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Krishna

THE MAN AND HIS PHILOSOPHY

Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself

Question 3

 

 

Energy Enhancement           Enlightened Texts            Krishna            Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy

 

 

Question 3

QUESTIONER: THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO THE LIFE OF EVERY GREAT MAN. WHILE ONE SIDE IS PERSONAL AND PRIVATE, THE OTHER IS OPEN, PUBLIC. THESE FEW DAYS THAT YOU HAVE BEEN TALKING TO US ABOUT KRISHNA, WE HAVE BEEN HELPED TO UNDERSTAND SOME FEATURES OF HIS LIFE WHICH ARE SUCH THAT IF WE TRY TO IMITATE HIM TODAY WE WILL AT ONCE BE OSTRACIZED BY THE SOCIETY. WE CANNOT PLAY PRANKS WITH OUR GIRLFRIENDS IN THE STREETS; WE CANNOT RUN AWAY WITH THEIR CLOTHES WHILE THEY ARE BATHING IN A SWIMMING POOL; WE CANNOT DANCE WITH OUR RADHAS AS KRISHNA DANCES WITH HIS RADHA WHO IS HIS GIRLFRIEND, NOT HIS WIFE -- EVEN IF WE ARE DEEP IN LOVE WITH THEM. BUT ANOTHER SIDE OF KRISHNA'S LIFE IS ABOVE-BOARD. HIS SAYINGS HAVE TREMENDOUS RELEVANCE FOR ALL TIMES -- PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. AND IT IS IN THIS CONTEXT THAT WE REQUEST YOU TO SHED LIGHT ON HIS PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, ON HIS DISCIPLINE OF WORK, KNOWLEDGE AND NON-ATTACHMENT, AND HIS ART OF LIVING, SO THAT WE CAN EMULATE HIM IN OUR DAY TO DAY LIFE.

Don't think that only in the present it is difficult to play the role of Krishna; it was difficult in Krishna's own times. Otherwise there would have been not only one, but any number of Krishnas. And if it seems difficult for you today to become Krishna-like, know that it would have been as difficult in Krishna's time if you were his contemporaries. And for Krishna it would be as easy to be a Krishna today -- if he were born again -- as it was in his own days. But this illusion stems from our idea and habit of following and imitating others in every way. In fact, imitation is the beginning of all our problems.

You could never have imitated Krishna if you lived in his days, nor can you imitate him now. It is impossible. And if you do, you are right in saying that you will end up in a mess.

I have been talking on Krishna's life and philosophy not so that you will make him your ideal and imitate him. Nothing is farther from me than the idea of imitation. If we can understand Krishna's life, it will help us to understand our own life in its right perspective. If we fully unfold and understand Krishna's life, which is vast and multidimensional, it will enable us to unfold our own life and know it. But you will never understand Krishna if you think in terms of imitating him.

If we imitate someone or other, we will never understand him because of that. And we will never understand our own life. In fact, the reason we want to imitate someone is that we don't want to take the trouble of understanding ourselves. It is convenient to live in somebody else's shadow and imitate him; it is a way to escape the arduous task of understanding ourselves. Understanding begins when someone ceases to imitate others, to be like others, when he wants to know directly who he is and what he can be.

The life of one who has achieved his full unfoldment helps to understand one's own life. It doesn't mean that one becomes like him, becomes his carbon copy. To become like others is neither possible nor desirable. Everyone is different and will remain different.

If you think in terms of imitation when we are discussing Krishna -- and it seems from your question that you do think in such terms -- then you will never understand Krishna. Never mind Krishna, you will never understand yourselves.

Secondly I would like to emphasize that although Krishna's philosophy, his vision of truth is significant and useful, it is not to be imitated, followed. When I ask you not to imitate his life which is so rich and dynamic, how can I ask you to imitate his ideas and thoughts, even his truth expressed in words? No, you have only to understand them, not follow and imitate them.

Of course as you understand Krishna your own understanding and intelligence will grow and deepen; it will enrich you in your own way, No ideas, no thoughts, no principles will help you; only understanding will. Understanding is the key, the master key.

It is unfortunate that imitation has become the hallmark of our life; we imitate from the cradle to the grave. We imitate others' ways of living; we imitate their ideas and thoughts. We are nothing more than imitators in every aspect of life.

Before I go into Krishna's philosophy, it is necessary to warn you against imitation and following. Don't follow anyone, not even Krishna. I say so not because it is not possible today to play pranks on your girlfriends or to run away with their clothes or to dance with them in the streets, Everything is possible, there is no difficulty in it. And if dancing with girlfriends is difficult today, it was difficult in Krishna's time too. Playing a flute was as difficult then as it is now. There is no basic difference between old and new times; the differences are minor. So it is not because of changed times that I ask you not to imitate. Imitation itself is wrong, utterly wrong, and it is always wrong. Imitation is suicidal. If you want to kill yourself, then only is imitation okay.

Krishna never imitates anyone. Buddha does not follow others. Can you name a person whom Krishna or Buddha or Christ ever imitated? It is ironic that we imitate those who never imitated others. It is so absurd. So the first thing to know about men like Krishna is that they never follow and imitate others, howsoever great the others may be. Persons like Krishna, Buddha, and Christ, are the exquisite flowerings of individuality; they are not carbon copies of others.

But we all try to imitate others. And imitation is dangerous. Playing the flute or loving a Radha is not so dangerous. Even today one does not refrain from falling in love with somebody else's wife. It happens almost every day. The husband is afraid of his wife, the wife is afraid of her husband, and yet extra marital relations happen everywhere. And it is no thing new, it has always been so. As long as husbands and wives ate there, their fear of each other will be there. And to be without husbands and wives is equally frightening. Man as he is is in fear. and this fear permeates his whole life.

Let us first understand this fear, and then we will go into the matter of truth and reality. You are not afraid of imitating Krishna because of public opinion. Fear of imitation is more basic, and I would like to go into it before I take up your question on philosophy and truth. I did not go into Krishna's personal life on my own, but because you had asked questions about it. And as you have raised the question of the fear of imitating Krishna, I will deal with it first and then take up the rest of the question.

The basic fear of imitation is quite different. Imitation in itself is unnatural and ugly and wrong. In this whole world no two persons are alike, the same; they cannot be. Each person is different, unique and incomparable. There is no way to compare you with any other person in the whole world. You are like you; you are you. Never a person like you has happened in the long past of mankind, and never one like you is going to happen again in the future. God is a creator; he is creativity itself; he is always original, and whatever he creates is original. He never makes a carbon copy, he has no use for carbon papers in the whole process of creation. He never repeats; you can't accuse him of repetition. And therefore, if you deny your individuality and try to follow and be like somebody else, you are violating the fundamental law of life. Imitation is a crime against God. He made you an individual and you are trying to be somebody's copy. He gave you individuality, and you are trying to impose somebody else's personality on yourself, an alien personality. This is the basic fear and fundamental problem of our life.

Up to now all religions of the world have taught imitation. Parents and teachers all over the world exhort young men and women from their early childhood to be like others, they never ask them to be like themselves, to be themselves. They insist to you, "Be like Krishna, Christ or Buddha, but never commit the mistake of being like yourself." Why? How is it that all educational institutions in the world teach you to be imitators and they never ask you to be yourself?

There are good reasons for it. The most important reason is that if everyone becomes himself, he will be a free individual, a rebel -- not a conformist, a camp follower. He will be a danger to the institutions of parents, teachers, priests, managers of society, and to society itself. Every society is afraid of non-conformists and rebels. It honors the conformists, the yes-sayers. That is why everybody, from the president down to the parents pressures children, with one voice, to be followers, imitators. Otherwise they can't be certain who will turn into what.

There is no danger if you become like Rama, because everything about Rama is known, what he does and what he does not do. He is predictable. And if you become another Rama you will be as predictable, and society will know what you are going to do. And if you deviate from the outlined path they will declare you an outlaw and punish you.

If everyone is allowed to be himself, then it will be difficult to say what is right and what is wrong, what is virtue and what is sin. Therefore the society wants you to fit into its well-defined patterns and clear-cut molds. It does not care if by this effort your individuality is destroyed, your life is ruined, and your soul is impoverished. Its sole concern is to turn men into machines so that the status quo is maintained at any cost.

It seems man lives for society, society does not exist for man. The individual has no importance; he is just a cog in the social machine. It seems education is not meant for man; on the contrary, man is meant for education, for being educated the way the society wants. It seems tenets and doctrines are not made to serve man; on the contrary, man is born in the service of tenets and doctrines. It seems religion is not for man; man is for religion. It is ironic that man is not an end unto himself, he is just a means. And things that are meant to be means have become ends unto themselves. This is the danger. This is the curse of imitation, that man has been reduced into a thing, a non-entity.

Imitation is destructive, it kills the individual. And this danger is inner, spiritual; it is not circumstantial. It is a kind of slow poisoning. Whether you imitate Krishna or Buddha, it makes no difference; all imitation is suicidal.

There is no mold, no pattern, no type into which man can be fitted. Every person is a unique and different individual, and he is meant to be him self. This is his freedom, his birthright.

So when I am speaking to you about Krishna, let no one think even mistakenly that I want you to be like Krishna. I am against all following, all imitation, all comparisons. Every suffering that comes to man from external sources is secondary; the suffering that imitation and following brings in its wake is real and colossal. You cannot become like Krishna without being dead. And it is only dead people who are afraid -- afraid of everything. You are afraid of being beaten by the public if you dance and sing like Krishna. This is the fear of the dead, the imitator. A man who is fully alive is himself; he does not imitate. The more one is alive the more he is himself. And an alive man, a real individual is not afraid of society; on the contrary, the society is afraid of him. And that is why the society condemns him.

It is amusing that every society slanders and condemns the free individual, who is the only alive person -- but this is not the whole story. The free individual is condemned in the beginning and worshipped in the end. It has always been the case. If a fully alive man remains alive to the end, he is destined to be condemned first and worshipped and adored later. And a really free person is not afraid of condemnation, ostracism, even crucifixion.

Krishna is one of those rare beings in man's history who choose to be themselves. He is not concerned about what you say about him. Do you think he was accepted as Bhagwan or God in his own times? No, he was accused and condemned in every way. And even today you will not spare him unless you shut your eyes to many episodes of his life.

Do you know how Jesus was crucified? He was condemned as a disreputable and dangerous person. When he was hanged he was not alone: he was placed between two thieves who were going to suffer the same fate. This was a declaration that Jesus was no better than the criminals. It is interesting that not only the people of Jerusalem -- who had gathered in thousands to witness his crucifixion -- had ridiculed him. Even one of the thieves on the cross made a joke at Jesus' expense. He is reported to have said, "Since you and I are going to die together, we are kith and kin. So please save a place for me too in your father's kingdom when I reach there." Even a thief mocks Jesus and his kingdom of God. Not only his persecutors, not only the public of Jerusalem -- even a criminal who was going to be hanged for theft thought Jesus was a good-for-nothing vagabond. He thought himself better because while he had done something to deserve punishment Jesus was going to be hanged for nothing.

The society in which Krishna or Christ, Mahavira or Buddha are born does not accept them as Bhagwans, incarnations and messiahs. At first it condemns them, calls them names, mocks them, persecutes them. But they are brave people and cannot be intimidated. They bear the insults and humiliations with a smile of compassion on their faces. So how long can you go on? You will feel embarrassed, conquered by their love, their forbearance and com passion. And you begin to honor and worship them. But they take your worship with the same detachment and equanimity with which they take your insults and curses, because really nothing affects them -- neither fame nor infamy. And then the society hails them as God-incarnates.

I attach importance to a discussion of Krishna's life not because I want you to emulate him, but because he is the most beautiful and rare example of a multidimensional person. And if his treasures are laid before you they will help you uncover your own hidden treasures. This much importance Krishna has for me, nothing more. And remember, Krishna's treasures are Krishna's, and your treasures will be your own. And no one can say your treasures will not be even richer than Krishna's. I want to remind you again that what happened to Krishna can happen to each one of you, and this awareness is enough. This whole discussion is just meant for this remembrance that you all are heirs to godliness.

You want to know about Krishna's philosophy of life. This desire for a life philosophy stems from the same source; you want something ready-made, an ideology, a doctrine, a tenet which you can impose conveniently on yourself and be finished with it. I will take up his philosophy tomorrow, but for a different purpose. I want you just to understand your own life with its help. I don't want you to accept and follow Krishna's views and ideas. People like Krishna look at life with extraordinary eyes; their perception is rare. It penetrates the innermost depth of life, and it will be a great gift if for a while we can look at life through the eyes of Krishna. That will go a long way to change and deepen our own perception, our own perspective of life.

You are here in Manali, in the Himalayas, surrounded by beautiful hills and majestic mountains. But you can see only that much beauty in these mountains as your eyes, your perception, your perspective are capable of. Nicholas Roerich, the renowned painter, happened to live here for a long time. If you go and see his paintings, they will give you quite a different perspective of the same mountains; you will see them with the eyes of Roerich. He came to these mountains from distant Russia at a time when there were no roads as there are today to connect the Himalayas with the rest of the world. And once he saw the Himalayas he made them his lifelong home; he never left again. These very mountains before you now had possessed Roerich, enchanted him.

You have been in the Himalayas for some time, and I don't think you look at these mountains any more. You might have seen them for a little while the first day you arrived and you were finished with them. They are now nothing more than mountains.

But Nicholas Roerich spent his lifetime watching and painting the same Himalayas. The eternal and inexhaustible beauty of these mountains continued to enchant him till his last day; he never felt sated. He dedicated his life to painting them, yet his thirst and passion and love for them remained undiminished. He looked at them from hundreds of angles -- during the day and night; morning, noon and evening; summer and winter; spring, rains and autumn; sun and moon and stars -- and in all their myriad colors and moods. He was busy painting them even at the time of his death. So these mountains will look very different if you see them through the eyes of Roerich. They will tell you a different story if you get acquainted with the works of this man.

I don't say that you should see these mountains the way Roerich saw them. No, I don't say that. And it is impossible for you to see them as this great painter has. But for sure, after knowing him and his works your perspective will change and deepen, you will know these mountains better.

Many people have loved, but the love of Farhad and Majnu was extraordinary; it was as great as the Himalayas. And it is better to read their story, to be acquainted with their lives; it will be so rewarding. Our love is utterly poor and fleeting; it begins and ends almost simultaneously. And once it is gone it becomes difficult to recall if it ever happened. No sooner the river of our ordinary love appears than it disappears and leaves us high and dry. But there are a few people who continue to love and love passionately till the last breath of their lives. Their love is immense and immeasurable. And it will do you good if you come to know these great lovers; it will help you to understand you own love and the problems of love. Maybe knowing them you become aware of the hidden sources of your own love. It is there in every being, but we smother it and kill it.

I don't say that you should imitate Majnu and become like him. No, it is neither possible nor desirable, and an imitation Majnu can only be a caricature. You can have your cut in the pattern of Majnu's, you can dress like him and wander like a madman shouting, "Laila, Laila." But that has nothing to do with Majnu. You can act, but you cannot know his essential love. Acting is stupid.

But it is possible that the love of Majnu and Farhad will kindle the lamp of your own love, which is as good as extinguished. Maybe his love's power will catch fire inside you and you will become alive and aware of the source of your own love, which is as inexhaustible. It is in this sense I ask you to know them.

Many people compose poems and Lyrics, but the Lyrics of Kalidas, Shakespeare, or Rabindranath have something special, something unearthly about them. Listening to Kalidas or Rabindranath you come upon something you have never known before. Perhaps for the first time you glimpse your hidden possibilities.

From tomorrow morning I will speak about Krishna's philosophy, but I hope you will not make it into your belief and doctrine. I don't want you to become doctrinaire. Krishna is utterly undoctrinaire. So keep a distance from all theories, doctrines and dogmas. We are trying to understand Krishna for an altogether different purpose. When a glorious and resplendent person like him -- who has attained to the fullest flowering of his being -- looks at this universe of ours with the eyes of a seer and says something about it, his words have an extraordinary significance for us. His verdict about our world carries tremendous weight, and it is good to be acquainted with it.

It is useful to know what a man of such clarity and enlightenment has to say about man and his mind and the ways of his fulfillment. This knowledge, this information he brings us can touch some inner chord of our being and set us on a voyage of exploration. And there is only one worthwhile quest in life, and that is to know who I am or who you are. Then you will not turn into a Krishna-ite, but a traveler on the path to become yourself. And then you will also know that the man who asks Arjuna to die in pursuit of his self-nature is not going to impose any doctrines on you.

So I invite you to bring your questions on Krishna's philosophy from tomorrow onward, and I will go into them all. It is so convenient for me to speak in response to your questions. Then I don't need to strain my mind, it comes out naturally and flowing like a stream. Otherwise I find it hard to say a thing. My difficulty is that words and ideas are with me only as long as I am speaking to you. When I am not speaking my mind is utterly empty and silent, and resumption of speech becomes so difficult in such a state.

When you ask a question, it serves me as a peg to hang my ideas on. Ordinarily, speaking has become really difficult for me; I have to strain hard to say something. It is becoming increasingly difficult to speak on my own; it puts a great strain on me. Lately many friends have expressed a desire that I should speak independently, without the assistance of your questions. That will be really too much. It will not be long when I will cease to speak independently. Without your questions I don't know what I should say; words and ideas have left me. But when you bring a question there is no way for me but to respond to It, and so I become articulate. In the absence of your questions I have nothing to say on my own. On my own I am utterly silent. If I speak I speak for you. So bring your questions tomorrow and we will discuss them.

Now we will sit for meditation.

 

Next: Chapter 18: Non-Attachment is not Aversion, Question 1

 

Energy Enhancement           Enlightened Texts            Krishna            Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy

 

 

Chapter 17

 

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 1
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 1, AS YOUR DISCOURSE GATHERS MOMENTUM WE ARE CARRIED AWAY WITH IT, WE GIVE UP RESISTING IT, RATHER WE TRY TO FLOW WITH YOU. BUT OUR DIFFICULTY IS THAT YOUR ENERGY IS SO POWERFUL THAT WE CANNOT KEEP PACE WITH YOU. IN THE BOOK NAMED 'THE WAY OF THE WHITE CLOUD' IT IS SAID, 'SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY THE MAN, THE SUBJECT, BUT DO NOT TAKE AWAY THE CIRCUMSTANCES, THAT IS OBJECT. SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY THE CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT DO NOT TAKE AWAY THE MAN. SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY BOTH THE MAN AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES. AND SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY NEITHER THE MAN NOR THE CIRCUMSTANCES.' YOU SPOKE ABOUT SHREE ARVIND THIS MORNING. I AGREE WITH YOU TO A LARGE EXTENT, BUT I HAVE SOME RESERVATIONS IN REGARD TO YOUR INTERPRETATION OF ARVIND SEEING VISIONS OF KRISHNA at energyenhancement.org

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 2
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 2, KRISHNA, IN CHAPTER TEN OF THE GEETA DESCRIBES HIMSELF TO BE THE GANGES AMONG THE RIVERS, THE SPRING AMONG THE SEASONS, THE LION AMONG THE BEASTS, THE GARUDA OR EAGLE AMONG THE BIRDS, THE EIRAWAT AMONG THE ELEPHANTS, THE KAMDHENU AMONG THE COWS, VASUKI AMONG THE SNAKES, AND SO ON. DOES IT MEAN THAT HE IS TRYING TO DECLARE HIMSELF TO BE THE BEST AND THE GREATEST IN ALL CREATION? DOES IT ALSO MEAN THAT HE REFUSES TO REPRESENT ALL THAT IS LOWLY AND BASE? WHY DOES HE EXCLUDE THE MEANEST OF US ALL? AND WHERE DOES THE MEANEST BELONG? at energyenhancement.org

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 3
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 3, THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO THE LIFE OF EVERY GREAT MAN. WHILE ONE SIDE IS PERSONAL AND PRIVATE, THE OTHER IS OPEN, PUBLIC. THESE FEW DAYS THAT YOU HAVE BEEN TALKING TO US ABOUT KRISHNA, WE HAVE BEEN HELPED TO UNDERSTAND SOME FEATURES OF HIS LIFE WHICH ARE SUCH THAT IF WE TRY TO IMITATE HIM TODAY WE WILL AT ONCE BE OSTRACIZED BY THE SOCIETY. WE CANNOT PLAY PRANKS WITH OUR GIRLFRIENDS IN THE STREETS; WE CANNOT RUN AWAY WITH THEIR CLOTHES WHILE THEY ARE BATHING IN A SWIMMING POOL; WE CANNOT DANCE WITH OUR RADHAS AS KRISHNA DANCES WITH HIS RADHA WHO IS HIS GIRLFRIEND, NOT HIS WIFE -- EVEN IF WE ARE DEEP IN LOVE WITH THEM. BUT ANOTHER SIDE OF KRISHNA'S LIFE IS ABOVE-BOARD. HIS SAYINGS HAVE TREMENDOUS RELEVANCE FOR ALL TIMES -- PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. AND IT IS IN THIS CONTEXT THAT WE REQUEST YOU TO SHED LIGHT ON HIS PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, ON HIS DISCIPLINE OF WORK, KNOWLEDGE AND NON-ATTACHMENT, AND HIS ART OF LIVING, SO THAT WE CAN EMULATE HIM IN OUR DAY TO DAY LIFE at energyenhancement.org

 

 

 
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