Book Review – Krishnayan, Kaajal Oza Vaidya

This great land of ours is blessed with not one but two grand epics that have remained the guiding forces, millennia after they were originally handed down. Of these, Mahabharata is larger and multidimensional. While Ramayana is all about righteousness, devotion and all things sacred, Mahabharata has appealed more to the masses, by dealing with the mundane aspects of human life, with all its pitfalls and trappings. While Ramayana strictly charts its whole course along the life of Rama, Mahabharata freely branches off into so many distributaries, enriching the land of Bharatvarsh with so many sub-tales, teaching Life through characters like Yayati and Rishyashringa, for example. Unlike Ramayana, the larger epic has rendered itself easily available for different interpretations and presentations. No wonder then that the most popular of God incarnates, Sri Krishna, is the guiding force of Mahabharat, moving seamlessly between Bhagavata and Bharata.

In the vast pantheon of Hinduism, Krishna and Ganesha have remained the most popular and widely worshipped Gods. Of them, Krishna yields more readily to all forms of worship. You can treat him like a child and pamper - like Yashoda (Vatsalya Bhava), treat him like a friend and share your troubles - like Sudama (Sneha Bhava), you can consider him a lover and devote yourself to him - like Radha (Madhura Bhava), or you can consider him your master and make his service your priority above all else - like his charioteer Daruka (Dasya Bhava). No matter how you consider him and call him, he is always ready to move ten steps towards you for every single step you take.

Krishna is, to use a simple expression, the most well-rounded of all beings - Purushottam. Take away Raavan, Ram has no reason for his avatar. If there were no arrogant Kshatriyas, there wouldn’t have been a battle-axe wielding brahmin Parasurama. Vaman, Varaha, Koorma and Narasimha were all here for the sole purpose of slaying Demons. Even the prophesied Kalki avatar could be averted, if people mend their sinful ways. But Krishna was never here for a sole purpose. Take away his slaying of Kamsa, his life would still shine bright and purposeful. Ignore his childish pranks at Brindavan and you can still have his mature Gita. Each of us can read the same Bhagavata and come away with so many different lessons of our own understanding.

While such a perfect incarnation impresses itself upon the fertile mind of a capable author, magic is bound to happen. This book, Krishnayan, is nothing less than magic, recounting the final moments of Krishna and the thoughts that could have crossed his human mind. Sitting alongside the guilt-ridden Jara, the hunter whose hands Karma used to shoot that arrow of Destiny, we readers all become witnesses to what transpired in the mind of that God in human form. The Krishna we all have known as a playful prankster, divine lover and a wise soul is, in this tale, tormented by his earthly attachments and duties, just the way Rama was. Not so surprisingly, either because this book is by a female author or because his whole life was beautified by the presence of great women, in his final moments Krishna is struggling to sever his bondage with three women – Draupadi the friend, Rukmini the wife and Radha the most blessed of all beloveds. I felt amused that even the great Krishna, true to his human form, couldn’t find all these three relationships in a single woman. But ignore my inopportune sense of humor, this book is intense beyond imagination.

Krishna lies dying near the confluence in Prabhas Kshetra. Tormented equally by the bleeding foot and the thoughts of having helplessly witnessed the self-inflicted massacre of Yadava clan. Adding to those woes were his bonds with the aforementioned women, three of the most special in his life. But was he waiting to be liberated from them or to liberate them? The book narrates it all in a deeply moving, equally enthralling manner. If you have known Krishna only as a cheerful person, a loving god and an epitome of Vairagya, you will get an entirely different experience. The writing tends to get depressing at times, with some character or the other soaking almost every other page with their tears, but considering the ethereal flow and narrative, that can be ignored. With all those beautiful philosophies propounded and lessons provided, I feel this more as a spiritual discourse, than an ordinary work of fiction.

The avatar of Krishna came to impart Wisdom and he performed his task to perfection from start to end. If his birth is an example of having faith in the Supreme, his childhood an example of Devotion, his youth an expression of Divine Love, his Gita the source of all that is worth knowing in this world, his death is a lesson on the inevitability of Karma. After all, isn’t it Vaali - killed by Rama in an ‘Adharmic’ way in his previous birth - who came back as Jara to set the score right, shooting that fatal arrow, hidden from Krishna’s view?! No wonder then that Krishna is called ‘Jagadguru’ – Universal Teacher. May he bless us all with wisdom!

Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum!