Good education is only that which teaches us universal peace and enables us to shed narrow ideas and promotes the ability to live together in unity. What we see during the day, will disappear during a dream in the night. What we see during a dream will disappear during the day. Our experiences are so transient.

Pavitratma Swarupas: Students,

The bamboos in a thicket that grow densely in a forest

may rub against each other and this will start a fire. The fire that is so generated will become bigger and bigger as a result of breeze. Gradually the fire will become a big forest fire destroying the entire forest. So also some human beings, as a result of their educational attainments, power, wealth and position develop a great deal of ego. Because of this ego, they will be giving a lot of trouble to good people and sadhakas around them. In order to protect such good people and re-establish dharma, God takes a human form from age to age. Such Avatars appear again and again and help human beings, by leading an exemplary life and demonstrating how to lead a good life. Such a human form of divinity in the Dwapara Yuga, is the form of Krishna. At the end of the battle of Mahabharatha, Krishna entrusted the kingdom to Dharmaraja who performed the obsequies of Bhishma. He saved the child in the womb of Uttara and after ensuring peace and prosperity everywhere, left for Dwaraka. Since Krishna was determined to return to Dwaraka, there was no alternative except to bid him farewell.

On the chariot, along with Krishna, were also travelling his disciples Uddhava and Satyaki. Behind the decorated chair on which Krishna was sitting, Arjuna was holding a diamondstudded umbrella giving shade to Krishna. While Krishna was thus travelling, he forbade Dharmaraja from giving any help. Nevertheless, Dharmaraja sent a large retinue to make arrangements on the way. While passing through each country, the king of that country welcomed Krishna and in due course, Krishna reached Dwaraka. The king of Suradesa was surprised by the strength of Krishna and gave a number of gifts to Krishna. The citizens of Dwaraka, as soon as they learnt that the battle of Mahabharatha was over, were expecting Krishna’s return to Dwaraka. They were preparing to receive Krishna. Like a young child looks anxiously to get into the embrace of the mother, the citizens of Dwaraka, the young children of Dwaraka and the gopikas of Dwaraka were all looking forward to the return of Krishna. As the young calf which keeps on yearning for the mother cow as the day draws to a close, the people of Dwaraka were yearning for the return of Krishna. All the gopikas, unable to bear the separation from Krishna, had given up their food, had given up decorating themselves and were anxiously moving about looking for the return of Krishna. As a poor man who is hungry cries out for food, the gopalas were crying out for Krishna. When the citizens of Dwaraka were in this condition, Krishna approached Dwaraka and sounded his conch. As soon as this sound was heard, the earth shook, the mansions shook and all the people jumped in joy. In one moment the whole of Dwaraka was smiling. The chariots and horses were already in full preparation and they all went to receive Krishna. All the elders, Ugrasena, Akrura, Vasudeva and Balarama went to the city frontiers. They were waiting outside in order to welcome Krishna. The royal roads of Dwaraka were overflowing with people. The women were standing on the terraces of the mansions and shedding tears of joy. On the roads and in the crowds, the victories of Krishna were being praised. As soon as he reached his mansion, he was welcomed with Mangala Harati. He was received with great joy.

The mothers were expectantly waiting for him. In addition to Devaki, Vasudeva had five other wives. Without giving any thought to Krishna’s age or status, all the five mothers went and embraced him. At the time of the battle, Krishna was eighty-four years old, Devaki was looking after Krishna as if he was a small boy. We should see here that although Krishna was quite old, the motherly affection makes Devaki take Krishna close to her. She could not keep away from Krishna too long. Devaki asked him about the safety of Pandavas. The other mothers also came and embraced him. Although they were his stepmothers, they were all attracted by his friendliness and affection. Such love is Krishna and Krishna is such love. They are not two distinct things. This aspect of Krishna was very much enjoyed by the citizens of Dwaraka and the citizens of Hastinapura. Those who have been used to experiencing this kind of love will never want to have anything different. Will those who have tasted sweet dates want to eat tamarind in their All the gopis and gopalas who enjoyed Krishna’s prema had no desire to enjoy any other type of prema.

After all the questions were answered, Krishna proceeded into the inner apartments to meet the gopikas. It is here that we have to carefully assess the actions of Krishna. He has the form of ananda. There is no scope for anything in his form. Although he used to pretend that he was living in a family like an ordinary person, it was not so in reality. You might shape gold into different ornaments and give different names, but the basic thing is the same gold in all of them. Although God might undertake different actions for the world, he is basically Ananda Swarupa. Whether it is in friendship or in attachment or relationship, the only quality that he demonstrated was ananda and nothing . For those who experienced these situations, it may look as if it is in different forms but for Krishna there is no difference at all. With a view to give happiness to the devotees, he might conduct himself in different ways but he always had a feeling of grace in his mind. He recognised the ideals in women. If he appeared in the house of one gopika first and later in the house of another gopika, he knew that he will then be the cause of a certain amount of jealousy. In order to avoid this among the gopikas, he demonstrated that he can take different forms at the same moment. At the same time, a thousand and one hundred and eight gopikas were longing for the grace of Krishna in Dwaraka. Krishna simultaneously entered the houses of all the one thousand one hundred and eight gopikas. It is in this context that he taught them that all the forms that exist everywhere are forms of God. Here, there is an opportunity for us to see the difference between Radha and the other gopikas. Each one of them had the feeling that Krishna should belong to her and not to any other woman. This was a narrow outlook. They always conducted themselves with the feeling that Krishna belonged to them and to no one . Radha is different. Her thought was not like that. Radha used to feel that Brindavan belongs to all and that Govinda belongs to all. Radha always proclaimed the feeling that Govinda was as much divine to her as to any other. She had an equal-minded approach. In this way, when Krishna entered all the houses at the same time, each gopika used to feel that Krishna first entered her house. They were all thus immersed in happiness. The gopikas were anxiously waiting for a long time for the vision of Krishna. During this time, they gave up food, they gave up proper dress, they gave up decorating their hair. In such a neglected state, Krishna could not recognise them. They refused to wear jewels or use flowers because they felt that they should not do so when Krishna was not there. As soon as they saw Krishna, they shed tears. Here, the tears became decoration for their faces, and it showed the fact that there is no better decoration for one’s face than tears of joy. It is their gunas that have been giving them their beauty. In Kannada there is a poem which says that the houses constitute the beauty of the village; the lotus constitutes the beauty of the lake. For the sky, the moon is the best decoration. Similarly, for a woman, good qualities are the best decoration. In this manner, for these gopikas their tears of joy became their decoration. Krishna saw the gopikas in this condition and his eyes were glowing with compassion. He started conversing with them. He asked one gopika if the deer that she was bringing up was coming up well. He asked another gopika if the peacock that she was bringing up was keeping well. In this manner, Krishna was asking about the welfare of various human beings and animals. They realised that his compassion spread equally to all living things. Easwara is present in all the living beings in God’s creation. This was the truth spread by Krishna. Not only this, as soon as the gopikas saw Krishna, they forgot all their troubles; but Krishna was asking about the safety of the gopikas. The Atma Swarupa is one who is able to give you happiness under all conditions of both pain and pleasure. So, Krishna was giving happiness at all times. This aspect of his was described by calling him a Nitya Brahmachari. As all the rays come from the same sun, here all kindness seems to come from Krishna. All the jivas have come from one source, and they have to merge into the same one source. Krishna proclaimed that he is present in all the living creation. Without being able to understand these broad aspects of God, we sometimes inject our own narrow ideas and apprehensions when we picture God. God’s aspect is such that it is ever ready to take you along the royal road on which you can see him. Our life is like a taxicab and we try to go into bylanes with this taxi. In that context, our thought of going into bylanes and God’s presence on the royal road do not go together. The thoughts that we get by looking at the cinemas and the thoughts that we get by looking at the books written about him are very different from the true nature of Krishna. All these thoughts are merely man’s creation according to his own imagination. But God is always permanently present in one single concept. In action, he may demonstrate different and diverse aspects coming from the one single form. The important strength which God has is the strength of love. His life is full of Ananda. In this type of divine ananda, there is no room for any impurity coming in. “Ekam Eva Adwaitiyam, Brahman.” What exists is only one and that is Brahman. There is no parallel to this. Krishna has shown this path of truth and he has himself set an example. His prema is the destination for everyone. However, for the prosperity and good of the world, he may undertake some action which might appear as being different. He will never undertake any action unless it is intended for the good of the world. The gopis and the gopalas were among those who recognised this basic truth.

Radha exhibited the totality of the stream of love or Prakruthi has taken the form of Radha. If Radha was attached to Krishna and Krishna was attached to Radha, it simply means that Paramatma and Prakruthi were attached to each other. This is a silver tumbler. It is not possible for us to remove the silver from the tumbler. Because, the silver and the tumbler have joined together, we call it a silver tumbler. In the same manner, it is not possible to separate Radha and Krishna from each other. Because Prakruthi and Paramatma are identical with each other, it is one single entity. Without Prakruthi or creation, there is no Krishna, without Krishna, we will not be able to see creation. We cannot have a cloth without the thread and the thread without the cloth. The oneness of the cloth and the thread exemplifies the aspect of Radha and Krishna. I have told you many times that Radha does not simply mean the form of a woman. It is something far more important. The language develops as a confluence of several letters. The letters come together to form a word. In the word, Radha we have the letters R-A-D-H-A. When we commence with A we get Adhar; when we commence with D we get Dhara and in reverse direction it reads Aradh. Thus, the word Radha means, one who constantly chants the name of the Lord. Everyone who does the aradhana can be described as Radha. The word does not relate to a feminine gender indicating the name of a woman at all. Krishna’s aspect demonstrates that there is no such difference at all in the presence of divinity. In this manner, Krishna has been spreading the concept of pure love. Only when we can exterminate jealousy, will we be able to develop pure love. There is no objection to desiring what you want, but it is wrong to develop jealousy at what others have. In this manner, Krishna was showing the divine path to the gopis and gopalas. All of Krishna’s actions are essentially divine. Unless we understand this, we will not be able to know the true aspect of Krishna. He was looking at living creation with the same attitude. Here, you may get some doubts as to why such a person caused the killing of nearly forty lakhs of Kauravas. There is one simple explanation for this. In a human body, if there is a cancerous growth and in this growth there will be millions of disease-carrying germs. Because of these germs, there is a possibility of the entire body being infected and becoming cancerous. At that time, a doctor will decide to amputate that part of the body which has become cancerous. The doctor will not worry about his having to exterminate millions of germs. His primary concern is to perform the operation and save the patient. Is it good to perform the operation and save the patient or is it good to think that by performing the operation, he will be killing millions of germs and therefore give up the operation Since the germs may cause harm to many other people, the doctor will decide to kill all the germs. I have already mentioned earlier that the same dharma was implemented by Krishna.

At that time, there was a cancerous growth in the form of Kauravas. As a result of the actions of the Kauravas, there was a lot of adharma and injustice. The world itself was being destroyed. The situation was such that the cancerous growth, in the form of Kauravas, was going to damage the entire body of the world. Krishna recognised that this disease had crossed all limits. He then got ready to perform the operation. He used the five Pandavas as compounders and performed the operation in the form of the battle of Mahabharatha. In this operation, the forty lakhs of germs were exterminated. This act was for the prosperity and good of the world and not for a selfish end. In the very beginning, Krishna said, “These people are born to bring blame and blemish to a good royal family. Their wickedness is growing like a forest fire and friendship with Karna, the son of Suta is helping it spread further. The wind, in the form of Sakuni, was giving this forest fire more support. That fire of wickedness has spread everywhere. If peace of the world is to be established, it cannot be unless there is an avalanche of arrows. This forest fire is very severe and to stop such fire, we cannot use a small quantity of water, we have to use a heavy downpour in the form of arrows.” Krishna did what he did, for the good of the world.

Whatever God does, it is always for our own good. All his actions are intended for our good. It is necessary for us to recognise this truth and conduct ourselves accordingly.