Category: Featured Works

Lord Shiva is universally worshipped as the greatest devotee of Sri Krishna. Lord Shiva carries the sacred Ganga, which emanates from the toe of Lord Vishnu, on His head in His thickly matted hair.

Lord Shiva is usually an integral part of Lord Krishna’s leelas. When Lord Krishna appeared on earth and was in Gokula, Lord Shiva could not contain Himself and went to Yashoda’s home for darshan dressed as a sadhu. Sadhakas in the raganuga marg pray to Lord Gopeshwar Mahadeva to bless them with gopi rupa and gopi bhava and permit them to enter into the Lord’s maharaas.

In scriptures, one of the forms of Lord Shiva is that of Ardhanarishvara which is a composite androgynous (partly male and partly female in appearance) form of Lord Shiva and His consort Parvati or Shakti. Though they are incorporated in the same form they act independently as well as jointly.

Lord Shiva is also known as Tryambaka Deva, which literally means ‘three-eyed Lord,’ and is often depicted as having three eyes. While His right and left eyes represent His activities in the physical world, the third eye in the middle of His forehead symbolises spiritual wisdom and power. It sees beyond the apparent and also destroys the evil and evil-doers.

For Vaishnavas, the divine Self within is Vishnu Himself, qualitatively but not quantitatively. In other words, Vishnu is more than the Self and more than the universe. Likewise, when a Vaishnavite reunites with God upon liberation, his or her individual nature is not lost. Vaishnavites believe the soul is meant to be God’s companions for eternity.

In this painting titled ‘The Supreme-controller’ , Krishna is seen to be holding threads of kites in His hands. The kites represent various living entities and the threads represent their lives. As the thread of the kite is controlled by the kite-flyer, similarly, our lives are controlled by the Lord. One may think that one is flying high on one’s own strength but ultimately one’s flight is in the hands of the Lord. Thus in this painting Lord Krishna is portrayed to be the manager and keeper of the thread of life.

Thousands of years ago, Lord Krishna lifted Govardhan Hill on the little finger of His left hand and held it up for seven days to protect His kinsfolk and denizens of Vrindavan from the wrath of demigod Indra (the god of rain). In this way He subdued the arrogance of Indra who had become disdainfully proud of his strength and protected the inhabitants of Vrindavan.

As per the legend, Krishna saw huge preparations for the annual offering to Indra. He inquired His father, Nanda about the ritual. Nanda told Krishna that it was an age old tradition of serving demigods so that demigods could take care of them. At this, Krishna explained to the villagers of Vrindavan their true ‘dharma’ and advised them to concentrate only on farming and protecting their cattle. Krishna asked His father to forgo the sacrifice to Indira and worship the Govardhan hill which was responsible for the rain and the growth of grains. Nanda and the other cowherd men got convinced and performed the puja for Govardhan.

While performing puja for Govardhan, the inhabitants of Vrindavan saw Krishna in each Govardhan-shila (stone)

This angered Indra, who then unleashed torrential rains to flood the village. Krishna, in response, lifted Govardhan hill, under which all the animals and people of the region took shelter, safe from Indra’s fury. Indra finally accepted defeat, recognised Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and offered his prayers.

In order to stop appeasement-oriented sacrificial worship by His devotees, Krishna wanted to firmly establish exclusive devotional service during His presence in Vrindavana.

This pastime proves Krishna’s unlimited love for His devotees. In Bhagavad-gita Lord Krishna assures us that if we abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender to Him, He will protect us in all situations.

sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja aham tvam sarva-papebhyo moksayisyami ma sucah

(Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.)(Bhagavad-gita 18.66)

As per the legend, Lord Krishna as an infant was crawling on the ground and mother Yashoda suspected that He had eaten “mitti” (clay). A concerned Yashoda asked Him again and again to open His mouth. When Krishna finally opened His mouth, Yashoda could see therein the entire universe with its vast expanse, with complete opulence of creation, all living entities, all activities eternal time, material nature, spiritual nature, consciousness and different forms of the whole creation. Upon this divine sight, Mother Yashoda fainted.

Lord Krishna again expanded His internal energy just to bewilder her with maternal affection. Immediately mother Yashoda forgot all the philosophical speculations and accepted Krishna as her own child. So mother Yashoda considered, loved and treated Him just as her son instead of revering Him as God even after that incident.

ananyas cintayanto mam ye janah paryupasate tesam nityabhiyuktanam yoga-ksemam vahamy aham (BG 9: 22) Lord Krishna says “Those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form-to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have” When a devotee offers oneself exclusively to him, māmekaṁ śharaṇaṁ vraja (surrender fully unto Me), God bestows his complete grace and takes full responsibility, by preserving what he has and providing what he lacks.

Krishna, once annoyed mother Yashoda to the extent that she attempted to bind Him with a wooden mortar. Yashoda did not know that her child was the Supreme Personality of Godhead Who is unlimited and all-pervading. Although Lord Krishna Himself is the whole cosmic manifestation and beyond the reach of all senses, being compassionate towards His devout mother, He allowed Himself to be bound by her with ropes.

During the course of this leela (often referred to as ‘Damodar leela’) in Vaishnav literature, two demigods, who, under a curse of Narada, were standing as trees in the court-yard of Yashoda and Nanda, got liberated from their curse and assumed their original effulgent forms.

yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham

Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion-at that time I descend Myself.(Bhagvad – Gita 4:7)

Afraid of a prophecy that predicted his death at the hands of the eighth son of Devaki, King Kamsa, the brother of Devaki, had incarcerated the couple in a prison cell. It was there at the stroke of midnight that Lord Krishna appeared before an expecting Devaki in His four-armed Vishnu form, carrying the conch, disc, club and lotus. Devaki and Vasudev, prayed to Him to turn Himself into their baby. The Lord advised Vasudeva to take Him to Gokul and then turned Himself into a new-born baby called Krishna.

Magically, with the appearance of Krishna, the guards in Kamsa’s prison fell asleep, and all the iron shackles, chains and locks automatically opened. Wasting no time, Vasudev picked up the baby, and carrying Him in a basket, started towards Gokul. It was a dark stormy night with blinding rain continuously pouring from the sky. When Vasudev reached the bank of river Yamuna, the river was in spate and stormy winds were blowing. Vasudev was in a fix and didn’t know what to do.

Suddenly a miracle happened – the river parted and Vasudev walked through the river. Throughout the journey, Vasudev and the baby were protected from rain by the hood of the great eternal snake, Vasuki. Finally, Vasudev reached Nanda’s house in Gokul safely. Krishna was brought up along with his brother, Balram by Yashoda & Nanda in Gokul. Vrindavan and Gokul provided the stage for numerous childhood leelas of the Lord.

The sole objective of Sri Krishna’s appearance on earth was to eradicate the evil and establish the true religion.

Vaishnava Monk or Brahmachari is a person in monastic order whose attention is fixed on the Supreme being and he dedicates his life to the welfare of the people. Brahmacharya literally means Achara or conduct that leads to the realisation of Brahman (God). Saffron dhoti, shaved head with sikha, Tulasi neck-beads and tilaka markings are special features of a Vaishnava monk.