Sree Krishna Janma Ashtami

 With the blessings of the Guru

Sree Krishna Janma Ashtami

By Hari Warrier

The eighth day of the month of Shravana, a new moon day, is celebrated as the day of the birth of Krishna.

To understand the festival, we must first understand Krishna.

What we know of Indian tradition tells us, among other things, that Krishna was the eighth avatar of Vishnu, the Preserver or the second aspect of the Trinity. That the primary purpose of his incarnation was the elimination of two leading villains of the period, Kansa (his maternal uncle) and Sisupala, a cousin. That his father Vasudeva took him to the house of Nanda and Yeshoda in the middle of the night soon after he was born, and that is where he grew up. That Krishna preserved the Pandavas and helped in the downfall of the Kauravas and several leading demons during his time on earth. That his dalliance with Radha in Vrindavan was an epic romance. That he was a fully awakened avatar, conscious of his divinity right from birth — unlike Rama of Ayodhya, who lived out his life like a gentleman. And that he died at the appointed time, wounded by an arrowhead made of a cursed shard of metal.

This is one level of truth, the commonly held belief.

Another way of looking at it is that Krishna was a fully enlightened soul, born with a certain purpose and fully aware of that purpose, rather than one who becomes enlightened during his lifetime. 

The destruction of villains, a common theme in most avatars of Vishnu, is rather curious when you consider that he is the deity of preservation.

It allows us to infer that preservation can be selective, that everything need not be preserved just because it is a creation of God — and that destruction is possible even by love. This is an important lesson, the lesson of the Sudarshan Chakra (the chakra that gives the ‘good sight’), which is the weapon of Vishnu that Krishna wielded openly in his life while at the same time remaining nonchalantly human — attacked, derided, disrespected, criticised, famously running away from battle —  and of course, dying of a minor wound.

Quite paradoxically, as a human, once he even takes Arjuna to Vaikuntha, the abode of Vishnu, where the lord is in eternal slumber upon the coils of the celestial serpent.

Since all of this appear OBVIOUSLY ridiculous to a logical mind, we must approach this narrative, the life and times of Krishna, with more awareness and greater discernment. The arhatic approach. Let us see what the Teacher reveals to us.

Sree Krishna Janma Ashtami

Sree = Light

Krishna = Darkness, black

Janma = Birth

Ashtami = The eighth

“The birth of the light black on the eighth.”

This is what the literal translation of the phrase reads. If we recast the sentence grammatically, it becomes 

“The birth of the black light on the eighth.”

Let us walk backward on this.

Ashtami or the Eighth. It is commonly held that this refers to the eighth day of the month, the day on which the avatar’s birthday is celebrated. But the word “day” is not explicitly mentioned anywhere. So if we take the festival away from the phrase, we can rethink the meaning of the word eighth.

Esoterically, we know that the ancient spiritual system revolved around a seven-chakra system, the highest being the Sahasrara or the Crown Chakra.

In the Arhatic school, with its 11-chakra system. the Crown is the 11th chakra.

Interpolating from this, it appears that “eighth” refers to the equivalent of the 12th in the Arhatic scheme — which is the 12th chakra or the seat of the soul.

Let us hold this thought, for the moment, as a temporary truth.

Next is Janma or Birth.

Birth is an act given by a mother, after a nine-month pregnancy and the expense of labour. And there is the little matter of conception, as well.

From the use of the word birth, we must interpolate that all the accompanying procedure, too, must have happened previously — before the event of the birth.

What is born, then?

The black light. 

As meditation practitioners, we are aware of the extraordinary significance of the blue pearl. We are aware that in meditation, it often appears an iridescent dark blue, at times even black, and is located energetically in the middle of the head, in the area associated with the pineal gland.

We are told by the Teacher that it is the gateway to heaven. We are told that through the blue pearl, through the eye of the peacock, the meditator’s consciousness can pass out of the crown, and become one with his soul. In other words, the consciousness can reach the 12th chakra, or in the ancient tradition, the eighth chakra. 

Sree Krishna Janma Ashtami, thus, refers to the consciousness becoming one with the Soul — or soul realisation.

Krishna, born fully soul-realised, lives his life with awareness as a soul, slays his inner enemies, does his duty, abstains from violence except when it is required by his Dharma, practices celibacy and sacred sex — having only one son — and preaches the Dharma to Arjuna. 

Krishna, playing the role of the Guru of his friend Arjuna. In the Bhagavad Gita sermon, Arjuna plays the role of the Ego, who hands over the reins of his vehicle — the chariot drawn by five horses that signify the senses — to Krishna, his higher soul.

The slaying of Sisupala and Dantavakra by Krishna using the weapon Sudarshan Chakra (not all of Krishna’s enemies are slain by the chakra) is significant. These two are supposed to be incarnations of two celestial beings, Jaya and Vijaya, cursed to be born on earth and released from their curse by getting slain three times at the hands of Vishnu. Sudarshan or the “good sight” signifies “a glimpse of the Lord” or the slaying of the ego by the higher soul. 

Kansa, for instance, is killed by an eight-year-old Krishna in a wrestling bout. Not for him the emancipation that Sisupala gets when he is slain.

The death of Krishna himself, then, signifies the departure of a soul with no return — merging into the Logos.

It is interesting, perhaps even significant, that when we work backward from Sree Krishna Janma Ashtami, exactly nine months previously is Deepawali, the festival of lights, which celebrates the victory of good over evil and the return of Rama, the previous (seventh) avatar of Vishnu, to Ayodhya, the home of his father, from exile. In Biblical terms, the return of the Prodigal Son, in esoteric terms the return of the Son the soul to the home of his Father the Spirit — or God realisation.

Some coincidence, if we reflect on the word “janma”.

With gratitude to the teacher, offered for His blessings.