never remembered that waiter.

12:19 That waiter would have totally gone out of your conscious memory.

12:24 But now that the darshan has happened, that old thing has been rekindled.

12:34 So that's what.

12:36 Look at the idol every day, then just looking at that face will remind you all the history

12:41 that you have had with that face.

12:42 And that history is quite beneficial to you.

12:45 So it makes sense to look at that face in the morning.

12:53 So in India we have this phrase, Pratah Smarniye.

13:00 The one who has benefited you the most, you make it a routine to think of him the first

13:07 thing when you wake up in the morning.

13:13 When somebody has greatly benefited you or when somebody is greatly respectable to you,

13:23 then you call him Pratah Smarniye.

13:28 In the morning, the first thing I do is remember you.

13:33 Because the moment I remember you, by association I remember everything that I got from you.

13:41 And there is a lot of good stuff that I got from you.

13:43 It will be of help to me.

13:45 I cannot remember all the little things I got from you, one by one, piece by piece.

13:51 So instead I'll remember just one thing.

13:53 What?

13:54 Your face.

13:55 In remembering this one thing, I automatically get to remember the thousand things that I

14:01 got from this face.

14:02 That is called Darshan.

14:08 But for Darshan to succeed, I again caution you, first of all you should have had a relationship

14:14 with that face.

14:16 If there is no relationship at all, what is the point in ogling at any face?

14:24 A face is just a face.

14:25 It's a geometry.

14:26 It's a geometry.

14:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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