Bhadrapad Shukla 10, Vik.Samvat 2074, Yugabda 5119: 1 September 2017
1. FESTIVALS: Vinayaka Chavithi in gulf: The Telugu NRI community in Gulf on August 25 celebrated Vinayaka Chavithi with great devotion and dedication. For the first time in Kuwait, 6.5 feet idol of Bhagwan Vinayak was installed and over 3,000 Telugu people performed Puja.Many of NRIs in Dubai, Sharjah and other emirates bought Ganesh idols and worshipped them in their apartments. The Vinayaka Chavithi was celebrated with devotion in several labour camps. In Dubai’s Shiva Mandir, Ganesh Navaratri would continue for nine days. In Saudi Arabia, Telugu NRI families observed Vinayaka Chavithi at homes in privacy. "I adore Ganesha on every chavithi", said Rajani Srihari of Hyderabad. -GoTop
2. Jains celebrate 'Maha Paryushana Parv': Lakhs of Jains across Bharat and other places observed Maha Paryushana Parv (The World Forgiveness Day) from August 19 to 26. During this period, the Jain community celebrates Bhagwan Mahaveer's birthday. Jains walk bare foot and avoid using vehicles. At the heart of the philosophy behind Paryushan are ten universal virtues that are believed to help us purify and rectify our minds. The ten universal virtues are: Forbearance, exercising self-control; Gentleness, being kind to the nature; Uprightness, being honest with oneself; Purity, having clean thoughts and actions; Truth, being truthful; Restraint, exercising control over desires; Austerity, consuming only according to necessity; Renunciation, learning to sacrifice; Lack of possession, donating excesses to needy and Chastity, sexual restraint.-GoTop
3. RASHTRAPATI DEDICATES HIS LADAKH VISIT TO ARMED FORCES: Rashtrapati Ram Nath Kovind while presenting Colours to all five Ladakh Scouts Battalions and the Ladakh Scouts Regimental Centre on August 21 said that it has been 54 years since the Ladakh Scouts became part of the Bharatiya Army. This period has been replete with tales of heroism, honour and glory. Rashtrapatiji noted that the genesis of the Regiment was in the invasion by Pakistani raiders in 1947-48 and the resolve with which Ladakhis defended their motherland. This continues to remain a matter of pride for the entire country. Rashtrapatiji further stated that in a little over half a century, the Regiment has earned 605 Honours and Awards for conspicuous gallantry and distinguished service. This speaks for the exceptional valour and spirit of the Regiment personnel and is a model for all soldiers and officers of our armed forces. They have earned the distinction in various wars and operations and excelled in sports, adventure pursuits and professional challenges.-GoTop
4. Won’t tolerate violence in the name of faith: Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi on August 27 reiterated his government’s resolve not to tolerate violence in the name of faith after rioting by 'godman' Gurmeet Ram Rahim's followers left at least 36 dead and scores injured. "I had said it in my address at the Red Fort that violence in the name of faith will not be tolerated whether it is communal belief systems, following a particular political ideology, whether it is allegiance to a person or customs and traditions. No one has the right to take law in their hands in the name of faith.. ..Our Constitution has every provision for ensuring justice for each and every person. Those who take the law in their hands or take to violence, be it a person or a group, neither the country nor the government will tolerate it". Modi said in his monthly radio address Mann Ki Baat.
Modi once again spoke about 'New Bharat', having urged people in his last address to prepare a roadmap for a 'New Bharat' in the next five years. "Cleanliness should be inextricably linked to festivals," he said, urging people to build an environmental consciousness when it comes to celebrating festivals.-GoTop
5. Doklam defused: Tensions ease for now, use crisis as opportunity to shore up Indian position on China: Plaudits are due to Indian diplomacy for having defused a dangerous crisis on the border. But there is little room either for triumphalism or for complacency. The end of the Doklam standoff between India and China bolsters stability in Asia - at least for now. The 72 day standoff began when New Delhi objected to Chinese road building in the India-Bhutan-China trijunction area in Doklam. The latter was in contravention of a 2012 agreement that trijunction boundary points are to be decided through consultation between all three parties. India was forced to intervene when the Chinese side disregarded its strategic sensitivities in the region and brushed aside ally Bhutan's protestations.
Unlike China which used its official spokespersons and state-run media to issue strident statements in an attempt to build psychological pressure on India, the latter quietly but firmly stuck to its position on the basis of legal principles and past agreements.
This was smart strategy as dragging the dispute was disadvantageous for Beijing. With a major Chinese Communist Party congress coming up in a few months and the marquee September 3-5 Brics summit being hosted in China's Xiamen, the Chinese leadership was under pressure to resolve the Doklam issue without appearing to concede much.
In that sense, India provided China a face-saver by not contesting Beijing's interpretation of the withdrawal and keeping the terms of Doklam disengagement under wraps. However, the lack of an explicit understanding also means China can resume road building in Doklam in future, or press India at other places along the Line of Actual Control.
This necessitates a two-pronged approach. First, India needs to remain vigilant and strengthen its position on the ground. Building and upgrading critical border infrastructure to facilitate movement of troops is necessary to safeguard strategic interests and add muscle to diplomacy.
Further, India should leverage its huge market for Chinese goods and use this as a bargaining chip - if the Chinese can block Indian goods and services through non-tariff barriers, New Delhi could raise quality issues with Chinese imports. Such economic measures should force China to take Indian interests more seriously. That said, New Delhi should also not lock itself into an anti-China mode. Chinese leadership is neither a monolith nor impractical.
There are many in Beijing who want beneficial ties. New Delhi should be prepared to capitalise on this when an opportunity presents itself.(Editorial, Times of India, August 30’2017). -GoTop
6. Jasleen Kaur Josan becomes 2nd Bharatiya woman to fly for NASA's Mars Mission: After Kalpana Chawla, Jasleen Kaur Josan has become the 2nd Bharatiya Woman and the first Sikh woman to be selected by NASA for the Mars Expedition happening in 2030.
The mission called the Orion Mission will be the first man mission to the red planet and candidates were selected from around the world. "It will likely take nine months to reach there, three months to stay there, and then another nine months to return. So it’s a 21-month mission in total", said Jasleen Kaur. She shared that she and her family are more excited than nervous about the chance to go Mars. -GoTop
7. 12-year-old BHARATIYA-origin boy crowned 'Child Genius' in UK: A 12-year-old Bharatiya-origin boy has been crowned the UK's 'Child Genius' in a popular television quiz competition, days after he became an overnight sensation after answering all questions correctly. Rahul Doshi won the Channel 4 show 'Child Genius' by beating his nine-year-old opponent Ronan 10-4 in the finale. The schoolboy from North London clinched the title by answering a question on 19th Century artists William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. "It didn't sink in straight away, but it was really nice," Rahul said after winning the title. In the final, he impressed with knowledge of his chosen subject - Edward Jenner's medical innovation and methodology in 18th Century England. -GoTop
8. Late Ushatai was dedication personified: Sarsanghchalak: Late Ushatai Chati was a great personality who showered motherly love and affection to each and every one who came in her contact. She had motherly affection for all, said RSS Sarsanghchalak Dr Mohanrao Bhagwat in Nagpur on August 24. He was speaking at a program organized to pay tributes to late Ushatai Chati, the third Pramukh Sanchalika of Rashtra Sevika Samiti who passed away on 17th August. Present Pramukh Sanchalika of Samiti Shantakka, and Shri Jitendra Nath Maharaj, Head of the Deonath Mutt were present on the dais. Shantakka explained the meaning of 'Usha' and said 'Usha Suktam' is the Vedic Hymn in Rigveda that explains how the dawn of knowledge begins to dissipate the darkness of ignorance before the brilliance of true understanding fills our intellect and mind. Jitendra Nath Maharaj said that Ushatai was the perennial source of divine energy, blessings and guidance. -GoTop
9. SARASANGHACHALAKJI UNFURLS TRICOLOUR AT KERALA SCHOOL DESPITE ‘BAN’: RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat on August 15 unfurled the national flag to inaugurate the Swatantrata Diwas celebrations at a higher secondary school in Palakkad district of Kerala despite an instruction of restraint issued by the district administration. The Sarsanghchalak was in Palakkad for a two-day RSS Baithak that started on August 14. "This was entirely a decision of the school management," said U Kailasamani, a member of the management committee. "And this was absolutely legal," he added. Addressing the students, Bhagwat said: "It is our duty to remember the hard efforts and sacrifices of those who had laid down their lives during the Independence struggle.. .. With our efforts and sacrifices we will make this world peaceful and blissful," he said. -GoTop
10. RSS sarkaryavah calls for boycotting Chinese goods: Amidst the Sino-Bharatiya border standoff, RSS Sarkaryavah Bhaiyya ji Joshi on August 15 called for boycotting Chinese goods and promoting the use of 'swadeshi' products. "China is constantly making efforts to grab the Bharatiya market. So, Chinese goods should be boycotted," Joshi said at Indore. He advocated use of swadeshi goods to check the "influx" of China-made items in the country.
"Our alert armed forces are capable of checking intrusion at the borders, but to prevent the country from economic slavery, people have to check the entry of Chinese goods into Bharatiya markets," Joshi said after unfurling the tricolour at a college in Indore on the occasion of the Independence Day. -GoTop
11. Thousands celebrate at india Day Parade in New York: The 37th India Day Parade organised by the Federation of Bharatiya Associations - New York, New Jersey, Connecticut - ran through several streets in Madison Avenue in Manhattan on August 20 to celebrate Bharat's 71st Swatantrata Divas and featured tableaux by several Bharatiya-American organisations, marching bands, police contingents and cultural performances by young Bharatiya-American children. Greeting the crowd, New York city Mayor Bill de Blasio said, "This is a day we appreciate what people do for the city regardless of what they look like, regardless of what language they speak, regardless of where they were born". -GoTop
12. Trudeau’s kurta-pyjama, 'Jai Hind' win hearts at Montreal's Bharat Day parade: Clad in kurta-pyjama, Justin Trudeau made his maiden appearance at an event celebrating Bharat’s Independence Day after he became Canada’s Prime Minister and won the crowd over by concluding his speech with "Jai Hind".While multiple events marked the 71th anniversary of Bharat's independence and were held on the first Sunday following August 15, the Bharat Day Unity Parade in Montreal was the one that drew the Prime Minister. -GoTop
13. Harvard teaching 'The Great Epics' Ramayana and Mahabharata: Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana will be taught in the upcoming Fall semester at Harvard University (HU), one of the world's top and United States' oldest institution of higher education established in 1636. These great Sanskrit epics will be focus of the graduate level "Bharatiya Religions Through Their Narrative Literatures: The Epics" class taught by Professor Anne E. Monius of Harvard Divinity School.
14. SEWA USA SERVES PEOPLE IN DISTRESS IN HOUSTON: Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Southeast Texas. In Houston, home to almost six million people, most neighborhoods were inundated and thousands of people had their houses flooded with more than a few feet of water on August 29. Sewa International volunteers in Houston were on the ground conducting rescue and relief operations. Preeti Kankikarla, a young professional living with her 65-year-old mother was stranded in her ground floor apartment as the water level kept rising inside her apartment. She heard the radio announcement and called the Sewa hotline. Sewa volunteers in the neighborhood immediately reached her and helped her move into a first-floor apartment. The President of Sewa International’s Houston Chapter, Gitesh Desai said, "Major Indian organizations such as, India House, India Cultural Center, Indo-American Charity Foundation, Hindus of Greater Houston and Indo-American Political Action Committee have decided to coordinate all the relief efforts through Sewa International." -GoTop
15. OBITUARY: Shri Vasant Pandav, one of the pioneering swayamsevak of HSS USA passed away at Chicago after a brief illness. He was in USA for over 50 years and was instrumental in the activities of VHP America, HSS and Sewa. -GoTop
16. SHRI VISHWA NIKETAN: Pravas: Visitors:
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: We behold what we are, and we are what we behold - Bhagwadgeeta -GoTop
JAI SHREE RAM
BURIED ON THE MOUND OF THE DEAD
He discovered the Mohenjodaro ruins that changed history only to find himself thrust into oblivion not only by his British superior but also by future generations of his countrymen. Paromita Sen tells the fascinating story of Rakhaldas Banerji
Exactly a hundred years ago began the journey that led to the discovery of Mohenjodaro in Larkana district in Sind, now in Pakistan. That journey took off in Calcutta. The olden story was unravelling at a talk organised at the Bharatiya Museum in Calcutta in June. The speaker, Phanikanta Mishra, used to be director of the Eastern Circle of the Archaeological Survey of Bharat (ASI).
Mishra's narrative turned around Rakhaldas Banerji, who was also with the ASI. Not too many people remember Rakhaldas, not even within the ASI. His centenary in 1985 passed unmarked, as did his 125th year of birth. There is only one photograph of him, commonly available - it shows an unremarkable Bharatiya in Western wear, hair parted in the middle and a Chaplinesque moustache. Mishra continued. The year 1917 turned out to be a lucky one for Rakhaldas. To begin with, there was the promotion. Rakhaldas, who was at the time assistant superintendent of the ASI and in-charge of the archaeological section at Calcutta's Bharatiya Museum, was made superintendent of the Western Circle. It was a big deal. The Western Circle was, after all, the largest circle and comprised Bombay, Sind, Hyderabad and central Bharat. Rakhaldas moved to Pune to assume his new charge.
Mishra's talk is long but not long enough. His book on Rakhaldas is yet to be published. Is there anyone who can tell us more? Mishra claims Rakhaldas's granddaughters live in Calcutta but won't talk. "They are furious with the ASI for wronging Rakhaldas," he says and clams up on specifics.
A book on Rakhaldas by Banaras Hindu University (BHU) scholar Yama Pande was written in the late 1980s and published in 2016. Pande died in 1991 but her detailed research helps The Telegraph piece together the Mohenjodaro discovery puzzle.
Rakhaldas had joined ASI as an excavation assistant in 1910. It was an open secret that he was the blue-eyed employee of Sir John Marshall, director-general of the ASI, though no one could deny the fact that he was a very learned man - scholar, epigraphist and numismatist.
"Rakhaldas started very young," says Gautam Sengupta of Visva Bharati's department of Ancient Bharatiya History, Culture and Archaeology. The former director-general of the ASI talks about the legend's many-splendoured contributions: his books Bangalar Itihasa or The History of Bengal and Prachin Mudra or Ancient Coins; the coin catalogue for the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, a literary society in Calcutta; and a book on the eastern Bharatiya medieval school of sculpture. In her book Monuments, Objects, Histories, Tapati Guha-Thakurta, professor of History at the Centre for the Study of Social Sciences in Calcutta, writes: "The whole venture of 'scientific' history writing that Rakhaldas and his contemporaries spearheaded in those years was premised on the centrality of the datable artefact and its reliability as an evidence for history... allowing it [the study of the past] to break free of its dependence on mythological or literary texts."
Rakhaldas also wrote historical novels - nine - in Bengali. "They gave him the chance to go beyond limits imposed by archaeology and articulate his own perception of the past," says Sengupta. Commenting on one titled Pashaner Katha, Guha-Thakurta says: "It is a scholar's novel and the way he uses his archaeological knowledge to turn a dead monument into a living history of a people is amazing." The novel is an autobiography of Bharhut Stupa of Satna, Madhya Pradesh. The stupa is now housed at the Bharatiya Museum.
He was also a nationalist. His early novels are mostly set in the pre-Muslim period when the Pala and Sena dynasties (8th to 12th centuries) ruled the eastern part of the Bharatiya subcontinent. This period, according to him, represented "Bengali civilisation" at its heights.
So a picture emerges of Rakhaldas as a scientific man, obsessed with dates, proud of his culture and looking for ways to acknowledge that culture beyond the British framework within which he operated in his professional capacity. He was a man of independent thought, brought up in privilege. His father's family had been in the service of the Nawab of Bengal, while his mother's side served the ruling family of Cooch Behar. This was not a man who was going to unquestioningly accept the superiority of the British.
The situation was ripe for a clash.
As boss of the Western Circle, in 1920, Rakhaldas came upon some mounds in the dry beds of the Indus river. And this while he was looking for Greek victory pillars.
"The reason he was looking for Greek pillars was that Marshall wanted him to find relics from the Gandhara period (1st to 5th century) to prove J.T. Wheeler's thesis that Bharatiya civilisation learned from the Graeco-Roman one," says Sengupta.
The British notion was that Bharatiyas were incapable of reaching the standards in classical architecture and sculpture that they did just by themselves.
The first round of excavations revealed a Buddhist stupa belonging to the Kusana period (2nd and 3rd centuries). As the area around the stupa was dug up, the archaeological team came upon microliths (tiny flints, part of a bigger tool) and pieces of pottery that did not match anything found earlier. Further excavations revealed a 5,000-year-old civilisation only a few feet below the Buddhist structure.
Former director of the Bharatiya Museum Shyamal Chakrabarty has a story about the discovery of Mohenjodaro. It goes: Rakhaldas was feeling the inside of an earthen vessel found while excavating the stupa. He was checking for cracks, when he cut his finger on something. On close inspection, it turned out to be a microlith or flint. More such microliths were found at the site.
Rakhaldas knew his proto-historic objects. Proto-history refers to the time before recorded history of a culture begins. The microliths helped him join the dots. The dots that put him on the Mohenjodaro trail.
At the time, Pandit Daya Ram Sahni was excavating Harappa. Rakhaldas figured out the connection between the two places.
The discovery of Mohenjodaro immediately put Bharatiya civilisation in the same league as the Egyptian and Mesopotamian ones, the world's oldest. Without it, the British would never have accepted that Bharatiya civilisation pre-dated theirs. Immediately after his "discovery", Rakhaldas submitted an internal report to Marshall. It didn't get published but the news that an ancient Bharatiya civilisation had been found was splashed in the Illustrated London News in 1924. The discovery was credited to Sir John Marshall. Yama Pande writes how Rakhaldas wanted to continue excavations at Mohenjodaro but funds dried up, as did his luck. The next thing we know, a series of incidents took him farther and farther away from Mohenjodaro. First, he was diagnosed with diabetes and had to take a few months off. Then, he was transferred back to the Eastern Circle for medical treatment. But that was all logistics.
Intellectually, Rakhaldas continued to be preoccupied with Mohenjodaro. In 1926, he submitted a detailed report to Marshall.
In Rakhalcharit, Rakhaldas's biography published in the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad magazine, Suniti Kumar Chatterjee writes that when Marshall did not acknowledge the report, Rakhaldas wrote to him saying: "These people [the ASI] will not allow me to publish anything on Mohenjodaro but you can. I am sending you my findings, conclusions and photographs..." The article was eventually published in a Bengali periodical, possibly without the knowledge of the ASI.
Soon after, Rakhaldas sought permission to visit the Chausath Yogini temple in Bhedaghat near Jabalpur to check some inscriptions. Ten days after his visit in October 1925, the temple mahant lodged an FIR against him. Reason cited: removal of a statue from the site. An arrest warrant was issued in his name, writes historian and friend Ramesh Chandra Majumdar in the foreword to the second edition of Bangalar Itihasa.
Eventually, the case was dismissed and the departmental enquiry found the charges against him unsupported. Marshall, however, made it clear that Rakhaldas should resign.
So far as the Marshall-Rakhaldas equation is concerned, different people have different takes. Shyamal Chakraborty holds that Marshall was genuinely fond of Rakhaldas and supported him. "Only when the student became greater than the teacher did the odd jealousy reveal itself."
Jayanta Sengupta, director of the Bharatiya Museum, says this credit-taking was routine behaviour. "In those days Bharatiyas did not get any credit, be it Radhanath Sikdar [mathematician and surveyor who first calculated the height of Mount Everest] or Rakhaldas Banerji. The Bharatiyas did the legwork and the sahibs took all the credit."
After his dismissal, Rakhaldas, who had a lavish lifestyle, found himself short of funds. According to Majumdar, he was generous to a fault, loved good food, employed a Portuguese chef, maintained two phaetons and a bunch of friends. His admirers jumped to his rescue, says Guha-Thakurta. The Maharaja of Mayurbhanj commissioned him to write a history of Odisha, Sir Asutosh Mukherjee offered him a job in Calcutta University, claims the varsity website. Educationist and politician Madan Mohan Malaviya invited Rakhaldas to head the department of Ancient Bharatiya History And Culture at the newly-founded BHU.
Rakhaldas joined BHU in 1928. Two years later, at 45, he succumbed to diabetes-related complications. Shyamal Chakrabarty reveals that in January 1930, Rakhaldas received a letter from the then director-general of the ASI, H. Hargreaves. The letter came along with a 166-page typewritten document - the article on Mohenjodaro that Rakhaldas had sent Marshall four years ago. The letter read: "Sir John thinks it could be unkind to not let you know that many of your theories are quite untenable and your statements incorrect." Hargreaves also urged Rakhaldas to get his "report" printed before the book by Marshall was out so "there are no misunderstandings". The photographs, he informed, had gone missing.
The book, Mohenjodaro and the Indus Civilisation, edited by Sir John Marshall was published in 1931. In the foreword, Marshall mentions Rakhaldas's name as something he "can't pass over in silence" and says "to him belongs the credit of having discovered if not Mohenjodaro itself, at any rate its high antiquity". (The Telegraph India, 27th August 2017) -GoTop
Dr Asha Goswami
The spiritual and mystical significations of the Krishna concept have inspired the mankind from time immemorial. Spiritualism and mysticism, which are considered its most important aspects, have assimilated with it in the later Puranas. The later vaishnava acharyas, with an objective to provide theological ideals to the people, had purposely woven around Krishna fantastic spiritual aura, which the people could resort to and forget sordid experiences of life.
It is also held that most of the Krishna legends are construed according to the pattern of mysticism and symbology. Now, what is mysticism? It is a process of reaching the direct and intuitive experience of the supreme reality or to experience the transports of the divine passion by using metaphors from amorous phraseology such as when the wine is treated as equivalent to devotion and the drunkenness and merriment are held as arduous religious acts. Such being the signification of mysticism, theology and spiritualism can be also termed its synonyms. The study of Krishna legends shows that mostly these are replete with mystic and spiritual imports. The term lila, which is generally applied for the Krishna legend, being the main basis for the same. Sincelila itself denotes an event which does not belong to the past and is not historical, rather it belongs to the realm of mysticism and is a divine act which is ever present in time, and space; it is even present in the life of every spiritual person.
Moreover, Shri Krishna himself over several centuries had been the object of profound philosophical and mystical speculations with a set of concepts, such as the theory of rebirth and metamorphism (change of personality). Along with it, the ideals of Bengal Vaishavism, which were full of mysticism, were incorporated in the reconstructed Krishna legend. The same led to assume River Yamuna and its waters as symbols of sushumna nadi, the river of life from which flows the nectar prana; Putana in her former life as daughter of the demon King Bali and a great devotee of Vishnu Krishna; Kalpa tree of heaven to have turned into the Kadamb tree; Siddhas, sadhyas and Gandharvas to have incarnated into the birds at Vrindavana. Krishna's flute is held the same as God Rudra himself. Besides, the concept of symbol is applied to Shri Krishna right from his birth. His birth as the eighth child apart from denoting mystical significations that he serves the helping medium for the evolution of a jiva (endowed with seven faculties) also depicts him as representative of super perfection, since the number seven stands for perfection. His association with Yogamaya, who helped him arrive into the world, is held as suggesting Samkhya philosophy’s famous dogma that Param Purusha's arrival into the world is possible with the help of prakriti only.
Similarly, Krishna's other Vrajalilas with Radha are treated ever eternal and being constantly repeated throughout the space. His other associates at Vraja are held as reincarnations of the Gods. Whereas, the asuras killed by him in mystical terminology represent all types of vices. Vrindavana is mystically termed the garden of everybody's heart where Shri Krishna teaches devotion of love through the symphony of flute to all those who offer their hearts to him. As Vraja of Krishna mystically represents the highest platform of the deep realisation of an individual, at the same time, Gokula stands for the abode of bliss incarnate Nanda, who himself is one and the same as Brahma. Hence, his abode Gokula represents the Brahmaloka where the trees represent the ascetics of the previous yuga. Gokula also stands for the field of spiritual growth and devotional pursuits and for the highest state of spiritually awakened person, which is fully under the control of Nanda, the bliss incarnate supreme being. Gopis' love for Krishna mystically implies love of the individual soul for the supreme soul. The lakuti (stick) carried by Krishna is representative of God Brahma. The cows, that are constantly taken care of by him, represent his devotees, as they always give him the milk of their devotion.
Accordingly, Krishna's stealing of butter from Gopis' houses, which is one of the most sportive Krishna lilas was enacted by him to instil supreme delight in Gopis' hearts and also to steal away their evil thoughts. Krishna's dancing on the hoods of Kaliya serpent spiritually denotes that he could in a sportive way deal with the purification of the surrounding region which was affected by the venomous serpent. His raasa enactment with Radha and the Gopis spiritually denotes his playing and enjoying with his own self, or aatmakreeda, and the Gopis are held representing his own self. Krishna’s raasa dance also runs parallel with erotic mysticism, a mode of Krishnabhakti where the mighty sex impulse is converted into a passionate holy emotion. Krishna’s arrival at Mathura and enthroning his maternal grandfather spiritually denotes a pilgrim's journey and his progress towards the supreme father's abode, and also the individual soul entering the ultimate blissful state. Kamsa, as the Kalanemi incarnate who was killed by Krishna at Mathura, mystically implies the spiritual evolution by jiva by putting down the effects of time. As Dvarakadhisha, Shri Krishna too represents the supreme Brahma himself, while his varied wives are held as representing the rays of the Sun. Spiritually, it is also believed that Krishna does not possess the material body, as the Krishna name itself suggests him as representing accumulation of dark complexion; one who is the resort of glory; is the accumulation of all bright things; one who constitutes the forms of all the beings and is the abode of all. While concluding the spiritual overtones of Krishna legends it may be ascertained that the fantastic dreamland of mysticism and spiritualism reverberates throughout the Krishna legend for the souls seeking onto a new heaven, Krishna Loka, which is divided into different regions Vrindavana-Mathura and Dvaraka. (The writer is a noted Indologist and authority on Krishnaite Studie, Daily Pioneer August 20, 2017 ) -GoTop
SHRI VISHWA NIKETAN vishwav@bol.net.in www.shrivishwaniketan.blogspot.com
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