Jai Shri Krishna

THE GODS OF HINDUISM

We have at this point in discussing the WHO, WHEN WHERE and WHAT, of Hindu mythology discussed the miracles discussed in Hindu Mythology. We shall now therefore, discuss the Gods of Hindu Mythology.

WHO THE GODS REALLY ARE

Now that we have discussed the background in which the science and technology referred to in our ancient texts existed in Ancient Times, let us now delve into a more mysterious aspect of our mythology i.e the innumerable references in our Ancient Scriptures to Devas or Gods with whom the Ancient Man was constantly in contact with and who regularly guided him and helped in times of need.

There are two types of Gods that were worshipped by the Ancient man. The first type are the Gods of nature like the Earth (dharti Mata), Wind (Pawan Devta), Sun (Surya Devta) and Krishna as the ‘Entity of the Universe’. I will be further elaborating on the second type of Gods later, presently I shall continue the discussion about Krishna being the Entity of the Universe the Universe.

To take the view of Lord Krishna being the entity of the Universe further, Chapter 11 of the Shreemat Bhagwat Geeta English translation by ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), the Chapter 11 in which Lord Krishna shows His “Viraat Avatar” to Arjuna on the battle field, the Chapter itself is titled “The UNIVERSAL Form’.

To give you some quotations from Chapter 11 to bring the point further:-

• “O Lord of the universe, I see in Your universal body many,  many forms-bellies, mouths, eyes-expanded without limit.  There is no end, there is no beginning, and there is no middle  to all this.
• Your form, adorned with various crowns, clubs and discs, is  difficult to see because of its glaring effulgence, which is fiery  and immeasurable like the sun.
• You are the supreme primal objective; You are the best in all  the universes; You are inexhaustible, and You are the oldest;  You are the maintainer of religion, the eternal Personality of  Godhead.
• You are the origin without beginning, middle or end. You have  numberless arms, and the sun and moon are among Your  great unlimited eyes. By Your own radiance You are heating  this entire universe.
• ALTHOUGH YOU ARE ONE, YOU ARE SPREAD  THROUGHOUT THE SKY AND THE PLANETS AND ALL  SPACE BETWEEN. O GREAT ONE, AS I BEHOLD THIS  TERRIBLE FORM, I SEE THAT ALL THE PLANETARY  SYSTEMS ARE PERPLEXED.
• The Blessed Lord said: My dear Arjuna, happily do I show you  this UNIVERSAL FORM WITHIN THE MATERIAL  WORLD by My internal potency. No one before you has ever  seen this unlimited and glaringly effulgent form.” 

In the second paragraph above, you can see that Arjuna describes what He sees as Lord’s Viraat Avataar as “You are spread throughout the sky, the planets and all space between”. Now, what do we call the area that covers the planets as well as the ‘ space between” isn’t this the essential definition of the Universe?

The Lord is the Universe itself, and we are nothing but small cells on the body of the Universe. We are all a part of His body and that is why we say Lord is OMNIPRESENT, WITHIN US and OUTSIDE US. The way we can’t say that we love our right hand more than our left hand similarly, He does not love and one person more than the other because we are all part of His own body.

There are two popular misconceptions about Lord Krishna’s leelas, firstly, it is well known to anyone who has a keen interest in mythology that all of Lord Krishna’s 16,000 wives were all captives of a demon called Narkasura and after releasing them from captivity, Lord Krishna had married them all on their request, since after their release from captivity of Narkasura, the society was not ready to accept them.

Second popular misconception about Lord Krishna is about His Raas Leelas. Now, as already discussed earlier, the Universe is based on sound, every individual within this Universe, every human being also has a sound or sur of this own and the one’s who are out of synchronicity with the sound of the Universe are very aptly called “A-Sur” meaning ones without the “Sound” or the ones out of tune with the Universe. So what Lord Krishna was doing in the Raas Leela was that He was playing the sound of the Universe with His Bansari or flute and as a result of the creation of this cosmic sound, the Gopis who were all Rishis in their previous lives used to hear the sound of the Universe and the sound of their souls and used to come rushing to Lord Krishna. Those who could not make it because of being locked up in their houses used to come to meet Lord Krishna in their Astral Body Form.

Now read the last paragraph that has been quoted from the Shreemat Bhagwat Geeta above, “My dear Arjuna, happily do I show you this UNIVERSAL FORM WITHIN THE MATERIAL WORLD” now what does He mean by saying that this is His form “Within the material world” ?. What he means by this is that within this material world or Maya He can be perceived as the Universe itself, however, beyond this material world He is “Devine White Light”.

In His encounter with Maharaj Muchukand whom Lord Krishna woke up from his sleep of hundreds of years in order to get Kaal Yavana killed by Maharaj Muchukand. After Kaal Yavana is killed Lord Krishna shows His Devine White Light Form to Maharaj Muchukand, which is actually His form beyond the realms of Maya.

This very Devine White Light is worshipped as “Nirakaar Paar Brahm Parmeshwar” as well. It is this very Devine White Light that is referred to as “Shiva” in our Ancient Scriptures. We often mix up Lord Shiva with Lord Shankara which is a cause of major confusion in Hinduism, Lord Shiva is formless whereas Lord Shankara is the Saakar form or the form with body.