Simply Citified!

This is a post I had in my old blog. Moving it here...

I was doing some research about one of the Hindu festivals, known as Krishna Jayanthi - the birth of Lord Krishna - because I was intending to write about it for a couple of different publications. And my mind wandered to some very interesting points, that I just had to express in my blog.

If you already know the background information of Lord Krishna's birth, then skip to the next part of this blog entry. 

If you don't know anything about it, please read this section 1st. Yes, it's a must. 

For my non-Indian readers, this is Lord Krishna:

As most of you might know, Hinduism idolises God in many forms. They are actually personifications of the Universe itself. In olden days, the scholarly Saints made up all these different Gods to put the power of the Universe in layman terms for the simple peasants of those times, to understand the cycle of life better. 

So, as the story goes, the birth of Lord Sri Krishna was under very peculiar circumstances, and I could not help but find some details of the story to be abnormally amusing in illogical ways. 

In our mythology, every God / Goddess has the purpose of defeating evil in some form. Lord Krishna had the same. 

There was a very evil King called Kamsa, who ruled the Land of Mathura in India. He had a sister, Devaki, whom he married off to one of the high ranking officers in his army, named Vasudeva. 

On the day of their wedding, a voice from heaven said that Vasudeva's and Devaki's 8th child would be born to kill the Evil King Kamsa. 

Now, he's called evil for a reason. He decided to kill his sister then and there, but her newly wedded husband, valour and all, stepped in and pleaded with Kamsa to spare his bride's life. Kamsa agreed and decided to lock them up in the dungeon instead, on the sole condition that he will kill every child that was born to Vasudeva and Devaki. 

Of course, long story short, Lord Krishna was born as the 8th child and the 6 previous children were killed in a very brutal fashion (The 7th child has a separate story of its own). Lord Krishna managed to escape because, ahem, He is God being born as a human for a purpose. If he dies here, then evil wins, and that cannot happen. He is switched at birth with another baby and so he survives. The other baby was a Goddess disguised to fulfill the prophecy so nothing happens to that baby either. 

In the end, He kills Kamsa. This is celebrated as another festival, but that's not the point I want to talk about.

The Point(s) I want to talk about:

Ok, there are various points that pop into my head right about now.

#1. Why, heaven? Why would you want to announce to the whole world that child number 8 would kill Kamsa? I mean, why don't you just keep it a surprise? Things would have been much easier that way. 

#2. Note to Kamsa. Dude, you're an evil king. I know evil people let slip their caution when they do their evil deeds so that good will eventually win and stuff, but seriously, where'd your brain go? Why in the world, would you put a husband and wife together in a dungeon cell? Why didn't you just separate them and put them in 2 different cells? That way they would never have had kids, and you wouldn't have had the need to accumulate sins by killing 6 newborn babies, AND you wouldn't have had to worry about baby number 8 killing you, cuz there wouldn't have been a baby in the 1st place. If only you had just separated them.

#3. Note to Vasudeva and Devaki. Seriously?? You were put in a dungeon cell and you knew that all your kids are going to be killed, and yet... AND YET, you still had the cheek to go ahead and consummate your marriage? In a dungeon cell? That too, 8 kids? When you knew they were all going to be killed? How? Just, how? I just cannot wrap my head around it. 

Yes, I know that this revolves around the whole destiny thing that everyone constantly talks about. And it just HAD to happen this way because the 1st 6 kids, were actually souls with bad karma carried over from their previous lives. Once they were killed, their souls received moksham or liberation from the cycle of life and death. Yeap, Hindus believe in reincarnation. 

Well, yeah I also know there were many other reasons behind why it happened the way it did, but it would have been a lot nicer if people told the story together with these hidden reasons, rather than leave inquisitive minded geniuses like me to go forage for these answers. Imagine how many others might be out there with these same logical questions lingering in their minds? And because of things like these, many people misunderstand Hinduism and think it's a very dumb way of life (Hinduism is not a religion, it's a way of life), with thousands of different Gods and Goddesses and a gazillion different rituals that don't make any sense. 

Hinduism is actually the oldest and richest culture around, and it is sad that its richness has been lost through time and generations of retelling all the many myths and folklore. The one I've mentioned in this post is just one among the many misunderstood scriptures. 

But now, after a long gap of ignorant generations (not really, but it adds to the dramatic effect of the point I'm about to make), the youngsters are seemingly more interested in finding the hidden truth behind Hinduism, and I am proud to say I'm one of them. I've been doing research into various topics, and I know it'll take eons for one to master Hinduism, especially while living in a materialistic era like now. Regardless of that, I'll try my best to do my part in spreading the truth as far and wide as I can. My plan for now? Writing about Hinduism and Indian Culture in Yahoo!. 

And till then, Lord Krishna, please forgive this "impish" soul whose mind just so happened to wander off in search of a logical explanation for the circumstances that lead to your birth. I am sincerely sorry. But I bet you're secretly glad I did. 

P.S. Yes, we are allowed to talk to our Gods and Goddesses like friends in Hinduism.