Shree Krishna

Who is Krishna?

   Krishna is stated to be the supreme Lord, paramatman. He the Lord, Paramatman only manifests as the Atman (Soul or the Self of all! This is explicitly stated in the Gita. Both Paramatman and the jivatman are of no form and cannot be detected by anybody. Since Atman is the Self of all, there is no second (advitiyam) besides it! Hence, there is no way of knowing it since the knower and the known are the same. Then Who is Krishna?

    The sources available to us are the Veda,the Upanishads, the eighteen epics and the History of Ancient India. The history is a narrative and much depends on its authenticity. Ancient Indian History is very complicated due to too many Kings, their wranglings and fights and kingdoms! The epics stand between mythology and fiction and there is no specific answer as to the real authors of these. Now, we are left to fend ourselves with our intellectual capacity to arrive at any conclusion. 

   There is no mention of the name of Shree Krishna in the Veda, says Prof. SN Dasgupta (A History of Indian Philosophy, vols.5. M L B D). Moreover, there are 1. the Mahabharata, 2. Srimad Bhagavatam, and the Bhagavad-Gita that present different roles of Krishna. Shree Krishna is from the Vrushni dynasty, depicted as a King in Mahabharata and offers his army to Duryodhana in the Mahabharata war. In the Bhagavatam, Krishna's childhood pranks, are narrated and the story of Krishna is told vividly.  But all these come to naught when it comes to the Gita where the Lord explains 'Who He is' and the most intriguing part is that of Ch. X- Vibhuti yoga. Bhagavan Shree Krishna says that he never spent his time in anybody's womb as a child, nor has he ever appeared as so and so with a name, form and function. The Bhagavad-Gita is a spiritual scripture, apourusheya- never written since these are the spoken words of the Lord to Vivasvan, the sun-god and the first manu. 
    Etymologically, the tern 'Krishna' has 'kr' as the root syllable followed by 's' and 'h'- the sounds of in-breath and out-breath, respectively and 'na', meaning not. This leads us to a person who does not have any action of breathing, rather, "He who breathes unto us the life-force without Himself breathing!"  'Krishna' is the 'one who does not reduce! . Krishna is the 'all-pervasive Consciousness', Vishnu. Thus, The pure consciousness that pervades all existence is termed here as Krishna consciousness. Krishna is also known as ananta, govinda, devesha, etc. Krishna is the Light, Chit-shakti, Jnyan shakti, Eternal, Immortal, Unborn, etc. There are no limitations to his power of manifestations! He is One and All! He alone exists and nothing besides It(Consciousness).

   The best guide is the Gita since the Lord speaks here. The spoken words of the Lord emanate from our own soul!