Radha the Intriguing Mystery : 2. Swami Krishnananda

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08/09/2018
Radha the Intriguing Mystery : 2.  Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on Radha Ashtami on September 14, 1983)

The very purpose of the incarnation of Bhagavan Sri Krishna was to glorify the magnificence of God. The purpose was twofold. While the establishment of righteousness and the destruction of all that is evil is one of the functions of the Avatara, and is a principle function of any Avatara or Incarnation, dharma lakshana and adharma nasha, and was also the function of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, there was something different in the life of Sri Krishna which was not so very obviously and dominantly visible in other Incarnations—namely, the demonstration of the glory of God.

The power of God in myriad forms was, of course, revealed in other Incarnations also. A terrific force manifested itself as Narasimha, and other marvellous forces of divinity manifested themselves in the well-known Incarnations in the series. But Sri Krishna is also called Lila Purushottama, which means the play of God was visibly demonstrated in his life.

How does God play? That is the history of Sri Krishna's life. Even with the furthest stretch of the imagination of human genius, this play of God cannot be comprehended by any mortal existence. It is futile to hope to understand what it is. I gave you a homely and well-known illustration of the difficulty in our understanding the relationship between the actor and the acting, though we cannot easily explain what it actually means.

But the glory of God is not merely superhuman in the sense of something transcending human relations; it also violates human relations. God is not merely a conformity to law; He is also a violation of law. This description of God may look frightening to the law-bound human mind, but the fright that it may engender gets diminished and becomes intelligible the moment we understand that a king is considered to be above the law.

All legal enactments, principles and norms of conduct and behaviour are laid down by the king, who is the highest judiciary, and the judiciary that he sets up lays down the consequences of a particular judgement or investigation of a circumstance or a situation. But the king can set at nought the judgement of the highest judiciary in his kingdom by another law altogether, which is not contrary to the operating law but transcends the operating law. To the ordinary mind this looks like a violation of the existing law.

To be continued ...


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