Knowledge of Krsna’s Appearances and Activities

There are two forces of nature working in us. By one we decide that in this lifetime we will make spiritual advancement, but at the next moment the other force, maya, or illusory energy, says, “What is all this trouble that you’re going to? Just enjoy this life and be easy with yourself.” This tendency to fall into forgetfulness is the difference between God and man. Arjuna is a companion and associate of Krsna’s, and whenever Krsna appears on any planet, Arjuna also takes birth and appears with Him. When Krsna spoke Bhagavad-gita to the sun god, Arjuna was also present with Him. But, being a finite living entity, Arjuna could not remember. Forgetfulness is the nature of the living entity. We cannot even remember what we were doing at this exact time yesterday or a week ago. If we cannot remember this, how is it possible to remember what happened in our previous lives? At this point we may ask how it is that Krsna can remember and we cannot, and the answer is that Krsna does not change His body.

ajo ’pi sann avyayatma
bhutanam isvaro ’pi san
prakrtim svam adhisthaya
sambhavamy atma-mayaya

“Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.” (Bg. 4.6)

The word atma-mayaya means that Krsna descends as He is. He does not change His body, but we, as conditioned souls, change ours, and because of this we forget. Krsna knows not only the past, present and future of His activities, but the past, present and future of everyone’s activities.

vedaham samatitani
vartamanani carjuna
bhavisyani ca bhutani
mam tu veda na kascana

“O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.” (Bg. 7.26)

In Srimad-Bhagavatam we also find that the Supreme Lord is defined as one who knows everything. This is not the case with even the most elevated living entities, such as Brahma and Siva. Only Visnu or Krsna knows everything. We may also ask that if the Lord does not change His body, why does He come as an incarnation? There is much difference among philosophers concerning this question. Some say that Krsna assumes a material body when He comes, but this is not the case. If He assumed a material body like ours, He could not remember, for forgetfulness is due to the material body. The actual conclusion is that He doesn’t change His body. God is called all-powerful, and in the verse quoted above, His omnipotence is explained. Krsna has no birth, and He is eternal. Similarly, the living entity has no birth, and he is also eternal. It is only the body with which the living entity identifies that takes birth.

In the very beginning of Bhagavad-gita, in the Second Chapter, Krsna explains that what we accept as birth and death is due to the body, and as soon as we regain our spiritual body and get out of the contamination of birth and death, we should be qualitatively as good as Krsna. That is the whole process of Krsna consciousness—the revival of our original sac-cid-ananda spiritual body. That body is eternal (sat), full of knowledge (cit), and blissful (ananda). This material body is neither sat, cit, nor ananda. It is perishable, whereas the person who is occupying the body is imperishable. It is also full of ignorance, and because it is ignorant and temporary, it is full of misery. We feel severe hot or severe cold due to the material body, but as soon as we revive our spiritual body, we become unaffected by dualities. Even while within the material bodies there are yogis who are impervious to dualities such as heat and cold. As we begin to make spiritual advancement while in the material body, we begin to take on the qualities of a spiritual body. If we put iron into a fire, it becomes hot, and then it becomes red-hot, and finally it is no longer iron, but fire—whatever it touches bursts into flames. As we become advanced in Krsna consciousness, our material body will become spiritualized and will no longer be affected by material contamination.

Krsna’s birth, His appearance and disappearance, are likened unto the appearance and disappearance of the sun. In the morning it appears as if the sun is born from the eastern horizon, but actually it is not. The sun is neither rising nor setting; it is as it is in its position. All risings and settings are due to the rotation of the earth. Similarly, in Vedic literatures there are prescribed schedules for the appearance and disappearance of Sri Krsna. Krsna’s rising is just like the sun. The sun’s rising and setting are going on at every moment; somewhere in the world people are witnessing sunrise and sunset. It is not that at one point Krsna is born and at another point He is gone. He is always there somewhere, but He appears to come and go. Krsna appears and disappears in many universes. We only have experience of this one universe, but from Vedic literatures we can understand that this universe is but a part of the infinite manifestations of the Supreme Lord.

Although Krsna is the Supreme Lord and is unborn and unchangeable, He appears in His original transcendental nature. The word prakrti means “nature.” In the Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, it is stated that there are many kinds of nature. These have been categorized into three basic types. There is external nature, internal nature and marginal nature. The external nature is the manifestation of this material world, and in the Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gita this is described as apara or material nature. When Krsna appears, He accepts the higher nature (prakrtim svam), not the inferior material nature. Sometimes the head of a state may go to the prison house in order to inspect the prison and see the inmates there, but the prisoners are in error if they think, “The head of the state has come to prison, so he is a prisoner just like us.” As pointed out before, Sri Krsna states that fools deride Him when He descends in human form (Bg. 9.11).

Krsna, as the Supreme Lord, can come here at any time, and we cannot object and say that He cannot come. He is fully independent, and He can come and disappear as He likes. If the head of a state goes to visit a prison, we are not to assume that he is forced to do so. Krsna comes with a purpose, and that is to reclaim fallen conditioned souls. We do not love Krsna, but Krsna loves us. He claims everyone as His son.

sarva-yonisu kaunteya
murtayah sambhavanti yah
tasam brahma mahad yonir
aham bija-pradah pita

“It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kunti, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving Father.” (Bg. 14.4)

The father is always affectionate to the son. The son may forget the father, but the father can never forget the son. Krsna comes to the material universe out of His love for us to deliver us from the miseries of birth and death. He says, “My dear sons, why are you rotting in this miserable world? Come to Me, and I’ll give you all protection.” We are sons of the Supreme, and we can enjoy life very supremely without any misery and without any doubt. Therefore we should not think that Krsna comes here just as we do, being obliged by the laws of nature. The Sanskrit word avatara literally means “he who descends.” One who descends from the spiritual universe into the material universe through his own will is called an avatara. Sometimes Sri Krsna descends Himself, and sometimes He sends His representative. The major religions of the world—Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Moslem—believe in some supreme authority or personality coming down from the kingdom of God. In the Christian religion, Jesus Christ claimed to be the son of God and to be coming from the kingdom of God to reclaim conditioned souls. As followers of Bhagavad-gita, we admit this claim to be true. So basically there is no difference of opinion. In details there may be differences due to differences in culture, climate and people, but the basic principle remains the same—that is, God or His representatives come to reclaim conditioned souls.

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.” (Bg. 4.7)

God is very compassionate. He wishes to see our miseries cease, but we are trying to adjust to these miseries. Because we are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, we are not meant for these miseries, but somehow or other we have voluntarily accepted them. There are miseries arising from the body and mind, from other living entities and from natural catastrophes. We are either suffering from all three of these miseries, or at least from one. We are always trying to make a solution to these miseries, and this attempt constitutes our struggle for existence. That solution cannot be made by our tiny brain. It can be made only when we lake to the shelter of the Supreme Lord.

We can become happy when we are reinstated in our constitutional position, and Bhagavad-gita is meant to reinstate us in that position. God and His representative also come to help. As stated previously, they descend upon the material world from the superior nature and are not subject to the laws of birth, old age, disease and death. Krsna gives Arjuna the following reasons for His descent upon the world:

paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge

“In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to re-establish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.” (Bg. 4.8)

Here Krsna says that He comes when there is a decline in dharma. The Sanskrit word dharma has been translated into English as “faith,” but faith has come to mean a religious system that goes under the name of Christian, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. But the word dharma does not have the same meaning as faith. The faith of an individual may change from Hindu to Buddhist to Christian to Moslem, etc. People have the ability to accept one faith and reject another, but dharma cannot be changed. It is the nature of every individual to render service, either to himself, his family, his community, nation or to humanity at large. This rendering of service cannot in any way be divorced from the living entity, and it is this that constitutes the dharma of every living being. Without rendering service, one cannot exist. The world goes on because we are all rendering and exchanging service. We must forget whether we are Christian, Moslem or Hindu, and we must understand that we are living entities whose constitutional position is to render service to the supreme living entity. When we reach that stage of understanding, we are liberated.

Liberation is freedom from temporary designations which we have acquired from association with material nature. Liberation is nothing more than this. Because we have material bodies, we take on so many designations; thus we call ourselves a man, a parent, an American, a Christian, Hindu, etc. These designations should be abandoned if we at all want to become free. Under no circumstances are we master. We are at the present serving, but we are serving with designations. We’re the servants of a wife, of a family, of a job, of our own senses, of our children, and if we have no children we become servants of our cats or dogs. In any case, we must have someone, something to serve. If we have no wife or child, we have to catch some dog or other lower animal in order to serve it. That is our nature. We are compelled to do it. When we at last become free from these designations and begin to render transcendental loving service to the Lord, we attain our perfectional state. We then become established in our true dharma.

Thus Sri Krsna says that He appears whenever there is a discrepancy in the dharma of the living entities, that is to say whenever the living entities cease rendering service to the Supreme. In other words, when the living entity is too busily engaged serving his senses, and there is an over-indulgence in sense gratification, the Lord comes. In India, for instance, when people were over-indulging in animal slaughter, Lord Buddha came to establish ahimsa, nonviolence to all living entities. Similarly, in the above-quoted verse, Sri Krsna says that He comes in order to protect the sadhus (paritranaya sadhunam). Sadhus are typified by their toleration of all other living entities. Despite all inconveniences and dangers, they try to give real knowledge to the people in general. A sadhu is not the friend of a particular society, community or country but is a friend of all—not only of human beings, but of animals and lower forms of life. In short, the sadhu is an enemy of no one and a friend to all. Consequently he is always peaceful. Such persons who have sacrificed everything for the Lord are very, very dear to the Lord. Although the sadhus do not mind if they are insulted, Krsna does not tolerate any insult to them. As stated in the Ninth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, Krsna is alike to all, but He is especially inclined to His devotees:

samo ’ham sarva-bhutesu
na me dvesyo ’sti na priyah
ye bhajanti tu mam bhaktya
mayi te tesu capy aham

“I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.” (Bg. 9.29)

Although Krsna is neutral to all, for one who is constantly engaged in Krsna consciousness, who is spreading the message of Bhagavad-gita, He gives special protection. It is Sri Krsna’s promise that His devotee shall never perish: kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati (Bg. 9.31).
Not only does Krsna come to protect and save His devotees, but also to destroy the wicked (vinasaya ca duskrtam). Krsna wanted to establish Arjuna and the five Pandavas, who were the most pious ksatriyas and devotees, as rulers of the world, and He also wanted to vanquish the atheistic party of Duryodhana. And as mentioned before, a third reason for His coming is to establish real religion (dharma-samsthapanarthaya). Thus Sri Krsna’s purpose for coming is threefold: He protects His devotees, vanquishes the demonic, and establishes the real religion of the living entity. He comes not only once, but many, many times (sambhavami yuge yuge) because this material world is such that in the course of time, after an adjustment is made, it will again deteriorate.

The world is so conceived that even if we make a very good arrangement, it will gradually deteriorate. After World War I an armistice was signed, and there was a short period of peace, but World War II soon came, and now that that is over they are making preparations for World War III. This is the function of time (kala) in the material world. We build up a very nice house, and after fifty years it deteriorates, and after one hundred years it deteriorates even more. Similarly, when the body is young, people care for it, always lavishing affection upon it and kissing it, but when it grows old no one cares for it. This is the nature of the material world—even if a very good adjustment is made, it will in course of time be vanquished. Therefore adjustments are periodically required, and from age to age the Supreme Lord or His representative come to make adjustments in the direction of civilization. Thus Sri Krsna descends many times to establish or rejuvenate many different religions.

From "The King Of Knowledge--Raja Vidya"