Lessons to be learned from Life of Lord Krishna

” The offering of wisdom is better than any material offering, Arjuna; for the goal of all work is spiritual wisdom ” – Bhagvad Geeta.

Lord Krishna is the eigth avatar of Lord Vishnu. He is the ” Poornavatar” as he had all 16 Kalas attributed to manifestation of divinity. The Lord takes avatar in human form for re-establishment of ” ”dharma whenever ” adharma” exceeds on earth.  As stated by Krishna himself:

paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam

dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge [BG – 4.8] meaning:

In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.

But that cannot be the only purpose of taking birth in human form as the almighty God can annihilate the evil doers by his mere will. Then why take the trouble of taking birth and living this human life? The main purpose of these avatars is to teach us the way to live our life in righteous manner and how to conduct ourselves in various situations. There are many wonderful teachings from life of Lord Krishna which all can neither be described nor be fully understood by me. However some of the teachings which i love ( but am still unable to follow) are:

Keep Smiling ( Yes our website name ”wink wink” ) : Lord Krishna faced hardships throughout his life since birth itself. A newborn separated by his birth parents, had to fight for his life since day 1, then had to leave the place and people he dearly loved ( including his adoptive parents and true love) and kill his maternal uncle and so on. I am sure you know most of the story. He had to go through so much till the end of his life but kept on facing each obstacle with a smile. This is the most important and ofcourse the most difficult life lesson taught by him.

Have a passion : Any image or statue of Lord Krishna is incomplete without his flute. This shows the importance of playing flute in his life. He loved to play flute and dance and enjoyed life to the fullest. Our passions help us in overcoming the pains and bring true joy to our hearts. Life is after all a celebration and we need to become a participant instead of just a spectator.

Do not worry about other’s opinions : We often worry what people would say and do not live our lives as per our wishes even if what we want is not wrong. Lord Krishna always did what was right and never worried about the consequences or public opinions. He eloped with Rukmani ji and even helped his sister Subhadra elope with Arjuna for the sake of love. Later in life he married sixteen thousand one hundred women whom he had rescued from demon Narkaasura to save them from facing disgrace from society for being kidnapped from the demon. So do what is right and do not worry about society’s opinions.

Women Rights : Lord Krishna was a great advocator of women’s rights and treated them with equal respect. This can be seen from many episodes in his life. He was a firm believer that girls had the right to choose the person they want to marry and should marry for love. This can be seen from his marriage with Rukmani ji and his sister’s marriage with Arjuna. His acceptance of women rescued from Narkaasura as his wives shows that women should not be blamed for the wrong deeds of someone else. This lesson should be learned by our whole society and we should stop blaming girls and women for the mis-happenings in their lives  and only punish the culprit. Women have full right to live normally in society as they are only the victims and victim shaming should be stopped immediately. Krishna also saved Draupadi from ” Cheerharan” and fulfilled the duty as a friend and brother.

Value Friendship : The way Lord Krishna helped Sudama without burdening him with any obligation shows the true meaning of friendship. He also helped Arjuna all the time and gave him advises to follow his ” dharma” and win the Mahabharata war.He is the best friend one could hope for.

” Dharma ” above All :  He left his adoptive parents, love of his life, childhood friends and place where he grew up in order to fulfill his duty. He encouraged Arjuna to fight the war against his kins and relatives as reestablishment of righteousness was his dharma. He also taught us that sometimes all tactics (whether fair or unfair) have to be used in order to win if and only if we are on the side of righteousness and are doing something for the benefit of all. He told us that we have to fight for our rights and take action then only God can help us. It is our duty to speak up and do everything in our power for what we feel is right.

Love : Krishna is God of love. He gave love to everyone who came near him. He taught us the real meaning of love.With love only we can spread joy around us and be happy ourselves.

Art of Communication : The best sweet talker and communicator the world has ever seen is none other than Lord Krishna. His words were his weapon. He motivated and inspired Pandavas throughout the war by his words. He always managed his big brother Balaram who got angry easily by twisting his words and sweet talking.Without the need of ever raising his voice he was always able to communicate effectively and convince people to do his biding.

Being a true leader and strategist : He was a born leader. He was the leader of his ” makhan chor ” toli and was always able to pull his michiefs without getting punished. The whole war of Mahabharata could be won by Pandavas only because of his strategies. Even without lifting any weapon he was sole decider of the fate of war.

Krishna’s whole life is an inspiration. Every single moment of his life was a lesson for all of us. We can live our life well if we could follow even some of his teachings.  So which of his teachings have you tried to follow and what other lessons have you learned do let me know in the comments as i know even a fraction of his life lessons could not be covered by me.

Hare Krishna.

Apoorva Yadav Kamboj.