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Did Krishna Follow Dharma? Doubts and

Resolutions

Did Krishna Follow Dharma? Doubts and

Resolutions

Article of the Month - July 2013

While undoubtedly Krishna is the supreme God, nevertheless many of His actions, during

His avatar on earth, are difficult to reconcile with the fact that the avowed purpose of His

incarnation was the protection of Dharma. The most common doubt regarding Lord Krishna

is framed as follows:

Doubt: There are serious reservations about Lord

Krishnas actions in the Mahabharata war. Before even

the war had begun Arjuna expressed the noble sentiment

of disgust for war and desired to become a sannayasi.

Shri Krishna had at that moment the perfect chance of

preventing war and the consequent massive bloodshed.

Instead, He chose to dissuade Arjuna and advised him to

go to war. Not only that, at many places Krishna advises

Arjuna and his brothers to kill their enemies unethically. All the major warriors in the opposite

army, be it Bhishma, Drona, Karna or Duryodhana, were killed by immoral tricks on His

advice. How are we to view these actions?

Answer: This is an appropriate question, and the answer begins with

an analysis of the circumstances which led to the Mahabharata war.

Duryodhana had not only usurped the kingdom of the Pandavas (Arjuna

and his four brothers), but also ill-treated them in the most ignoble

ways. In the basest of actions, he did what is unacceptable to Indian

society at any level tried to disrobe queen Draupadi, the wife of the

Pandavas, in his huge assembly.

There were many veterans sitting in the assembly while the above ignominy was taking

place. They all kept mum. Indeed people like Bhishma and Drona in the assembly were no

doubt, very noble and were also fully aware of the heinous crimes of Duryodhana. They had

the capacity to check him also but they did not. The reason for their inaction was that they

were living off his food (as he was their king). So they even fought for him in the war.

Gratitude to the one who feeds us is, of course, a great virtue. But it does not mean that he

should be supported even in his Adharma. All of this gives us an indication of the depths to

which the society had degraded under Duryodhanas rule. If there were misconceptions

about Dharma even in great people like Bhishma etc., it was no surprise that things were

much worse with others. This is Adharma at its climax a situation unacceptable to Lord

Krishna.

Let us now return to Arjuna on the battlefield. Given such a situation in

Duryodhanas rule, it is absurdly wrong for anyone to adopt an attitude of

negligence or a fear complex, more so for a Kshatriya who himself is a

victim like Arjuna. His Dharma is towards the greater good, and in the

context before him, it was to root out Adharma even if it necessitated a full-

scale war.

Therefore, the mental state of Arjuna just before the war

cannot at all be described as noble; at the best it was

muddled. Bhagavan Krishna educated him about the

purpose of life as a whole and then prompted him to fulfil

it by waging the war.

Next is the question of the relative military merits of the forces of Dharma and Adharma

i.e. of the Pandavas and the Kauravas (family to which Duryodhana belonged). The latters

army was very superior to that of the Pandavas both quantitatively and qualitatively. In

fact, the Kauravas army was one and half times bigger. The mighty Bhishma had the boon

of choosing his own time of death; Drona was the teacher of Pandavas, who were only his

pupils. Karna and Duryodhana were superior in valour to Arjuna and Bhima respectively. So

how were they to be faced by the Pandavas? It was the fight of Dharma against Adharma.

So, ethics, - though important by itself, becomes secondary in comparison to what is to be

achieved.

Consider an example: A criminal is speeding away in a car after committing

heinous crimes. The policeman on his trail breaks all traffic rules while

chasing him. Normally it his duty to book one who violates traffic rules. But

now? Only a simpleton would say that he has to be booked for violating the

traffic rules. Similarly in war or in life in general, there are levels of values

and one will have to sacrifice a lower value for the sake of a higher one, if

the two happen to be in conflict. This is exactly what Shri Krishna has done.

So, we should never commit the blunder of finding faults in either Rama or

Krishna or the scriptures in general. It is very difficult for common people like us to

understand the subtleties and nuances of Dharma. Therefore, Rama and Krishna were born

for the specific purpose of educating us about it.

Further Doubt: The same scriptures you swear by, also make it mandatory that conjugal

pleasures be restricted to ones own wife; how then did Lord Krishna indulge in amorous

sports with the gopis of Vrindavana who were married to someone else?

Resolution: This is a gross misconception in vogue about Lord Krishna. Its clarification

begins with a brief summary of the Rasa Lila as described in the great scripture Srimad

Bhagavatam. It was in the dead of night that Krishna set forth the tune from his flute in the

forest. The gopis who heard it became intensely attracted to it and ran to the forest, leaving

aside anything they were doing then and there instantly. Some stopped cooking, some

stopped feeding, some stopped eating, some stopped washing clothes, etc. and ran away.

The moment the gopis reached the forest, Krishna

asked: What brings you here? What help do you

need? They bent their heads without answering

Him. Then He said: Is it not wrong for noble ladies

like you to meet anyone othet than your husbands

at this odd hour? They cried and said: Krishna!

We have come with great difficulty to join you here.

You should not reject us like this. Then He condescended to play Rasa with them among

bloomed lotuses.

At the end of the narration of this episode by sage

Shukadeva, the listener Parikshit expressed the

same doubt that has been expressed above. To

which Shukadeva Ji replied: Tejiyasam Na

Doshaya No fault in this for Tejiyans, and

concluded that indeed, the next morning their

husbands saw the gopis just sleeping by their

sides.

So the clarification hinges on the word Tejiyans and its meaning should be internally

consistent with the description of Rasa. Notice that nobody will be washing clothes or doing

cooking etc in the dead of night. Also the next morning their husbands saw the gopis just

sleeping by their side. This gives us a clue that the Rasa was a dream. This is confirmed as

follows:

Tejiyan means more lustrous according to Paninis grammar. Who is more lustrous than

whom? The Upanishads call the wakeful Jiva as Vishwa and the dreaming Jiva as Taijasa.

This Taijasa is more lustrous (tejiyan) than Vishwa. Therefore, Shukadevas reply means

that there is no fault in the activities of the dreaming gopis. This is exactly what the

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad says. For that matter, we all know it ourselves. Nobody

deprecates anyone for the faults committed by him in his dreams. Why? The external world

keeps our mind under leash when we are awake; but the mind becomes totally free during

dreams and mixes the experiences of the real world with its imaginations creating the

dream, where the little boy Krishna can behave like an adult, and lotuses can bloom in the

night. Nevertheless, He has to first admonish the gopis for their conduct!

This article is based almost entirely on the teachings of Param Pujya Swami Paramanand

Bharati Ji. However, any errors are entirely the author's own.

This article by Nitin Kumar.

We hope you have enjoyed reading the article. Any comments you may have will be

greatly appreciated. Please send your feedback to feedback@exoticindia.com.

References & Further Reading:

Bharati, Swami Paramananda. Foundations of Dharma: Bangalore, 2008. Pande, Shri Pandit Ramtej (ed.). Shridhar Swamis Commentary on the Bhagvatam:

Delhi, 2003. Saraswati, Swami Akhandananda (tr). Shrimad Bhagavata Purana (2 Volumes):

Gorakhpur, 2004.

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