Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy

CHAPTER 1

The Future Belongs to Krishna
20 July 1970 pm in C.C.I. Chambers

Question 1

QUESTIONER: WHAT ARE THE DISTINGUISHING VIRTUES OF KRISHNA THAT MAKE HIM
RELEVANT TO OUR TIME? WHAT IS HIS SIGNIFICANCE FOR US? PLEASE EXPLAIN.

Krishna is utterly incomparable, he is so unique. Firstly, his uniqueness lies in the fact that although
Krishna happened in the ancient past he belongs to the future, is really of the future. Man has
yet to grow to that height where he can be a contemporary of Krishna’s. He is still beyond man’s
understanding; he continues to puzzle and battle us. Only in some future time will we be able to
understand him and appreciate his virtues. And there are good reasons for it.

The most important reason is that Krishna is the sole great man in our whole history who reached
the absolute height and depth of religion, and yet he is not at all serious and sad, not in tears. By
and large, the chief characteristic of a religious person has been that he is somber, serious and
sad-looking – like one vanquished in the battle of life, like a renegade from life. In the long line of
such sages it is Krishna alone who comes dancing, singing and laughing.

Religions of the past were all life-denying and masochistic, extolling sorrow and suffering as great
virtues. If you set aside Krishna’s vision of religion, then every religion of the past presented a sad
and sorrowful face. A laughing religion, a religion that accepts life in its totality is yet to be born.
And it is good that the old religions are dead, along with them, that the old God, the God of our old
concepts is dead too It is said of Jesus that he never laughed. It was perhaps his sad look and the picture of his physical form on the cross that became the focal point of at traction for people, most of whom are themselves unhappy and miserable. In a deep sense Mahavira and Buddha are against life too. They are infavor of some other life in some other world; they support a kind of liberation from this life.

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