Śrī Kṛṣṇa's Focus is Entirely on "Change Yourself"

August 10, 2012

This year, the Lord's maya is so great that we have three options for celebrating Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭami. Some celebrated it yesterday, others such as Chinmaya Mission, Singapore and at the Shrinathji mandir are celebrating it today, whereas in Gurvayur and Udipi they will celebrate on September 8th. Given that the Supreme Brahman manifested as the baby Kṛṣṇa in a jail to redeem the subjects of Kamsa, I think it is a nice time to return to the topic of change.

In one of Swamini Vimalananda's talks, she made it very clear that "changing परिस्थिति (paristhiti), the external situation, never accomplishes much, only changing मनस्थिति (manasthiti), one's mental situation achieves anything. When Arjuna collapsed at the end of Chapter 1, Śrī Kṛṣṇa was very careful not to use his powers to change the world to make it easy for Arjuna. Starting at verse 2-2, Śrī Kṛṣṇa never lifted a finger to change the external situation. His focus all the way to end of chapter 18 was on getting Arjuna to change his mental situation.

This is a nice follow up on my previous posts on "Change Yourself." and a topic dear to Śrī Kṛṣṇa's heart as revealed in verse 6-5.
उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् |
आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः ||६-५||
uddharedaatmanaatmaanaM naatmaanamavasaadayet.h .
aatmaiva hyaatmano bandhuraatmaiva ripuraatmanaH .. 6-5..

Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone, and let him not lower himself; for, this Self alone is the friend of oneself, and this Self is the enemy of oneself.

On this sacred Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭami, join me in hailing:

KrishnaKanhaiya Lal ki Jai! कृष्ण कन्हैयालाल की जय!

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

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